Topics: Crime, Netflix, Sex and Relationships, TikTok, US News
The star of a Netflix reality show has told how she married a prisoner just months after the pair first met.
Laura Gehrke is a real estate agent who previously appeared in the Netflix series Too Hot To Handle Germany.
Last year, the 27-year-old had to spend Christmas alone in Dubai after an issue with her visa meant she would be unable to travel home for the festive period.
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She had been scrolling through her TikTok page when she happened upon a TikTok which was talking about writing to someone in jail.
Laura decided that she was going to wish an inmate 'Merry Christmas', and happened upon the profile 21-year-old Joshua Stewart.
The pair began to exchange messages and soon hit it off, with the messages escalating to spending hours talking on the phone every day.
Eventually, Laura decided to travel to the US to meet Joshua in jail, where he was serving time for controlled substance homicide.
Laura recalled getting to know her future husband, saying: "We really clicked. He was just open about everything from the beginning. He was telling me so many stories about his life. I thought he was really emotionally intelligent."
She explained that she didn't initially ask him why he was in jail, saying she 'didn't want to judge him just based on that'.
"Because I knew the backstory, it didn't change my opinion of him," Laura added.
Joshua proposed to Laura after just six weeks of knowing her.
The pair met 12 times, with the 13th time they met in person being their prison wedding ceremony.
She said: "It was a prison marriage - one of the other inmates was his best man. We were all in white and had our own colour theme.
"It felt super right. Our families are super supportive. Obviously my mum had questions but she was very supportive."
Some people were sceptical about Laura's new-found romance, and shared their thoughts on social media.
One person commented: "Bro just secured his financial future after he's out."
A second added: "You most definitely got all your priorities messed up."
While a third wrote: "He will disappear after release."
But Laura sent a very clear response to them, saying: "People just look into things with a made-up mind - they can't believe we married out of love. They just think I'm using him or he's using me.
"They can't believe it's real love. We have a lot of support but we also have a lot of haters."
The pair now have a TikTok account together (@lorraandjosh) as well, with one video being viewed some 8.7 million times.
Joshua is set to be released from jail under house arrest in December 2025.
