◉ Now Streaming — Worst Ex Ever Season 2 · Netflix
☕ Brewtiful Living · Culture · True Crime · May 8, 2026
Geoffrey Paschel Was on 90 Day Fiancé While Awaiting Trial for Domestic Violence. We All Watched. Here's What We Missed.
He charmed millions of viewers while a woman in Knoxville was waiting for her day in court. Netflix's Worst Ex Ever just made us go back and look at the footage. The signs were there the entire time. They always are.
By Sara AlbaSection Culture · True Crime~ 10 min read⚠ Content: Domestic Violence
Geoffrey Paschel in Worst Ex Ever Season 2, Episode 2: "Primetime Predator" — Netflix, May 6, 2026 · Photo: TV Insider
⚠This article discusses domestic violence, physical assault, and coercive control in detail. If you or someone you know needs support, the National Domestic Violence Hotline is available 24/7 at 1-800-799-7233 or thehotline.org.
// The Timeline They Never Put On Screen
June 9, 2019
Geoffrey attacks his fiancée Kristen Wilson Chapman in their Knoxville home. He chokes her, slams her head against walls and floors, drags her by her hair, and takes her phone so she cannot call for help. She escapes after he falls asleep. Officers find a large bruise on her forehead and bruising across her arms, back, and inner lip.
July 11, 2019
32 days after the attack, Geoffrey flies to Russia to meet Varya Malina. He has active criminal charges for kidnapping and domestic assault. The 90 Day Fiancé cameras are rolling.
Late 2019
TLC films Season 4 with Geoffrey as a cast member. The charges are not disclosed to Varya. They are not disclosed to viewers. A petition circulates online to remove him. TLC keeps him on the show.
Feb 23, 2020
90 Day Fiancé Season 4 premieres. Millions watch Geoffrey pursue Varya across Russia. His pending charges surface publicly. TLC excludes him from the Tell All. The sympathetic edit airs in full.
Oct 8, 2021
At trial, Geoffrey testifies Kristen's injuries were self-inflicted. The jury convicts him on all counts: aggravated kidnapping, domestic assault, and interference with emergency communications.
Feb 3, 2022
Judge Kyle Hixson sentences Geoffrey to 18 years in prison without parole. Varya sits in the front row of the courtroom.
Oct 2023
Geoffrey's Supreme Court appeal is denied. Varya breaks down on Instagram.
May 6, 2026
Kristen tells her story publicly for the first time on Netflix's Worst Ex Ever. She says: "I've never spoken with anyone about this. And I just feel like it's time." Varya makes her Instagram account private.
The Thing About Charming
If you watched 90 Day Fiancé: Before the 90 Days Season 4, you probably remember Geoffrey Paschel. Tall, conventionally attractive, chopping wood shirtless in slow motion in the promo reel. A single dad with a tragic backstory — his young son Kazhem died at 13 months old, a detail he disclosed early and emotionally. He was pursuing love across borders, he was open about his past drug convictions, he seemed like someone who had been through things and come out the other side of them.
He was charming. That word keeps appearing in every account of him — from Varya's descriptions of their early relationship, from viewers who followed their arc, from anyone who encountered him before the full picture emerged. Charming is always the first word. It is never the last one.
What the show did not tell you, while you were watching him propose to a woman in Russia, was that 32 days before he boarded that plane, he had choked his fiancée in their Knoxville home, slammed her head against the walls and floor, dragged her across the room by her hair, and taken her phone so she couldn't call anyone. He then fell asleep. She escaped to a neighbour. The police found a large bruise on her forehead.
That is the man TLC put on television. That is the man you watched pursue Varya with tearful sincerity. That is the man who got a sympathetic edit while his victim was navigating the Tennessee court system in a case that would take nearly three years to reach a verdict. And that is the man Netflix's Worst Ex Ever has now given us the full picture on — one his former fiancée has waited seven years to share.
Geoffrey Paschel and Varya Malina on 90 Day Fiancé: Before the 90 Days Season 4, 2020. He was awaiting trial for domestic assault the entire time this was filmed. Photo: People Magazine
"TLC kept him on the show after a public petition to remove him. His charges were not a secret. They were a decision."— Brewtiful Living · Culture
What Was on Screen. What We Were Actually Watching.
Going back through the 90 Day footage with the full knowledge of what Geoffrey is — what he did, what he was charged with, what a jury later confirmed — the signs are not subtle. They were never subtle. They were just framed differently when they aired.
Here is what viewers saw, and what it actually was:
1
He pushed past Varya's "no" on their first meeting
On their first in-person meeting, Geoffrey asked Varya to stay the night. She said no. He asked again. She said no again, more softly. He kept asking. The show framed this as romantic persistence. It is the textbook definition of not accepting a no — and it happened on their very first night together.
