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Aug 20, 2023

Amanda Wilhelm is a Young Widow on 90 Day Fiance Before The 90 Days; How Did Her Husband Die?

By Author Simon Delott at Jun 07, 2023 • Category Amanda Wilhelm One of

By Author Simon Delott at Jun 07, 2023 • Category Amanda Wilhelm

One of the new 90 Day Fiance: Before The 90 Days cast members to make a strong impression was the young widow, Amanda Wilhelm.

This Season 6 star has found herself a grieving single mom. She never imagined a life without her husband.

We know that he died suddenly, just days after he finally received a cancer diagnosis.

But what kind of cancer claimed his life? And when did he pass away?

Amanda Wilhelm has two young children, Aleena and Jr.

Prior to his sudden and tragic death, she and Jason Wilhelm were married for eight years.

Amanda spent almost all of her adult life as a wife and a good chunk of that as a mother. As her sister noted, these are central to her identity. With Jason, she felt lost.

On the Season 6 premiere, Amanda described how she and Jason were "best friends" as well as spouses.

"I would’ve never expected a future without him," she admitted to the camera.

"But about a year ago, Jason started having lung problems," Amanda recalled. "He felt like he may have pneumonia or something, like in his chest."

Jason went to doctors, but to no avail. Initial X-rays and CT scans did not detect his illness. But he was adamant that something felt very ‘wrong."

It took him eight months, starting with his first visit, for a doctor to finally give him a diagnosis.

Unfortunately, the news was as bad as it can be. He had Stage Four ampullary cancer. It had spread to many parts of his body, and it was terminal.

"The cancer was throughout his body," Amanda described. "And the doctor said, best case scenario would be for him to live three months with chemotherapy."

That was the best case. It is not what happened. In fact, he soon needed to go to the hospital because he was in so much pain.

"And only 10 days after his diagnosis, I was looking at him and kind of seeing … his life left his eyes and he was gone," Amanda shared.

Ampullary cancer is a rarer illness. It forms near various parts of the digestive system. This can include the liver, the pancreas, and the small intestine.

As the cancer grows, it can impact these organs.

We do not know the cause of the cancer. The treatment, when one is available, usually involves extensive surgery to extract the cancer. Obviously, Jason's diagnosis came far too late for any hope of that.

Jason lived to be 45 years old. We saw on screen, in flashback footage, that he lived to be at least that age.

His obituary reveals that he was still 45 when he passed away on March 19, 2022.

That means that he first began to fall ill in the autumn of 2021.

It also sheds light upon the timeline of all of this.

Jason passed away less than 15 months before the Season 6 premiere.

Given that Amanda seemingly filmed about 8 months after his passing, she and Razvan Ciocoi filmed their visit in late 2022.

Meanwhile, Riley filmed his season much earlier last year. Almost exactly one year ago, instead of six or seven months ago.

How do we know this?

Because he went to a Juneteenth celebration during the premiere. That puts him in the middle of June, 2022.

A number of viewers have expressed concerns about Amanda. Part of it is just over how quickly she is moving on, or attempting to move on, with Razvan.

She and the Romanian hottie hit it off just, what, four months after Jason died? And then she's going to meet him after another four months? That's pretty sudden.

It's worth noting that this isn't just how viewers feel. Her sister, Amber, said much the same. Amanda is trying to "fill a void" when she should probably be rediscovering herself.

A lot of viewers have also expressed alarm and discomfort over how Aleena and Jr. are coping with things.

Why? Because Jason's cremation urn now plays a role in their everyday lives.

They kiss the box goodnight, take it on car rides, and even have "daddy" join them on picnics. Is this healthy?

We’re not experts on child development and we’re also not experts on child grief counseling. We cannot say for sure.

But a lot of viewers have found it unsettling.

Overall, people are rooting for Amanda. But that's not the same thing, necessarily, as rooting for things to work out with Razvan.