Brianna Ramirez and Bill Hutchinson – Marrying Millions

By: Jamie Steinberg

Q) What made you want to be a part of the series “Marrying Millions?”

Bill: We got a phone call and asked if we would do a Skype interview. We did not know how they found us, how they heard of us. They just heard we were an interesting couple with a big age gap and that Sharp Entertainment was putting this new show together and they wanted us to be involved in it. We actually turned them down several times because we thought it might not be good for our life, my career, my job or my investors. But they were very persistent. They just would not leave us alone. Finally, we told the producer to come down to our home in Miami and that we’d talk to them in person. That we could size this guy up and figure out what was going on and hear what his angle was. That way we could at least part as friends and not do the show. But he came down here and sat in this Miami house and he won us over. He was very polite and nice. And he said, “Look Bill and Bri, we love your story. We’re not here to show America a train wreck. We’re here to share your romance with America and they are going to love your story. We just want to be able to give it to them.” It was so disarming that we ended up agreeing to do the show. We signed up and here we are.

Q) Were there any parts of your life deemed off limits to the camera?

Bill: Actually, no. We have been an open book with the cameras and the crew and the director. We actually invited them to come into our bedroom if they wanted some porn. [laughs]

Brianna: Now, I have to get in here…

Bill: That was a joke! We have been very open with them and we share anything they want to see as far as our story, our homes, our friends and family. We’ve been carte blanche. We’ve enjoyed the experience. As Season 1 went so well, we really enjoyed being around the camera crew and having them in our homes and traveling with them. We were very happy when they invited us back for Season 2 because we actually missed the experience when Season 1 was over.

Brianna: I feel like we really made friends with the producers and the crew members that it was exciting to get to see them again because while filming we spend all day together. We have lunch together and then we go back to filming. So, we really actually developed friendships with the crew members and it made it that much more enjoyable to know that we could come back and spend time with those people again. They really made it a fun experience.

Q) What are some highs and lows we will be exploring this season with you?

Bill: I’d say the highs are our relationship. Bri and I love each other more and more every day and we really share an amazing life together. We’re really into each other. The lows I would say are our frustrations trying to put our loved ones together. Trying to get our families together, liking each other, understanding each other and understanding us. So, it’s those around us that make it a difficult situation for us. And I think Season 2 captures that hopefully very well.

Q) Bill, last season we saw your first ex-wife have a bit of an issue with Brianna. Have things changed or stayed the same?

Bill: My relationship with both of my exes are extremely well. The relationship went from the pain and loss of a failed marriage to acceptance to friendship with both of them. So, both of them actually like Bri and understand my relationship with Bri very much because they know me very well, as a man and as a person. And Bri is a very likable and sweet person. So, it’s hard not to like her when you get to know her. My first ex that is on the show, she comes into the storyline often and she is really good for our storyline because she is the mother of my older children and I want them to accept me. I want them to accept us. I want them to accept Bri. And I want them to accept our relationship. So, she’s the key to that.

Brianna: I think in Season 2 you’ll see our relationship and where it kind of goes from there. I know we definitely had a rough start. And I know her opinion of me and it’s most likely she’s just trying to protect her family. So, I don’t take anything that she may say to me to heart. In Season 1 you saw her give me (in her words) “advice.” So, there is effort being put towards the relationship I guess you guys will all follow us and see how it turns out.

Q) Now you are in Miami, how is life different as far as society accepting your relationship?

Bill: We’re very anonymous in Miami. So, it’s a lot easier to be in Miami for several reasons. In Dallas I’m extremely well known. So, we’re out there and very visual. People come up to us all the time and if they approve or disapprove of Bri or our relationship, people are very vocal about it. So, we have to figure out where we can go where it is safe and we can have a good time and will be left alone. We have those issues in Dallas. In Miami, we don’t have that issue at all because we are anonymous here. Nobody knows us unless they’ve seen us on the TV show, which has happened a few times. But we don’t have the big support group of friends and family and so this is an adventure that we’re experiencing together without worrying about a large cast of characters around us and do they accept us, don’t they accept us and how do we get them to accept us. In Miami, we’re just enjoying each other. We’re enjoying my children. Every day is an adventure out here. So, it’s easier. Life in Miami is a lot easier because we don’t have all of those issues to deal with. The problem is my work is all in Dallas. I opened the Virgin hotel right before the COVID virus hit and I purchased the W hotel. So, I have two big hotel projects that are brand new in my life and they are both in Dallas. So, I’m tied to Dallas. Any time we spend in Miami requires me to do back and forth, which isn’t bad but necessary. Then, there is the children’s school. We put the kids in school here and the kids love their school in Miami. So, we’re trying to figure out if we want to do that again or go back to Dallas after Summer time to reenroll them in school in Dallas. That’s still up in the air.

Q) Bri, we saw you having a bittersweet moment with your family when you left to go to Miami. How are they doing?

Brianna: My family is doing good. They are still adjusting to the change because I am a family-oriented person. It’s hard for them to adjust to me being away.

Bill: You’re the leader of the family.

Brianna: I’m the one that plans the barbeques. We plan the trips to the lake. We do the Fourth of July. We set up for holidays. So, me not being there really puts a damper on the whole family because they’ll call me while I’m away and Facetime and I can only see them on a screen. And it definitely takes a toll because I have to go back to Dallas to recharge on my family time. So, Bill and I go back and forth and it does put a little bit of strain on it, but I think we’ve made it work so far because we realize the peace that comes with living out there and the peace that it brings to our family we’ve really enjoyed it.

Q) What would you like to clear up that is a misconception about your relationship?

Bill: I would say that our relationship is extremely normal. Even though we come from different economic backgrounds and a forty-year age gap, we have an extremely normal relationship with each other. Bri is like my best friend. My best buddy. And she is my love. So, I treat her as an equal, with total respect. I romance her. I buy her flowers. I seek her approval when I do things. We’re very much the same as relationships between two people who are of the same age. Bri is very wise for being only twenty-two years old. I think because she had a fast growing up period. The situation she was in when she grew up made her become an adult very quickly. Like she said, even though she is the youngest of her family (she’s got six brothers and sisters) she is the leader of her family – including her parents. Everybody looks to Bri in her family and so she is very mature and wise for her age. And I’m probably immature for my age! So, you do the math on those two things and we equal out. So, we are very much on par with each other I would say mentally and emotionally. Our relationship is very normal, as much as to the outside it does not look normal at all. I’m 6’5 and she’s 5’2. I have long blonde hair and she’s got this dark hair. She’s twenty-two and I’m sixty-two. So, nothing about our relationship looks normal. But when we’re alone in our home we feel extremely normal. We feel extremely comfortable and our relationship is really real. Because some people question reality TV and some things on reality TV, our relationship is definitely real. It is definitely full of love. And we have the same problems that everybody has. We disagree on certain things. How we work those things out and how we compromise on them – I have to treat her like an equal. Just because I’m forty years older I can’t be a dictator and talk down to her or act like her teacher. She actually gives me words of advice from time to time and I have to listen to her and then think about the things that she says. A lot of times it’s very wise. So, I’ve got experience on my side because I’ve made mistakes for forty years longer than she has been alive and that always creates wisdom. And yet in her young body and heart and soul, she is a very wise person herself. So, its’ a wonderful relationship. I think that will come out in Season 2.