Courtesy of Paul Staehle/Instagram
’90 Day Fiance’ Stars Paul and Karine Staehle’s Sons Are ‘Thriving’ in Foster Care Amid Custody Battle
90 Day Fiancé stars Paul Staehle and Karine Staehle’s sons, Pierre and Ethan, are doing well in foster care amid their ongoing custody battle against Child Protective Services (CPS), a source exclusively tells In Touch.
“The boys are thriving very much and changed tremendously,” the insider shares about Pierre, 3, and Ethan, 23 months. “They are extremely loved, cared about and embraced by a whole family.”
The source adds that the foster family “are not [on] social media at all [with] them,” which has been “good” for the boys.
Paul, 39, and Karine, 26, have been fighting for custody of their kids since June 2022. Both children were placed under the care of CPS that month, shortly before Pierre was reported missing in June 2022. The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children sent out a missing person’s alert for the former couple’s eldest son, claiming that he was with Paul at the time of his disappearance. At the time, Pierre’s little brother, Ethan, had already been placed in foster care.
Paul returned Pierre nearly one month later to his mother, who then handed them over to CPS. Pierre was then reunited with his brother in the same foster family.
The former couple made their reality TV debut in August 2017 during season 1 of 90 Day Fiancé: Before the 90 Days. After meeting online and pursuing a long-distance relationship, Paul traveled to Brazil to meet Karine in person. They tied the knot in November 2017, followed by Karine giving birth to Pierre in March 2019. They later welcomed Ethan in February 2021.
In December 2021, a video of Paul and Karine in the middle of an alleged domestic violence altercation at their home in Kentucky circulated online. In the clip viewed by In Touch, Karine seemingly grabbed her then-husband by the hair before grabbing him around his neck and slamming him against the couch. Pierre was in the room at the time of the altercation.
Just hour after the altercation, Karine seemingly responded to the domestic violence claims by sharing a cryptic post in a now-deleted Instagram post. “Do you know when you’ve tried everything? And when I say everything, it’s everything you can imagine and then some,” she wrote, according to a screenshot obtained by blogger John Yates. “The night before I spent awake and reflecting on everything I’ve been through and many things, it was for the love of my children and it will always be for them and that will never change. I woke up determined, asked for a divorce, that’s right, divorce. [Now] what will happen to me, I don’t know but God knows. At the moment, I just want the lap of my family and especially my mother, to go back to my house and start my life over…”
She continued, “I’ll be back another day to talk to you… From now on I’m going to vent and say everything, all the commas and drops in the i [sic]. Thank you in advance for your support…”
The pair split for good following the physical fight.
Following their split, Paul had been granted custody of their sons. However, both Paul and Karine lost custody in June 2022. “Karine called into the courts that Paul was trying to murder her,” Paul told blogger John in September 2022. “When that happened, the judge got pissed off and took the kids away from both Paul and Karine and even Paul’s mom.”
Paul has not seen his sons since he went back to Brazil in September 2022. Meanwhile, Karine remained in the United States and is only allowed to visit their sons once a week. Both Paul and Karine have argued that CPS has treated her unfairly because she’s an immigrant.
In November, Paul said he and Karine were working “as a team” amid their custody battle.
“Me and Karine are friends, we talk constantly, we’re good,” he told John at the time. “I tell Karine, maybe we should get the Brazilian embassy involved at this point.”
In November 2022, the mother of two created a GoFundMe page to ask for donations to help her pay for a lawyer amid the custody case. “My two Brazilian children were taken from me by American CPS because me and my husband argued in front of our children [sic],” she wrote via her Instagram Stories at the time. “They will not give me an opportunity to get my kids back.”
The reality stars had another court hearing on January11. At the time, an insider exclusively told In Touch that Paul and Karine “were both guilty” of the drama that led to their custody battle with CPS.
“They should never have posted their private life on social media. This is still a long, drawn-out thing,” the source said of the court case, adding that their sons were the “only victims” in the situation.
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