2
He weaponised his dead son's story
The disclosure of his son Kazhem's death was deployed early and emotionally to establish himself as a man who had suffered and deserved the benefit of the doubt. Using tragedy to build protective goodwill is a classic manipulation strategy. On television it read as vulnerability. In context it reads differently.
3
He ghosted Varya completely when she didn't comply
When Varya declined his proposal, Geoffrey cut off all contact with no explanation. She messaged him every day. He did not respond. He moved on to another woman. The show framed this as him being hurt. Coercive control includes punishing a partner with complete emotional withdrawal when they fail to comply.
4
He always positioned himself as the wronged party
Throughout the season, Geoffrey consistently presented himself as someone women had hurt — ex-wives had wronged him, Varya had hurt him by saying no. Multiple ex-wives. A consistent pattern of painting himself as the victim in every relationship. This is not a tragic backstory. This is a very consistent narrative strategy.
5
Varya's correct instincts were framed as her flaw
Throughout the season, Varya expressed doubt and mistrust of Geoffrey. The editing treated her hesitation as the obstacle to their love story. Her instincts were correct. The show — and he — told her that her own protective instincts were the problem. That is the mechanism of coercive control made into television content.
6
He disclosed the drug convictions. He hid the assault charges.
Geoffrey was open about his drug history — presenting it as evidence of his honesty and growth. He did not tell Varya about the active kidnapping and assault charges. Selective confession: show the thing that makes you look reformed. Hide the thing that's still unresolved and still very serious.
Worst Ex Ever Season 2 — Netflix, Blumhouse Productions and ITV America. Premiered May 6, 2026.
What TLC Knew and What They Did With It
The charges against Geoffrey Paschel were not secret. They had surfaced publicly before the season even aired. Viewers who dug into his background before the February 2020 premiere found them. The arrest had been reported. The charges were a matter of public record. A petition circulated asking TLC to remove him from the show.
TLC kept him on. Their response to the emerging information was to not invite him to the Tell All — an acknowledgment that something was wrong, paired with a decision to air the content anyway. The sympathetic edit stayed. The wood-chopping slow motion stayed. The tearful Russia proposal stayed.
// The Production Record — What Happened, In OrderChronological
June 2019Attack on Kristen occurs. Geoffrey charged with aggravated kidnapping, domestic assault, and interference with emergency communications.
July 2019Geoffrey flies to Russia to film with Varya. 32 days after the attack. Active criminal charges pending.
Late 2019TLC completes production on Season 4. The charges are either missed in casting or not actioned.
Jan 2020Geoffrey's charges surface publicly before the season premieres. A petition to remove him circulates online.
Feb 2020Season 4 premieres anyway. TLC excludes him from the Tell All. His full sympathetic arc airs unchanged.
Feb 2022Geoffrey convicted. Sentenced to 18 years without parole. TLC faces widespread criticism for inadequate background checks.
May 2026Netflix airs Kristen's account. Millions re-watch the 90 Day footage understanding for the first time what was happening off-camera.
Kristen Wilson Chapman was in Knoxville the entire time the 90 Day season was in production, in post, and on air. She was navigating the Tennessee court system while the country debated whether Varya should trust the man who had just attacked her. Nobody on the show mentioned her name.
"Kristen was in Knoxville the entire time, waiting for her case to go to trial. Nobody on the show mentioned her name."— Brewtiful Living · Culture
Varya. What Is She Thinking Right Now?
// Her situation — May 2026
Varya Malina is a US permanent resident since 2021. She lives in Geoffrey's Tennessee home, caring for his dogs and rental properties. She visits him at Trousdale Turner Correctional Center for three hours every other week. Her last public Instagram post before the Netflix episode — September 2025 — showed photos of them hiking together, captioned: "Happy birthday. Even though we can't celebrate together today, my heart is with you every moment."
Since Worst Ex Ever dropped on May 6, 2026, Varya has made her Instagram account private. No public statement has been made.
Let's sit with that last detail for a moment. The episode aired. Kristen Wilson Chapman told her story — publicly, in full, with the bodycam footage and the injuries documented and the timeline laid out. And Varya's response was to go private. Not to post a statement. Not to announce a divorce. To go quiet, which is its own kind of answer about where she is right now.
What is Varya thinking? We don't know. We can't. What we do know is her situation: she is a Russian national living in the United States on a visa status tied to her marriage to a man serving 18 years without parole. She has built her life in his home, around his responsibilities, in his country. She has spent years publicly defending him, visibly breaking down when his appeals failed, updating fans on his conditions in prison.
