#284 - Soleen & Riaan | سولين وريان : The Second Chance that Changed My Life

Riaan was broke, on drugs, and sleeping on people's couches in Cape Town. Soleen was stuck in an interior design career she hated in Dubai. They met through an Instagram story, talked for seven months without meeting, and told each other "I think I'm going to marry you" before they'd ever been in the same room. In this episode — the airport no-show, the 100-dirham wedding rings, the first year they almost got divorced, and how a couple workout video filmed during COVID turned two people with nothing into one of the most-watched couples in the Middle East. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 🎙️ Who are Riaan & Soleen? A South African-Iraqi couple based in Dubai who went viral during COVID with their couple workout videos. What started as a fun idea became a full-time career, a cross-cultural movement, and a love story that proves the right partner matters more than the right bank balance. With millions of followers across platforms, they've become one of the Middle East's most beloved creator couples — known for their raw honesty, cultural bridge-building, and the energy they bring to everything they do. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ ⏱️ Chapters: 00:00 — Intro 01:23 — Welcome: how an Iraqi aerobics video during COVID changed everything 05:39 — "We didn't know the value of what we have" — the Tom Ford / Oud analogy 08:41 — Full-time content creators: what's coming next 09:39 — "A 30-second video takes us 7 hours and 3,000 calories" 10:27 — "If I don't follow the wave now, I'll always be behind" 11:38 — 2,100 emails, 7 interviews, zero jobs — then a stranger found his resume 12:23 — Selling 3 meal plans for 150 dirhams with 2,000 followers 14:17 — "When I lost my job, I said Alhamdulillah — everyone else was crying" 15:32 — Soleen's story: interior design, a career she didn't love, and finding Mina 16:23 — Riaan's origin: parents' divorce at 15, a car crash at 17, and a friend killed in front of him 18:37 — The party moment: "If God looks at me from the top now — is this where I'm supposed to be?" 20:23 — "I used fitness to recover — my mom used me as a dumbbell at 5 AM" 21:23 — Drugs, antidepressants, and the gym cocktail that kept him going 24:23 — How a "good luck" comment on an Instagram story started it all 26:08 — "I told her I'm gonna marry you — after two weeks of talking online" 29:33 — She flew across the world. He didn't show up at the airport. 34:23 — Broken car, expired license, ripped jeans — the worst first impression ever 36:23 — "She bought gifts for my whole family with her last money — I cried" 40:23 — "She was everything I was looking for — and I Googled 'Kurdish Iraqi'" 44:23 — Soleen quits her job in secret, plans to move to South Africa 48:23 — "I landed in the UAE and told her: I have a drug addiction" 50:23 — Strangers bought him a plane ticket to start his new life 52:23 — "I want to marry your daughter" — in a house full of Iraqis speaking extremely loud 57:53 — 100-dirham wedding rings from Sharjah Souk that turned green 59:10 — "We saw each other at the lowest of the lowest — and built from there" 01:00:23 — First year: almost divorced — culture, religion, slippers in the house 01:04:08 — "My wife is my biggest investment — whatever I put into her comes back to me" 01:06:23 — "Remember we're a team — I'm not against you" 01:08:23 — "Never sleep angry" — the rule he inherited from his grandparents 01:14:23 — "Treat everyone as if it's the last time you'll see them" 01:18:23 — "The best thing I ever did was speak about my trauma" 01:19:23 — What Soleen learned from Riaan: to say no, to speak up, to grow ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Subscribe for more inspiring profiles and exclusive podcast episodes. Connect with Riaan & Soleen Instagram — @riaanandsoleen Connect with Hikmat Wehbi Instagram —   / hikmatwehbi   TikTok —   / hikmatwehbi   Listen to Hikmat Wehbi Podcast on: Apple Podcast — https://podcasts.apple.com/ae/podcast... Spotify — https://open.spotify.com/show/7Iw71oj... Anghami — https://play.anghami.com/artist/14456628 Produced by WSTUDIO Instagram —   / wstudiodxb   Website — https://www.w-studio.com/ For all inquiries reach out to podcast@w-studio.com #hikmatwehbipodcast #podcast #arabic_podcast #riaanandsoleen #couplesgoals #crosscultural #lovestory #dubai #iraq #southafrica #marriage #motivation #wstudiodxb