‘Jay and Pamela’ Star Pamela Chavez Opens Up About Her Dating Life Before Meeting Jay Manuel
Pamela Chavez, star of TLC’s reality series Jay & Pamela, opened up about her dating life before she met her fiancé Jay Manuel.
“I started dating when I was about 19 years old,” Pamela, 30, said in a clip from an upcoming episode shared by TLC’s official Instagram page on April 12. “Somehow I kept attracting the same type of guy, which was the wrong type of guy.”
She continued, “They would either say they were into me only in private or I would get cheated on, or they had some kind of mental stuff going on and I thought I was the best rehabilitation center. I’m like, ‘Oh, I can change them!’ and it was just always something. Always something that would happen. Before Jay, I stayed single for two years because enough was enough.”
Jay, 28, and Pamela met online in 2019. They lived in different states, so they exchanged text messages and phone calls for seven months before they finally got to meet in person. During the 2019 holidays, Jay traveled to Kansas City, Missouri, to spend time with Pamela and her family.
Eventually, Pamela moved to Canton, Georgia, to live with Jay, and the couple currently resides in the finished basement of Jay’s parents’ house. In November 2022, Jay popped the question and Pamela took to Instagram to reveal the big news.
“I said yes to us, to his family (ours) & to forever,” she wrote alongside a carousel of photos. “I look forward to our future & the day we say ‘I Do.’ I went from ‘I’m never getting married’ to ‘I can’t wait to be married.’ Thank you cariño for making this special & beyond [what] I could have imagined . Thank you to his family who is my family for being part of it. Thank you to all our loved ones for congratulating us.”
Both Jay and Pamela were diagnosed with osteogenesis imperfecta Type 3 at a young age, and their outlooks weren’t good. The disease, which is also known as brittle bone disease, causes fragile bones that can break easily, along with chronic pain. Over the years, Pamela and Jay have had over 400 broken bones combined, but that doesn’t stop them from living their lives to the fullest.
“Our condition is super rare,” Jay explained during a previous episode. “My parents told me I wouldn’t make it past 5 years old.”
“They gave me less time!” Pamela chimed in before adding, “Made it!”
While Jay and Pamela want to move into a home of their own, they’ve hit a few road bumps when it comes to finding a place that meets their needs due to their medical condition.
“The couple crave more privacy and independence. They yearn to one day move out of the basement and into their own place — but disagree on where that should be,” a press release from TLC for Jay & Pamela read ahead of the show’s premiere in March. “Jay is happy to stay in the suburbs, whereas Pamela, restless after years in the basement, would love to be in the city. But finding any place that meets their needs as disabled power chair users proves to be harder than expected.”