Meet The REAL Carmen Carrera In VH1's "Couples Therapy"
Audiences have gotten to know Carmen Carrera as a standout on RuPaul's Drag Race, a model and trans activist, and a sometimes-controversial personality on social media.
But starting tonight, they'll see a whole different side of the sexy showgirl as she and husband Adrian Torres appear on the new season of VH1's Couples Therapy.
The pair join Janice Dickinson and her fiancé, Rocky Gerner; Big Ang and husband Neil Murphy; Rapper Joe Budden and girlfriend Kaylin Garcia, and Creed’s Scott Stapp and wife Jaclyn Stapp in the CT house.
Carrera, who had been separated from Torres for about 18 months when the cameras started rolling, said they needed to work on issues stemming from infidelity on both their parts.
"I wanted to make sure whether this relationship was worth saving," she told NewNowNext. "I overthink things, and I really I needed someone else’s opinion. I needed to get valid information."
There was also a desire to bring visibility to the trans community—and dispel some misconceptions.
"I choose to share things because I want people to understand," she says. "In this instance, it's that my relationship problems are like everyone else’s. Gender identity aside, it's the same issues."
At first, she says, she didn't disclose she was trans to her fellow cast members.
"There were a lot of big people in the house, and I don't think all of them knew I was trans. I wanted them to get to know me as a person first."
But she eventually opened up, prompting "a lot of questions."
"Joe [Budden] and I had a lot of discussions one-on-one about men who are attracted to trans women," she reveals. "I made sure we addressed all of them—letting him know 'No, thats ignorant,' 'Thats not the right word.'
Carrera says she clicked the most with outspoken reality star Janice Dickinson.
"As crazy as she may be, I kind of understand her," she says. "Janice has her way of expressing herself, which may be over-the-top, but i get it."
Still, Carrera says she had to educate Dickinson, too.
"She kept confusing trans issues with gay issues—like a trans woman is just a gay man in a dress. That was something I had to enlighten her about."
As for her and Torres, they have their moments, as well.
"We tried not to argue but we got to that point where you just let it out," she reveals. "It's a side of me that a lot of people haven't seen—people think of me as the showgirl. But we talk about our childhoods, our traumas. It went beyond just television."
She says viewers will meet "the girl in me that they’ve never met." "People think I’m the same girl i was four years ago on Drag Race, or the same person they read on Twitter. I don’t share every single thing on social media."
