‘LHHNY’ Star Jonathan Fernandez Won’t Let His Past Trauma Stop Him From Living His Best Life (EXCLUSIVE)

He's opening up. In a sneak peek for tonight’s episode of Love & Hip Hop: New York, new cast member Jonathan Fernandez visited his sister at her job where she works as a bartender and he opened up about how the experience of being sent to the Dominican Republic for what he claimed was gay conversion therapy was the root of his childhood trauma.

“When I was 10 years old, I was bullied like crazy because I didn’t fit a conventional gender role and a lot of Latino families have heavy Catholic traditions, so my mom did what she thought best — she sent me away to be converted,” he revealed in his confessional.

Jonathan said that while he was in the program, they injected him with hormones and he was also locked away in a room where he was constrained for up to eight hours while being interrogated with questions like, ‘Do you like to wear makeup?’ and ‘Do you want to wear dresses?’ and he also claimed that at certain points, he felt the pain from what was commonly known as shock treatment.

But even though Jonathan is still dealing with the trauma from his childhood, he didn't let it stop him from living his life as his true, authentic self! Keep scrolling below to find out more about Jonathan!

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Who is Jonathan Fernandez on Love & Hip Hop?

Jonathan is a 33-year-old makeup artist from NYC and even though he just debuted on Season 8 of LHHNY, he's not a stranger to reality TV. Jonathan has worked behind the scenes of the franchise ever since Season 2 and he also had a supporting role in all three seasons of the Love & Hip Hop: Atlanta spin-off K. Michelle: My Life.

What is Jonathan Fernandez's job?

Jonathan works as a makeup artist and he's been in the industry for about 17 years. He exclusively revealed to In Touch that he used to do makeup for Bad Boy Records artists and he has done makeup for LHH stars like K. Michelle, Yandy Smith-Harris, and more.

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Who is Jonathan Fernandez's boyfriend?

Jonathan is dating an up-and-coming singer named Trent Crews, and the couple was LHHNY's first openly gay couple. But things go left in their relationship with Jonathan found out that Trent was still using dating apps to meet other people while they were together.

He feels like he's in control of his storyline.

"I feel like I have an upper hand if anything because I kind of understand that these things, sometimes it takes over an hour for them to film and they have to be condensed down to three or four-minute fragments of the whole conversation," Jonathan exclusively revealed to In Touch. "Being privy to how they edit it down, I've learned to do what's called speaking in sound bites. I focus on exactly what I'm going to say and how this is going to be edited and what can I say so that no matter how it's edited, it's still clearly not taken out of context so you don't look too crazy."

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He's an entrepreneur.

Jonathan is getting ready to launch his own cosmetics line called By Jonathan Cosmetics and he exclusively revealed to In Touch that it's a dream come true.

"Literally, I remember being a little boy and watching like Bobbi Brown and buying her books and I just remember thinking to myself, 'That is the dream,'" Jonathan told In Touch. "If I could one day have my own makeup line, then I can honestly say everything that I've given up because I've been so focused on my career would have been worth it."

Be sure to catch Jonathan on Love & Hip Hop: New York, airing Mondays at 8 p.m. on VH1.