American man, Nigerian ex-beauty queen defy online critics over 29-year age gap

A 56-year-old American, Dino Soriano, and a 27-year-old Nigerian ex-beauty queen, Joyceline Kalu, have opened up about the online criticism they’ve faced due to their age gap and cultural differences.

The couple met on Instagram through Joyceline’s crochet business and fell in love, leading to marriage.

In an interview with Youtube “Love Don’t Cost a Thing,” which has since gone viral, Soriano said that he initially reached out to Joyceline for business purposes.

He said, “I met my wife through her crochet business. We are being judged online because you know people have an attitude. They have an issue with her being younger than me.

“The way the world looks at us, I’m white, she’s black, I’m older [56], she is younger [27], I am from America, she is from Nigeria.”

Speaking on how they met, the ex-beauty queen said, “So we met through Instagram. He was literarily looking for crochet for three of his girlfriends, three girlfriends in Africa and all over the world.

“He said can you send this to this person and I was like, okay, no problem and we started talking and the same day he said, ‘Would you like to come to the US to establish your business?’ and I was like ‘hell yeah’ and one week later, we were not dating. We were just talking about business, and we fell in love.”

Speaking about when they first met, Soriano said: “We knew there was chemistry. We knew it was there. I was a single parent for almost 20 years, and it was very complicated to try and have a relationship when you’re a single dad, going to college, and putting yourself through medical school. We’re living our best life.”

The couple got married in secret and planned to visit Soriano’s family in Florida to tell them about their nuptials.

However, their plan didn’t work out when Sobriano “accidentally” posted the news on Facebook and his family, including his daughters Antonette and ZaZa, saw it.

Although shocked to learn of their father’s wedding, his daughters said they have accepted Joyceline into their family.

Antonette shared that while her “first thoughts” were “I hope she’s older than me”, Joyceline is not what she thought she’d be like and added: “I thought we had a pretty good conversation” when we met, and knew that she’d “fit in” with the family because “she’s interesting and smart”.

However, the couple said they are subjected to constant judgment online. Soriano added: “Some people are like ‘Oh she’s just there for the money’ or ‘she’s going to want a young man to satisfy her’ and my response is -‘ how do you know she isn’t already satisfied? How do you know that she doesn’t have everything she wants? You don’t. I do.’

While Joyceline added, “I don’t usually pay any attention to any doubts that anyone can have about us. If anyone’s doubting us, that’s their problem.”

Soriano and Joycelin got married on March 9 2023.

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