Charlie B and Sabrina From MTV's 'True Life: I'm Getting Married' 11 Years Later
Pair reflects on being reality TV pioneers and Charlie's "I'll gut you" rant.
Jan. 18, 2013— -- Ever wonder what happened to Charlie B and Sabrina? You know, that couple from MTV's "True Life: I'm Getting Married"?
Well, guess what? They haven't changed.
Watch the full story on "20/20: Wedding Confidential" TONIGHT at 10 ET
In 2001, Charlie and Sabrina Balducci allowed MTV cameras to follow them for four months before their nuptials. Sabrina heard about the show at her dress fitting.
"A woman came up to me and she said, 'I hear you in the room with your mom -- you guys are hysterical.' So I came home, I said, 'Charlie, look, they're having this MTV contest.' He jumped all over it."
Charlie Balducci told "20/20" they thought of themselves as pioneers, with reality TV then in its infancy. Shows like "Four Weddings" and "My Fair Wedding" didn't exist. Sabrina said their friends didn't understand what they were doing.
"'They're filming your wedding? And they're putting it on TV?' No one could believe, you know, they didn't understand what it was," she said.
When it was broadcast, no one could believe what they were watching. At a screening party filled with friends and family, the couple watched the infamous scene in which Charlie learns that his limo driver -- driving the stretch white Escalade -- is an hour late.
"[I'll] hunt you down like f****** cattle and I'll gut you," Charlie Balducci says to the driver over the phone. The room goes silent, including Sabrina, who had no idea about the incident until she saw it on the television. Charlie Balducci remembers it like it was yesterday, he said.
Charlie wasn't the only one who had a meltdown under the pressure of that day, Sabrina Balducci told "20/20."
"Picture somebody in your house, following you at every event you did, every place you went, for four months. You've got a newborn baby, you're trying to plan a wedding," she said.
"She had her freak-outs, too," her husband agreed. "It's just that my freak-out trumped everything else."
But Charlie Balducci said there is more to the story. He had a reason he had to be on time at the church. Just a week before the wedding, he had visited a priest.
"And I'm, like, 'Listen, is there anything you need me, to specifically do?'" Charlie Balducci said. "He pulls me to the side, he says, 'No, but there's something I don't want you to do.' I go, 'What's that?' He goes, 'Don't be late.'"
Charlie Balducci doesn't regret doing the show, or his big blow-up, he said: "In defense of myself, I really did what any Staten Islander would have done in that situation."
Now, 11 years later, the Balduccis say they are happily married -- even though many viewers doubted they would last. They have two children and still live on New York's Staten Island. Sabrina Balducci works in a salon, while her husband has focused his efforts on a nonprofit called NYC Arts Cypher, which provides programs and events for young artists. They said that because of the show, they are frequently recognized by strangers from around the world.
Charlie B's advice to couples headed to the altar?
"Don't look at the wedding as so much of a day, but, like, the springboard for a marriage, you know? If you guys can't plan a wedding together, you got to start to look at the marriage."
Watch the full story on "20/20: Wedding Confidential" TONIGHT at 10 ET
