‘Family or Fiancé’: Couple Explores Isolation within a Relationship (Exclusive Clip)

“Extra” has an exclusive sneak peek of this Saturday’s episode of OWN’s “Family or Fiancé”!

In Saturday’s episode, we see Oleathia and Terrance explore the concept of isolating yourself in a relationship as a form of self-protection.

Terrance admitted that when conflict arises in the family, he has a tendency to shut down and isolate himself, which can go on for days, leaving the family to be walking on eggshells. Watch!

The hit show is back for Season 3, and “Extra” was with “Family or Fiancé’s” relationship expert Tracy McMillan, who explained the premise of the show.

“’Family or Fiancé’ is a show about couples who want to get married. There are members of their family that are against it, and everyone moves into a house for three days and we work it out. And let me tell you, everything comes to the surface in this process.”

She explained what it is like, saying, “Well, the first thing that happens is the couple walks in, and they're usually, like, very excited and happy and warm and relaxed because they're going to be on TV… I'll say to them, ‘Whose idea was it to come here?’ and one of them will raise their hand and go, ‘Me.’ I'm like, ‘Okay, why do you want to come here?’ and it's because there's something that they want their partner to see or something they're trying to work out, and they think if I'm there, their partner is going to hear what they've been trying to say all along. So, very often, it's typical of therapy where one partner brings the other partner to therapy because they're like, ‘You need to work on this thing.’ Of course, the surprise is everybody has work to do.”

Tracy added, “By day two, they're like, ‘What just happened?’ because a lot of stuff comes out and I think when people make an agreement to have a healing in their relationship and they really start doing the work, the healing comes — but it isn't always pretty.”

One couple that has been through a similar situation to some of these couples is Prince Harry and Meghan Markle.  

McMillan said, “I always say that Harry and Meghan are the world's most famous episode of ‘Family or Fiancé.’ They got in that situation where the family was against it. He did it anyway, and they never really did work it out, they came to California. There are stories like that.”

As for episodes of the show, she said, “I would say one of the most memorable episodes we ever did was a story where he was from an immigrant family from Ghana, she was an American woman,and his Ghanian mother did not want an American daughter-in-law. Lovely, a beautiful couple, they're still together, they have kids now. That mother was against it, but coming in that process, she got to see who this new daughter-in-law really was going to be, and there was healing. And in the process, the son had a new relationship with his mom, so it's, like, oftentimes one person's change will have a domino effect on everyone in the family. Usually, every person in the family leaves different than they walked in the door .”