And now she has watched the woman her husband was engaged to — the woman he attacked 32 days before he flew to Russia to meet her — tell that story to a Netflix audience of millions. The account that Geoffrey has always denied. The account the jury believed entirely.
She made her Instagram private. That is not nothing.
Varya is not a villain in this story. She is a woman who built her life around a narrative Geoffrey constructed very carefully — a narrative the entire 90 Day platform validated by giving it airtime, by framing her hesitation and doubt as the obstacle to their love story. We wrote in this week's Dear Brewtiful about why people stay in patterns that are clearly visible from the outside — how a manipulator builds a world and invites you inside it until you can't see the walls. Varya was inside that world on international television, with millions of viewers telling her to trust him more.
We hope she's okay. We hope the private Instagram is the beginning of a reckoning and not just waiting for the noise to pass. We don't know which one it is. Neither does she, probably.
From Worst Ex Ever Season 2 "Primetime Predator" — Netflix, May 2026 · Photo: Bauer Media
What Reality TV Does With Dangerous Men
Geoffrey Paschel is not an anomaly in reality television. He is a data point in a very long pattern. The genre has a documented history of casting, platforming, and providing sympathetic edits to men who are dangerous to the women around them — because those men tend to make compelling television.
The charming man with a complicated past, a tragic story, and the ability to make a camera love him is a staple of the format. He generates drama. He generates the specific kind of viewer investment that comes from wanting to believe someone is better than their history suggests.
That desire — to believe someone is better than their history suggests — is also what keeps victims in relationships with dangerous people. The audience and the victim are, in a specific and uncomfortable way, being manipulated by the same mechanism. The difference is the audience gets to turn it off.
What Netflix's Worst Ex Ever does — and why it matters — is provide the corrective. It goes back. It gives the victim the camera. It puts her account in the same format that previously gave him the platform and asks you to look at it again with the full information. Kristen Wilson Chapman, seven years after the attack, saying "I've never spoken with anyone about this. And I just feel like it's time" — that sentence is doing more work than an entire season of romantic pursuit in Russia.
Geoffrey Paschel is serving 18 years. Kristen Wilson Chapman finally told her story. Varya Malina went private. TLC never fully answered for what they knew and when. And the 90 Day footage is still out there — the slow-motion wood-chopping, the Russia proposal, the sympathetic edit of a man with active kidnapping charges. The signs were always there. That's the thing about signs. They don't disappear when you stop looking for them.
Geoffrey Paschel — FAQ
Geoffrey Paschel is a former reality TV personality who appeared on 90 Day Fiancé: Before the 90 Days Season 4 in 2020. He is currently serving an 18-year prison sentence without parole for aggravated kidnapping and domestic assault against his ex-fiancée Kristen Wilson Chapman. His case is featured in Worst Ex Ever Season 2 on Netflix, Episode 2 "Primetime Predator," which premiered May 6, 2026.
In June 2019, Geoffrey Paschel attacked his then-fiancée Kristen Wilson Chapman in their Knoxville, Tennessee home. He choked her, slammed her head repeatedly against walls and wooden floors, dragged her by her hair, and took her phone to prevent her from calling for help. She escaped to a neighbour after he fell asleep. He was convicted in February 2022 and sentenced to 18 years without parole. At trial he testified the injuries were self-inflicted. The jury did not believe him.
Yes. Geoffrey flew to Russia to film 90 Day Fiancé just 32 days after attacking Kristen Wilson Chapman. The show premiered in February 2020 while his case was still in the Tennessee court system. His charges had surfaced publicly before the premiere. A petition to remove him circulated. TLC excluded him from the Tell All while still airing his full sympathetic arc. TLC faced widespread criticism for not conducting adequate background checks during casting.
Geoffrey Paschel is serving an 18-year sentence without parole at Trousdale Turner Correctional Center in Tennessee. His Supreme Court appeal was denied in October 2023. His wife Varya Malina visits him for three hours every other week.
As of May 2026, Varya Malina is still married to Geoffrey Paschel. She lives in his Tennessee home, cares for his dogs and rental properties, and visits him every other week. Since the Worst Ex Ever episode aired on May 6, 2026, Varya has made her Instagram account private. No public statement has been made.
"Primetime Predator" is Episode 2 of Worst Ex Ever Season 2, premiering May 6, 2026 on Netflix. It features testimony from Kristen Wilson Chapman describing the June 2019 attack publicly for the first time. The episode also features bodycam footage, animated reenactments, and interviews with Geoffrey's second wife Sabrina Grigsby. It examines how he was simultaneously filmed for 90 Day Fiancé while his criminal case moved through the courts.
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