90 Day Fiancé: Before the 90 Days star, Ben Rathbun has admitted why he doesn’t think Mahogany Roca being 22-year-old is a “big deal.” Before meeting Mahogany on social media and deciding that it was God, who was asking him to marry her, Ben was married to his ex-wife, Lisa, for 24 years. Ben, a former pastor, and Lisa, his church's children's ministry partner, have four kids, the oldest one being Mahogany’s age. On 90 Day Fiancé, Ben claimed Mahogany had lied to him about her being 24-years-old and it “freaked him out.” However, on the very next episode, Ben was heartbroken upon finding out that Mahogany considered him a friend and not her boyfriend, which has fans convinced he’s a predator.
Before Ben would even meet Mahogany on 90 Day Fiancé, there were clues that made her look like a catfish. Mahogany’s social media photos were full of unrealistic filters, and she never seemed to have done a video call with Ben. When Ben was on his way to Peru, Mahogany asked him not to come and ghosted him until he showed up in her town. He rigorously pursued Mahogany even when she revealed she was warned by her dad against meeting Ben. Plus, Mahogany refused to kiss Ben, and didn’t say “I love you” to him, later revealing that she’d friend-zoned him. Mahogany accepted that she never saw her and Ben as a couple, but Ben confessed he was “hurt” to find out they weren’t “boyfriend and girlfriend.” He revealed his motive of getting engaged to Mahogany, which was strange considering his earlier confession of being weirded out about Mahogany being his daughter’s age.
In an interview with ET, Ben declared, “It's not about the age to me. I met someone whose heart and whose soul is just so beautiful and someone that I can just connect with on such a different level that I just didn't want to let that go." Ben insisted that Mahogany is a “completely separate adult” and that it “doesn’t matter” to him if his kids are the same age. He claimed he was “Caught off guard” when he found out Mahogany was 22-years-old; however, “this has become so much more than age, so much more than, you know, our differences,” he added. According to Ben, Mahogany is “so mature and wise and intelligent,” adding he has never felt the age difference between them.
Ben tried to make excuses for Mahogany adding two years to her age by claiming it was a “one-time lie.” Mahogany may have lied because she was talking to a strange, older man online and was apprehensive about him potentially being a stalker. Ben told the interviewer that he had first and foremost asked Mahogany if her dad was okay with her dating a 52-year-old man. He called out the viewers who are concerned about him being a “predator” and told them that no one cares about Mahogany more than her dad. He happens to see Ben as a “very, very healthy” person who takes good care of his body and will “live for a very long time.”
For Ben, the only concern about anyone dating someone younger is them aging sooner while their partner would still be relatively younger. Nonetheless, it was Mahogany’s dad himself who referred to the age difference between Ben and Mahogany as “abysmal” on 90 Day Fiancé: Before the 90 Days. With Mahogany now questioning Ben’s past and failed relationships, it would take her dad a lot of convincing to accept the Michigan native as a future son-in-law. Regardless, God’s sanctioned plan has worked in Ben’s favor because he is seemingly dating Mahogany after the show ended. Mahogany being 24, or 23, or 22, didn’t matter to Ben in the end.
Source: ET
