What's It Like to Be Joe Francis' Girlfriend? Kinda Hellish.

Going solely on his public persona as founder of Girls Gone Wild—a franchise that assigns valuation to women based on their bodies alone—one would assume that to deal with his “lifestyle,” any woman who dates Joe Francis would either have to have bulletproof self-esteem or one that’s in the toilet. So it’s really interesting that, on this season of VH1’s Couples Therapy, Francis and his 25-year-old girlfriend Abbey Wilson are opening up about their relationship which they both say has been severely affected by Wilson’s eating disorder.

On last night’s premiere episode, Francis and Wilson moved into the Couples Therapy house (where they joined Flavor Flav and his fiancée, Caitlyn and Tyler from Teen Mom, and Chingy and his girlfriend) and immediately disclosed Wilson’s struggles with her eating disorder, as Francis wiped away tears.

Really, the only thing that was surprising about it was their candor. Sadly, it just doesn’t seem shocking that a girl like Wilson—a model who met Francis when she was 21, after winning GGW’s 2009 “Search for the Hottest Girl in America”—would have body image issues. It’s common enough without factoring in the circumstances. But when she explains how troubled she is that Francis’ female “friends” (some of them ex-girlfriends) regularly text him naked photos, or when Francis gloats in front of her that he recently had a “spring break” party at his house where he invited 200 women over with just 20 guys, it’s like, “How much does this girl hate herself that she would put herself through this kind of emotional torture?”

Later, when they settle in to their room, he orders her to make the bed, and when she tells him to wait, he goes off camera and calls, “Absters, come here for one second?” before hissing, “Quit being a fucking bitch.” She then dutifully makes the bed.