Jenny Slatten, the 68-year-old TLC personality known for her years-long love story on "90 Day Fiancé," told People magazine this week that she was diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, ALS, in December 2025. The disease, also called Lou Gehrig's disease, is a fatal, progressive neurodegenerative condition with no known cure.

Slatten's announcement, first reported by Page Six, came roughly a year after she began experiencing symptoms that she and her husband, Sumit Singh, initially dismissed as something far less serious. The couple, who live in India, assumed at first that her problems were caused by "some kind of infection."

They were wrong. And the path from those early warning signs to a confirmed ALS diagnosis tells a sobering story about how quickly a life can change, and how one couple is choosing to face it.

A year of warning signs

Slatten's symptoms started around December 2024. She began choking while drinking water. Swallowing pills became difficult. Migraines set in. Over time, her speech noticeably slowed.

Fans picked up on the changes before the couple fully understood what was happening. Singh, 38, told People he initially assumed his wife was simply tired from lack of sleep when viewers expressed concern about her speech. But one commenter's suggestion stuck with him, someone proposed Slatten might have ALS.

Singh looked into it. What he found matched what he was seeing at home.

"And then I find out that these symptoms she was having, this is what it looks like."

The couple's concern deepened when Slatten traveled from India to New York City for a "90 Day Fiancé" holiday party shortly before her diagnosis. Her speech was noticeably slower at the event. As Slatten described it to People:

"That's when we knew something was wrong."

From a misread to a devastating diagnosis

After returning to India, Slatten and Singh met with several neurologists. An initial doctor believed Slatten had "a little clot" in her brain. A second opinion told a different story entirely, ALS.

The Mayo Clinic describes ALS as a progressive neurodegenerative disease that attacks nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord, leading to muscle weakness and eventual loss of mobility and speech. There is no cure. The disease took Slatten's own father more than a decade ago.

That family history makes the diagnosis doubly painful. Slatten watched her father deteriorate from the same disease. Now she faces it herself. As the Washington Times confirmed, her early symptoms, choking on water, migraines, difficulty swallowing, slowed speech, began in December 2024, a full year before the formal diagnosis landed.

The couple's reaction was immediate and human. Slatten told People they broke down together.

"We cried and held each other."

The news arrives during a season when several well-known Americans have gone public with serious health battles. Ben Sasse recently spoke with candor about faith and mortality after a Stage 4 pancreatic cancer diagnosis, a reminder that no amount of public stature shields anyone from the body's fragility.

Choosing to live, not to retreat

What stands out in Slatten's public comments is her refusal to let the diagnosis redefine how people treat her. She told People plainly:

"I don't want to be treated any different. Let's just live our life as we have been while we can."

That posture, clear-eyed, unsentimental, forward-looking, runs through the couple's response. Slatten and Singh are exploring possible treatments, though they acknowledge the options are limited. Doctors have told them the progression of her ALS "is slow," which offers some measure of hope in a situation that allows little of it.

Slatten said the couple is searching for anything that might help. "Right now we're just looking and searching," she told People, adding, "maybe somebody will come forward with something."

Her determination to keep living normally echoes the approach taken by megachurch pastor Dr. Jay Strother, who stepped away from the pulpit after a stomach cancer diagnosis, public figures making hard choices about how to balance health crises with the lives they've built.

A love story tested in the hardest way

Slatten and Singh first appeared on "90 Day Fiancé: The Other Way" in 2019. Their relationship, a 30-year age gap, cultural barriers, family opposition in India, became one of the franchise's most-watched storylines. They secretly married in August 2021. Their intimate wedding aired during the Season 3 finale of "The Other Way" that November.

Now they face a test no reality show can script. Singh's words to People were striking in their simplicity.

"Honestly, I never felt this much love, or I can love anyone this much. I used to... live for myself. But from [the] last so many years, I feel like doing [things] for someone who you love gives you happiness, I think that's what love is. And that's why we do things for each other, and that's what make each other happy."

Slatten echoed the sentiment. "And we're happy that we're together," she said.

The couple will appear on Season 3 of "90 Day: The Last Resort," which premieres June 1 at 8 p.m. ET on TLC. Whether the show addresses Slatten's diagnosis directly remains to be seen, but the timing means viewers will watch the couple navigate their relationship with this reality looming in the background.

Public health battles have a way of stripping away the noise. Dolly Parton recently canceled her Las Vegas residency to focus on healing, a decision that reminded fans that even the most tireless performers eventually face limits the body imposes.

What remains unknown

Several questions remain unanswered. Slatten and Singh have not publicly identified the neurologists who evaluated her or specified which treatments they are exploring. The exact date in December 2025 when the diagnosis was confirmed has not been disclosed. Nor is it clear where in India the couple sought medical opinions.

What is clear is that Slatten is not hiding. She chose to go public, chose to keep working, and chose to face the disease the same way she faced every obstacle the franchise documented, head-on, with her husband beside her.

ALS doesn't care about television ratings or love stories. It takes what it takes. But how a person meets it still matters, and Slatten, so far, is meeting it standing up.