"You'll never want to settle:" 90 Day Fiancé: Happily Ever After? star Brandon confronts Julia on family plans

90 Day Fiancé: Happily Ever After? popular stars Brandon and Julia recently had a heartfelt and revealing conversation about their plans, family planning and financial stability.

Wedded partners Julia Trubkina and Brandon Gibbs are one of the eight couples on 90 Day Fiancé: Happily Ever After?, season 9, a spinoff of the original 90 Day Fiancé franchise that premiered July 6, 2025.

This TLC series follows couples who have already gone through the initial fiancé process and are now married (or at least together) as they tackle married life.

Julia and Brandon met each other on the 90 Day Fiancé Season 8. TLC described their journey on 90 Day Fiancé: Happily Ever After? as,

Brandon and Julia also appeared on 90 Day: The Last Resort, and now, they're looking to put everything they learned to the test. Will fertility discussions and a potential family visit throw a wrench in their progress?

In a short clip, they were seen buying a snack while having fun at a festival when Julia asserts her opinion on kids, expressing that she needs time for themselves. 

She uses a metaphor of a phone, explaining that just like when a dying phone needs to be recharged, she also needs to recharge herself before planning a family. Brandon questionably replies,

"Yeah, but I just worry that your phone's always going to quickly go empty. And this is going to be a repetitive thing, even after this trip. And then what? You'll never want to settle?"

Brandon voices hard financial realities in the family planning debate in 90 Day Fiancé: Happily Ever After?

90 Day Fiancé: Happily Ever After? focuses on the challenges faced by couples after their big weddings, including living together, family dynamics, financial struggles, cultural adjustment, and child-planning—things that test couples once the honeymoon phase is over.

Julia expresses her hesitatation to Brandon at the idea of having a child right now. She fears life would be difficult after that and longs for something spontaneous, supporting her views by saying,

"That's exactly what I told you before. If you're gonna have a kid in this moment right now. Just thinking how hard this will be."

Although Brandon understands Julia’s need for freedom and space, he reasons out, saying that growing their family and including more people in what they share isn’t wrong.

"I want to have fun too, Julia, but you know, I'm just..Felt like there was nothing wrong in expanding family and making, you know, more members of our family a part of all these things that we do."

Julia wants to enjoy life and needs some time, away from the stress and pressure they have faced so that she doesn't have any regrets in the future.

She believes she may be ready to agree to having a family if they take time to travel all the stress of their lives out of her system.

Although Julia acknowledges how important wanting a family is to Brandon, she calls it a big step in her life, and she is not ready to take it just yet.

Brandon does not want to come out as a bad person; however, he still stresses about the plan, asking her to think about it emphasising the practical challenges of taking a break. He explains his concerns, stating,

"I mean, if we're gonna do this, and we're gonna need a way to pay our bills for our house, have enough money to travel, and we're gonna need some savings. We're gonna need something to work off of, you know? I feel like Julia has not really thought about this plan."

Brandon is imagining the worst situations that could happen, for example, going broke, living on the streets, unable to cover their mortgage, and spiralling into reckless choices just because they wanted that one last taste of freedom.

Brandon acknowledges that he understands her feelings and desires, but if they follow this path, there can’t be any more excuses later.

"I can't keep doing this. We're going to need money. And we've got to find that somewhere. I don't need...If we wanna go do that, we're gonna have to make a sacrifice somewhere."

90 Day Fiancé: Happily Ever After? season 9 airs Sundays at 8 p.m. ET/PT on TLC and streams on HBO Max.

Stay tuned for more updates.