Entertainment

Nikki's Boyfriend On 'Pretty Little Mamas' Isn't Rushing Into Marriage

by Mishal Ali Zafar

The cast of Pretty Little Mamas has made its debut to the world as a part of MTV’s latest reality series. The show follows five friends — Nikki, Chandler, Cheyenne, Nicole, and Alyssa — as they navigate motherhood and their glamorous social lives in the posh neighborhoods of San Diego. But fans are curious about Nikki, who is the newest addition to the circle of friends. She has a 14-month old daughter named Alaia, but exactly who is the father of Nikki’s kid?

During the premiere episode of the season, Nikki introduces her boyfriend, Ryan as the father of her baby. “Alaia’s father, Ryan and I were not officially a couple when I got pregnant,” she says on the show, “but we’re now giving our relationship a shot.” While the two are trying to make their relationship work for the sake of their daughter, it doesn’t look like marriage is in the cards for them anytime soon.

For now the 24-year-old is trying her best to make her relationship with Ryan work, while she focuses on her baby and her career. “I’m super focused on growing my YouTube channel and my modeling career,” she says in the first episode, “so I can prove to my parents that I can make it on my own.”

Nikki’s reason for trying to prove herself to her parents stems from their reaction to her pregnancy. “I grew up in a very wealthy area in Singapore, and I moved to America to go to college,” she says on the show. “Singapore is similar to San Diego in the sense that appearances really do matter, so when I got pregnant, my parents were pretty disappointed.” In an interview with Us Weekly, Nikki explained that that getting pregnant out of wedlock was a “taboo” in her culture, so her conservative parents were not exactly thrilled about her baby news.

Nikki’s mom is putting pressure on her to get married to Ryan, but he doesn’t seem to be too interested in the idea. During Episode 1, Nikki’s mom asks Ryan about a potential future wedding, to which he gets noticeably upset and tells her and Nikki that he’s in no rush, if at all, to get married. While Nikki is hopeful that one day her and Ryan will get married in hopes of keeping her family “all together,” she is getting her own place just in case they break up. “If we can’t make it work out, I just don’t want to go crawling back home to my parents. Not gonna happen.”

But as Nikki tries to move forward with her modeling, Ryan seems to be getting in her way. In the Meet the Moms special on MTV, Nikki explains her relationship dynamic with Ryan, and how he may be holding her back. “Ryan and I were just friends when I found out I was pregnant, and after Alaia was born we got much closer,” she says on the special. “But ever since I told Ryan I wanted to restart my modeling career, he kind of shut me out.”

In the special, Nikki tells Ryan that she's booking more modeling gigs, and would like to have the ability to do things for herself. “You should just stay home and be a mom,” he tells her, “it’s the only thing that matters.” Of course, Nikki isn’t thrilled at this comment, and is actually furious that Ryan thinks he can just tell her how to live her life. Nikki and Ryan's future together is questionable, so fans will just have to wait and watch their relationship play out during the rest of the season.

Pretty Little Mamas airs Thursdays at 9 p.m. ET on MTV.