Are Ben Rathbun and Mahogany Roca were one of the most controversial couples of 90 Day Fiancé: Before the 90 Days — thanks to their 30-year age gap. Sadly, Ben died at age 55 in May 2025 after a battle with stage IV stomach cancer and fans are curious if the couple were still together at the time of his death.

How Did ‘90 Day Fiance’ Stars Ben and Mahogany Meet?

Ben and Mahogany made their debut on season 5 of the 90 Day Fiancé spinoff. Ben was a 52-year-old divorced father of four from Fraser, Michigan, who formerly worked as the executive director of the Michigan Lupus Foundation. He met Mahogany, who was a 24-year-old from South America, on social media. The couple had been dating long-distance for three months when they joined the show, and Ben was ready to meet her in person for the first time. But the red flags in their romance were spotted almost immediately when Ben’s friends and family speculated that Mahogany was not really who she said she is and that she may be a catfish.

She added fuel to the speculation when she stood Ben up at the airport when he landed in her native country of Peru. He wasn’t ready to give up on their love, so he arranged to travel to her town of San Bartolo, where he invited her to join him for a dinner date. It looked as though he would be stood up for a second time after waiting for more than an hour at the restaurant, but Mahogany surprised both Ben and viewers when she finally showed up.

What Happened On Season 5 of ‘90 Day Fiancé: Before the 90 Days’?

The couple didn’t exactly hit it off, as their dinner conversation seemed awkward. Ben also expressed concern that Mahogany did not feel the same way he felt. “I definitely still see her as my future wife but we are definitely on two different levels right now,” Ben said in his confessional on the February 20, 2022, episode. “I still have my heart out there, I love her, I want to express that to her but she is not reciprocating. And she’s just not the same way that she was online, she’s not saying ‘I love you’ back and that is very concerning.”

More concerns were raised when Mahogany invited Ben to her apartment, where she arranged for a meeting between Ben and her parents. Ben said that when he was talking to Mahogany online, she had previously told him she lived with her parents and was confused when she showed him around her apartment, where she lived alone. Ben also questioned if the rental was really Mahogany’s apartment, as he said she didn’t seem to know her way around the space and that she didn’t have any personal photos displayed.

During a conversation with Mahogany’s parents, Ben also learned that Mahogany was really 22 years old even though she told him she was 24.

The couple hit an even bigger bump in the road when they jetted off to what should have been a romantic couples’ getaway to Huacachina, a desert oasis in Peru. After enjoying dinner following a dune buggy ride, Ben and Mahogany got into a huge fight because she felt that he placed the blame for his failed marriage and past relationship on his exes. That night, Ben explained his love history to Mahogany in a slew of text messages and he was upset when she did not respond to any of them. The following day, Mahogany invited Ben to have breakfast with her and her parents, who took the trip to Huacachina too, at their hotel. Ben refused to attend, which upset Mahogany so much that she ended up leaving Ben behind. He had to pay a cab nearly $250 USD to travel back to her town of San Bartolo.

Once he arrived back to San Bartolo, Ben asked Mahogany to meet him and they seemed to be able to sort through their issues, but they seem to hit yet another rough patch on the season finale.

The tell-all filmed in January 2022 would prove to be rough for Ben and Mahogany. Apart from their fellow 90 Day Fiancé costars’ criticism of their romantic connection, when host Shaun Robinson asked Mahogany about their relationship status, the Peru native replied, “Benjamin needs to prove more: if he [has] a good intention.”

“We have a very young relationship. It’s very new,” Ben added. “And she’s worried that I’m still not here for the right reasons. And it takes trust. There’s no replacement for trust, and there’s no replacement for time. You can’t substitute anything for that. No matter how much you love someone, so it’s going to take a while.”

Despite the ups and downs, Ben and Mahogany were able to work past all of their relationship issues and are still together. In February, a Reddit user posted a photo of the pair that was snapped after they were spotted walking together at a mall in Lima, the capital city of Peru. The user added, “They seemed to be a couple.”

The pair also unveiled plans for a joint YouTube channel in May 2022. “I want to talk to you about how we left things at the tell-all,” Ben explained in a video alongside Mahogany via video chat. “This entire season, it looks like this creepy old man who is pursuing a young woman who does not want to be pursued.”

Clarifying that the cameras played a major role in the demise of their relationship, the father of four added, “That’s not how you meet a young woman and her family. You had every right to be standoffish.” 

“When you just meet someone [from the] internet, you really didn’t know what intention this person [has],” Mahogany justified. 

Also divulging that a lot has happened between them since the tell-all, the pair hoped to set the record straight and continue to tell their story with their new channel. 

“The No. 1 question that everyone wants to know is: are we together?” Ben continued. “Nobody knows, and maybe, that’s the first question we can answer when we do this YouTube thing.”

Did 90 Day Fiance’s Ben and Mahogany Get Engaged?

As promised, Ben and Mahogany shared a major update about the status of their relationship just three months later — they got engaged! In a YouTube video titled “Looking for a RING!” which was posted on August 9, 2022, Ben and Mahogany documented the days leading up to Ben’s proposal and Mahogany’s reaction after he popped the question at the same restaurant where they met in person for the first time.

“She came through that door right over there and here she is today,” Ben said, panning the camera to Mahogany. “And what just happened, can you tell me what just happened?”

Mahogany held her left hand up to the camera to show off the diamond sparkler on her ring finger. “Can you look [at] this? Oh wow,” she said.

“I just asked her to be my wife and she said …” Ben added. Mahogany responded, “Yes.”

Did 90 Day Fiance’s Ben and Mahogany Get Married?

Ben made the big announcement that the couple tied the knot “a few months ago” in a February 5, 2024, episode of 90 Day Diaries.

“Our civil ceremony was just brilliant, I could not believe how beautiful it was,” Ben said as a series of photos from the ocean-front nuptials were shown, including the bride’s white sleeveless knee-length wedding dress. He added that the newlyweds were “still planning on having a religious ceremony and do it right.”

However, just because they got married didn’t mean everything was smooth sailing. Ben admitted that Mahogany still needed him to “build trust with her,” as she continued to live in Miraflores, Peru, while he resided in Michigan.

Ben Rathbun Died in May 2025 After a Battle With Cancer