The Untold Truth Of 90 Day Fiance's Big Ed

Big Ed (real name Edward Allen Brown) is one of the most controversial figures in the history of the 90 Day Fiancé franchise. While many people were entertained by Big Ed's antics, others were disturbed by the way he treated his potential fiancée, Rosemarie "Rose" Vega when he visited her and her family in the Philippines on 90 Day Fiancé: Before the 90 Days. Spoiler: The relationship between 23-year-old Rose and 54-year-old Ed did not work out.

Whether you love, hate, or love to hate Big Ed, you can't deny that the reality star is an interesting — albeit polarizing — figure. Fans of the show have turned him into an internet celebrity whose fame has been on the rise since he appeared on the show. Naturally, this has led to a lot of questions about him: Is Big Ed really the same as he seems on 90 Day Fiancé? What is he like when the cameras aren't rolling? Has fame changed him? The truth of 90 Day Fiancé's Big Ed may not be what you expect.

While Big Ed has become a reality TV star and has a growing presence on social media with over 400,000 followers on Instagram, as of this writing, he is not a full-time influencer. Big Ed has a day job as a professional photographer in the San Diego, California area. His official website shows that his portfolio is brimming with different types of work, including wedding photos, family portraits, and fashion shoots. He has also shot several magazine covers, mostly for Fine Magazine.

Big Ed — who has a master's degree from the New School of Architecture and Design — revealed on his site that he fell in love with photography while he was still in graduate school. His personal approach to photography is "to capture contrast" using light which he believes shows "more emotion" in his photographs. Big Ed has been all over the world for his career, traveling to places like Italy, Ecuador, and Hawaii to photograph weddings.

Big Ed tried to find love on 90 Day Fiancé, but Rosemarie "Rose" Vega was not his first love. The photographer was married before, although the marriage ultimately did not last. Big Ed revealed on the show that it simply "didn't work out" with his first wife, Sandra Heckman. The marriage, which ultimately dissolved because Big Ed cheated on Heckman, lasted just two years. Big Ed seems to have regrets about how things ended, referring to his infidelity as "a stupid mistake."

While Big Ed never remarried — although he came close on 90 Day Fiancé — his ex-wife lives in Las Vegas and has since gotten remarried to a man named Bruce, as noted by Screen Rant. Big Ed's divorce left him wary of relationships. For a long time, he believed he would never find love again and would end up alone with his dog, Teddy (via CheatSheet).

Prior to Big Ed and Sandra Heckman's divorce, the couple welcomed a daughter named Tiffany. When viewers first met Big Ed on 90 Day Fiancé, he spoke very fondly of Tiffany, saying that the two are very much alike and "pretty much two peas in a pod." Big Ed continued, saying that his daughter is "stubborn" just like him. "She's the best thing that I have created on this earth," he gushed.

However, Big Ed's decision to pursue a relationship with Rosemarie "Rose" Vega on 90 Day Fiancé led to a rift between the father and daughter. Big Ed told Us Weekly that Tiffany — who is six years older than Rose — was not on board with the romance and refused to speak to him as he prepared to head to the Philippines to meet Rose. The father and daughter later managed to work through their issues, though, and seemed to be as close as ever after Big Ed's appearance on 90 Day Fiancé. 

"I got my daughter back," a delighted Big Ed told the publication. He revealed that it would've been "horrible" had they remained estranged, but that he has "no regrets" about his choices.

Many 90 Day Fiancé viewers have commented on Big Ed's short stature and neck, which is caused by a rare condition called Klippel Feil syndrome (KFS). As noted by the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences, KFS is a rare condition that affects bone development in the spine involving the fusion of two or more vertebrae in the neck. While some people who suffer from KFS have no symptoms, others may suffer from nerve issues and pain, including back and neck pain and frequent headaches. KFS is sometimes caused by genetic mutations but, in most cases, the cause of the disorder is unknown.

Big Ed, who is 4'11", explained to Entertainment Tonight that, due to the syndrome, he has a "limited range of movement" along with "a bigger than normal chest cavity." The reality star doesn't seem to be bitter about having KFS, though, telling People that "you can also be different and embrace that, and not let it define who you are, and you can also laugh at yourself."

Because of his physical differences resulting from Klippel Feil syndrome (KFS), Big Ed has been bullied since childhood. The reality TV star admitted to People that others have been teasing him for his neck since he was five years old. He revealed to Entertainment Tonight that he once "got stuck in the neck machine" in high school, which "became kind of a running joke."

In a blog post, the 90 Day Fiancé star wrote about how "bullying can have lifelong effects" and revealed that he was hurt by "the name calling and body shaming" that "resurfaced" following his time on 90 Day Fiancé. Big Ed said that he has learned to love himself, though, and wants to empower others who have also been victims of bullying to learn to "love [themselves], love each other, and be nice."

He revealed to Entertainment Tonight that his growing platform since being on 90 Day Fiancé has helped him to do just that, including helping one man who also has KFS and reached out after seeing him on the show. Big Ed said that the man was bullied and ready to "give up on life," but that he encouraged him not to, telling him, "Do not let this syndrome define who you are."

Viewers of 90 Day Fiancé were shocked when photos of Big Ed in his younger years resurfaced on Twitter in April 2020. Fans were stunned to see that Big Ed looked like a model as a young man. Fans were so surprised by the snaps that Big Ed himself had to confirm to TMZ that the pictures are, in fact, of him.

