Karine, Paul at ‘Fault’ for Restraining Order

90 Day Fiancé star Karine Staehle tried “for months” to drop her restraining order against her estranged husband, Paul Staehle, an insider exclusively tells In Touch.

“They actually both had [a restraining order] on each other and tried to drop them at same time, but only Paul was allowed and not Karine at that time,” a source close to the situation exclusively reveals to In Touch. “But she finally got her motion heard to drop.”

On March 31, In Touch exclusively revealed that Karine dropped her restraining order against Paul, 39, on February 16, 2023.

After noting that Karine, 29, spent months trying to drop her restraining order, the insider explains that “Kentucky is very strict about this” because the state advocates “about domestic violence.”

“I found it strange Paul had no trouble removing his on her, but she couldn’t,” the source adds. “They were both at fault and for [the] babies’ sake wanted to try and work something out.”

Paul previously appealed the order in August 2022. “Appellant argues that the circuit court erroneously determined that he committed acts of domestic violence against Appellee and improperly found that she is at risk of future acts of domestic violence,” he claimed in the legal paperwork viewed by In Touch.

The Brazil native initially filed the restraining order against Paul on December 30, 2021, following a physical fight in their Kentucky home. The altercation was caught on camera and circulated via social media. In the order, Karine claimed that she was she was a victim of rape and domestic violence.

In the clip that circulated online on December 17, Karine seemingly grabbed Paul forcefully and pinned him against the couch by his neck. Their eldest son, Pierre, was in the room at the time of the altercation.

Karine appeared to address the situation in a since-deleted Instagram post. “Do you know when you’ve tried everything? And when I say everything, it’s everything you can imagine and then some,” she wrote, according to a screenshot obtained by blogger John Yates. “The night before I spent awake and reflecting on everything I’ve been through and many things, it was for the love of my children and it will always be for them and that will never change. I woke up determined, asked for a divorce, that’s right, divorce. [Now] what will happen to me, I don’t know but God knows. At the moment, I just want the lap of my family and especially my mother, to go back to my house and start my life over.”

The pair made their TLC debut on season 1 of 90 Day Fiancé: Before the 90 Days. After they tied the knot in November 2017, Karine and Paul welcomed Pierre in March 2019 and Ethan in February 2021. They experienced many ups and downs before they called it quits for good in December 2021 following the altercation. In 2022, they lost custody of Pierre, 4, and Ethan, 2, to Child Protective Services (CPS).

In June 2022, the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children sent out a missing person’s alert for Pierre, who was believed to be with Paul at the time. Pierre was eventually returned on July 3, 2022, and the Louisville Metro Police Department told In Touch that the former couple’s eldest son was “located and safe.”

Following the incident, Pierre was placed in the same foster home that Ethan was already living in.

In November 2022, Paul shared his side of the story when he told fans that he and Karine were working together to gain back the custody of Pierre and Ethan.

The reality star claimed that they lost custody because he let Karine see their sons even though that violated their original custody order.

“There was an order on there that Karine could only see the kids supervised, I let Karine see the kids unsupervised, therefore I violated the court orders,” Paul told John during a November 2022 interview. He also noted that he is not allowed to see either of his sons until they turn 18.