90 Day Fiancé couple Andrei and Elizabeth are addressing their big fights in his home country of Moldova on this season of 90 Day Fiancé: Happily Ever After?, specifically fans’ criticism of the sometimes rude way Andrei has been speaking to his wife.

360aproko spoke with the couple on Wednesday and they candidly talked about the stressful time they had planning their second wedding in Moldova, which Andrei pushed for since his family wasn’t able to attend their first wedding in Florida. The couple was first introduced to viewers during season 5 of 90 Day Fiancé, after Elizabeth met and fell in love with Andrei when she visited Dublin, Ireland, where he was working as a bouncer at the time. Although they eventually got married and settled in Florida — where Elizabeth is from — they often butt heads due to his controlling nature, and Andrei definitely does not get along with her family.

But the tension between 33-year-old Andrei and 29-year-old Elizabeth has increased this season, specifically during their time in Moldova, where Elizabeth accused him of bumping up his alpha male attitude. At one point, he told her that she needed “to listen double” while in his home country, and later mocked her for trying to be a “feminist” when she asked to be included in the conversation with him and his friends since she doesn’t speak Romanian.

Andrei defended his treatment of Elizabeth on Wednesday and told Melicia Johnson that he didn’t think he was “rude” at all. Meanwhile, Elizabeth noted that in Andrei’s culture, they’re very blunt and “cutthroat” and acknowledged that some people might not be able to handle that.

“It may come across as super rude, but to me, I understand him and where he’s coming from, and I know that it’s not a jab at me or intentionally being rude to me,” she says. “I think that’s just his voice and his accent and him being a man, and you throw that all together and it comes off rude. I don’t take it that way.”

“Watching it back I can see what they would see watching it,” she adds of fans’ reactions. “I can understand what they’re saying, but again, I know my husband and I know that he wouldn’t purposely try to put me down. I think he is just such a strong person and he comes off really mean, but to me, but I understand what he’s saying.”

During an argument on Sunday’s episode, TLC bleeped out what he said to Elizabeth during a nasty argument. Still, Andrei made no apologies.

“I curse sometimes and I’m not going to hide it,” he says with a laugh, looking back at the moment. “I maybe curse a lot. [There was] a little bit of friction and after that we exploded.”

But Andrei said that Elizabeth is herself a strong personality and is sometimes rude to him as well.

“Sometimes she does it to me, but it’s not shown,” he says. “They put me in, you know, a bad light, but this actually happens, she does it too because she’s very strong. She’s very stubborn.”

Although, Andrei did have some kind words about his wife when asked what viewers might not know about her.

“I think she’s a sweetheart,” he says. “I think she’s loving, but she can show her teeth. She can be aggressive to me, sometimes. It happens, I’m handling it. I thank her, I guess.”

For her part, Elizabeth said Andrei has a much softer side to him that is rarely shown on the series. She called him “very romantic” and praised him as a great dad to their daughter, Eleanor.

“Andrei is such an amazing father and he’s super, super sweet,” she shares. “And he’s actually a really goofy person at heart and he has a really soft spot for people in his heart that he loves dearly and are really close to him, and I feel like we don’t see enough of that side because, obviously, showing our journey, it can be stressful and a lot of times you lose sight of your actual self.”

As for if Andrei will ever get along with Elizabeth’s family, Andrei says “time will tell” and that “there’s always hope.” But he still wasn’t overly grateful that Elizabeth’s dad, Chuck, paid for their wedding in Moldova — which is another argument he had with Elizabeth on the show when he insisted she ask her dad to pick up the check.

“It is normal,” he insists of Chuck paying for their wedding in Moldova. “He paid for everybody else’s wedding, he paid for her sisters’ weddings.”

“It’s not certain if he did it or not, actually,” he adds. “It’s gonna be in the upcoming events and you’re gonna have to watch it.”

Andrei later commented on being a stay-at-home dad — which Elizabeth as well as his own friends called him out on during Sunday’s episode, when they criticized him for wanting to be the head of the household without having a job — and said he might continue staying at home since they plan to have another child in a couple of years.

“It depends on the circumstances,” he says, as Elizabeth jokingly shook her head no. “It’s all about equality these days, you know. If I can do it and you can work, it is what it is.”

“If it’s a man at home, it doesn’t matter,” he continues. “As long as they can do the job well and do it, it is what it is.”

He also teased the arguments that he gets into with both Elizabeth’s dad and her brother, Charlie, when they arrive in Moldova for the wedding. In a preview of Sunday’s new episode, Elizabeth’s family is shown pressing Andrei for the reason he left Moldova to live in Ireland where he met Elizabeth, after Andrei noted that he ran into “problems” in Moldova. However, Andrei was reluctant to give them any information.

“There was no trouble at all, there were actually events that got me to move to Ireland but I don’t consider what it was to be very serious,” Andrei says, downplaying the incident as a “misunderstanding” between their languages. “But that’s in my opinion, but for them it’s a little different.”

Elizabeth disagreed, and said it was indeed more of a big deal to her.

“But what I can say without giving away too much is that there were surprises that kind of came up and my family is just yet again, digging and digging and digging and bringing it to my attention,” she says. “You’ll just have to watch, it gets … it was a lot for me and I’m still kind of processing it, too.”

“I was just disappointed at first, but then I understood his intent behind it since he communicated and we kind of talked it out and he explained to me why he said the things he said and did the things he did,” she adds.