As a young man, Big Ed was quite muscular. In one photo, confirmed to TMZ to be a picture of himself on a date with his ex-wife in 1988, a tan and fit Big Ed poses at the zoo while another photo shows him shirtless as he carries his young daughter. Big Ed revealed on Instagram that at one point he biked as many as 20 miles per day, which explains his toned legs in the photo.

Big Ed posted another photo of his younger self on Instagram in which he was wearing dress slacks, a dress shirt, and a bow tie. He explained in the caption that it was a photo of himself as a waiter circa 1995, a job he took to work his way through graduate school.

While not all 90 Day Fiancé viewers are fans of Big Ed, it's hard not to love his adorable little dog, Teddy. Big Ed and Teddy clearly have a special bond and are BFFs. When Big Ed was introduced on the show, fans saw him taking photographs of models for work as Teddy looked on. "I cannot think about my life without Teddy," said Big Ed on 90 Day Fiancé, adding that his dog is someone he "can talk to."

He frequently posts about his dog on social media, showing the strong connection that the two have. In one video posted to Instagram, Teddy is shown adorably cuddled up to Big Ed in bed.

Big Ed loves Teddy so much that he even let his pup "write" a guest post on his blog where "Teddy" encouraged people to be more like dogs by being friendly to one another. In doing so, the world would become "a more inclusive and happy place." That's sound advice, even though we're pretty sure that Teddy didn't write it himself.

Big Ed is a pretty creative guy. Aside from his primary career as a photographer, the reality star has also delved into the fashion world. He launched his website, BigEDWear.com, after rising to fame on 90 Day Fiancé. BigED Wear offers t-shirts as well as other merchandise including stickers, baseball caps, and tumblers — most of them with either Big Ed's face or his dog, Teddy's, emblazoned on them. He also sells glass wall art featuring photos of himself and Teddy.

Big Ed's fashion and merchandise isn't just about selling products with his face on them, though. It's also part of a larger desire to "stomp out bullying" once and for all. In a blog post on his website, Big Ed said that a portion of all of his BigED Wear sales will go to anti-bullying organization STOMP Out Bullying. Additionally, part of the monthly proceeds from BigED Wear are donated to March of Dimes.

Big Ed is also very close to his mom, Norma Brown. She was the one who picked him up from the airport — with Teddy the dog in tow — when a brokenhearted Ed flew home from the Philippines after things didn't work out with Rosemarie "Rose" Vega. Big Ed's mom did her best to comfort her son, although she revealed to the cameras that she had not been optimistic about the relationship working out.

Had things worked out with Rose, Big Ed would probably be rooming with her as opposed to his mom. In an Instagram post in February 2020, Big Ed revealed that he was packing up his studio apartment and buying a house so that his then 81-year-old mother, who works as a nurse, could live with him, calling her "an amazing human." Big Ed wrote, "We gots to take care of our parents, it is our honor!"

After Big Ed appeared on 90 Day Fiancé, he attracted controversy not just because of his behavior on the show, but because of an allegation that surfaced after someone claiming to have worked with Big Ed came forward. The woman, Lorelei Clemens, accused Big Ed of sexual harassment and assault in a TikTok video later posted on Instagram.

In an interview with Daily Soap Dish, Clemens claimed that she had remained quiet for four years and while she tried to speak up earlier, "no one really knew who Big Ed was" back then. She explained that she finally went public to prevent others from going through the same thing. Clemens revealed that she was hospitalized "from an incident that happened with" Big Ed and has dealt with ongoing health issues from it, although she can't provide more details due to having signed an non-disclosure agreement. As of this writing, Big Ed has not publicly addressed the allegations against him.

While Big Ed seemed to accept the end of his relationship with Rosemarie "Rose" Vega with grace, that doesn't mean he doesn't have regrets about what transpired. Big Ed received a lot of criticism for how he treated Rose, including lying to her about his height, withholding his feelings on having more children, asking her to take an STD test, and giving her insensitive gifts like mouthwash and a toothbrush telling her that she had bad breath — something Rose said was due to an untreated ulcer. All of this contributed to Rose eventually leaving him.

Big Ed eventually realized that he should have done things a lot differently when he and Rose were a couple, telling ET Canada, "I obviously didn't handle [addressing her oral health] in the right way." Big Ed did add, though, that he truly loved Rose and a lot of his mishandling of the relationship was because it had been so long since he'd been with someone. "I wasn't trying to be offensive in any way and never have I said anything negative nor will I ever about Rose," he said.

While it seems that Big Ed has been trying to capitalize on his 90 Day Fiancé fame, he hasn't revealed too many plans for his future. It seems like he's carrying on with his photography career, along with expanding his merchandise site, BigEdWear.com.

It wouldn't be too farfetched to picture Big Eg getting into motivational speaking in the future. Even before he appeared on 90 Day Fiancé, Big Ed had been posting motivational videos on his YouTube channel. One short video, posted in September 2018, shows Big Ed drinking a glass of wine, holding his dog Teddy, and talking about the importance of branding yourself — something Big Ed has obviously succeeded in doing for himself. Another video, also posted that month, shows Big Ed talking about the power of positivity. Perhaps we will see other motivational and advice-filled videos from Big Ed in the future.