A 56-year-old American, Dino Soriano, and a 27-year-old Nigerian ex-beauty queen, Joyceline Kalu have opened up about the online backlash encountered due to their age gap and differing cultural backgrounds.
In a recent interview on the YouTube show “Love Don’t Cost a Thing,” , Soriano sated that their love story began on Instagram, where they connected through Joyceline’s crochet business.
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.”
Joyceline shared more about their initial meeting, revealing, “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.”
Despite their family’s acceptance, the couple continues to face harsh judgment online.
Soriano addressed the criticism, saying, “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.’
Joyceline remains unfazed by the negativity, asserting, “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.”
