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Garcelle Beauvais opened up about her engagement, marriage, and divorce from her ex-husband, Mike Nilon, the father of her 16-year-old twins, Jax and Jaid, on Tuesday.
While appearing on Bravo’s podcast with her Real Housewives of Beverly Hills co-star and friend, Sutton Stracke, 52, Garcelle, 57, looked back on her relationship with Mike, whom she split from in 2010 due to his past affair, as she also admitted to not liking Sutton at first and shared the text she received from Andy Cohen, 55, after her emotional chat with Jax.
“We were together almost two and a half years, and I came to a crossroads,” Garcelle revealed of her and Mike’s early moments together on the April 16 episode of Bravo’s Hot Mic podcast. “I was like, ‘What are we doing?’ I have a young son. Mike met [Oliver Saunders] when he was seven. So we actually broke up because he wasn’t ready. It wasn’t part of his five-year plan.”
“I remember he was crying, I was crying, and Oliver was crying. It was really kind of sad,” she continued. “I was a single mom. I wanted to get married and have a stable home with family life.”
Then, after not seeing one another for three months, Garcelle and Mike ran into one another at a movie premiere, after which their wild engagement went down.
“I go to the afterparty and I say to my girlfriend, ‘If we’re talking, come and get me,’ like come and say something and get me away from the conversation. So Mike pulls me over, we’re talking, and then he proposes,” Garcelle shares. “So Jen comes over and she’s like, ‘Garcelle, we gotta go,’ I go, ‘Jen I’m engaged.’ No ring. No nothing. He proposed and I was engaged.”
After the “crazy” night, Garcelle returned home to Oliver and shared her exciting news.
“I said to him, ‘I saw Mike tonight … and he proposed.’ And he said, ‘Did you say yes?’ And I said, ‘I did,’ and we were both so happy,” she admitted. “And then I got to work the next day and I told Jamie Foxx, who I was working with, and he was like, ‘You couldn’t wait?’ Because we were almost done … and we had always said that we weren’t going to mess around. So he was like, ‘You couldn’t wait?’”
At the time that Garcelle and Mike wed in 2001, Garcelle was a working actress.
“I loved being married so much. There was like the union and the house and the taking care of things, I really loved being married but I was still working, not as much as [I had been]. I felt like I married a man that could provide if I wasn’t working. He felt safe. He was a safe choice,” she explained.
As for her regret, Garcelle said she wished she stayed married for just one year longer.
“I was married almost nine years. I should’ve waited for the 10th year. So dumb!” Garcelle declared. “One more year. That’s my problem. I move too quick.”
Moving on to the start of her relationship with Sutton, Garcelle agreed when Sutton noted, “She didn’t like me.”
“What I had heard was that she was a New York socialite, she hadn’t worked in 17 years. I have nothing in common with that. ‘I haven’t worked in 17 years?’ I’d love a man to tell me not to work for 17 years!” Garcelle proclaimed. “So, I thought, you know, ‘Whatever.’ And she came in the car, and she was like, ‘Oh, my kids told me that I should work.’ And I just thought, ‘Oh, okay.’”
Meanwhile, Sutton was equally put off, signaling to a fashion show appearance alongside her castmate.
“She wanted a sandwich at a fashion show. We’re front row. Who’s eating a sandwich? I was thinking to myself, ‘Who orders a sandwich front row of New York Fashion Week?’ Garcelle!” Sutton recalled.
Then, as time continued, the ladies realized they “had a lot in common.”
“I think when we had our first like one-on-one date and Garcelle had the nerve to ask me, ‘Where do you get all your money?’ She’s fearless. It didn’t offend me but I was like, ‘Okay I’m glad somebody’s finally going to ask me something of content,’ because no one had really [gotten to know me],” Sutton shared. “And my response, I was like, ‘Why do you gotta ask that?’ And we started laughing.”
Over the years, as they have found themselves single and raising children, Garcelle said they’ve often leaned on one another.
“One time, she was having some issues with her ex. She called me and she said, ‘How do you get along with your ex so well? Are you still sleeping with him?’ And I was like, no, I haven’t gone back there,” Garcelle stated.
Also on the podcast, as Sutton admitted Jax was “brutally honest” during their heart-to-heart beach scene on season 13, Garcelle agreed he’s “amazing” before admitting she was nervous for the scene to air.
“I was so scared because being a mom is the number one job for me and I was so scared people were going to see me in a bad light,” she explained. “But what was really interesting is that not only are Jax and I in a better place but during BravoCon, people were coming up to me, saying, ‘You‘re such a good mom. The fact that your kid felt comfortable enough to say that…’” [And] I never imagined that would be. I only thought it would be bad. I didn’t think people could relate.”
Garcelle also received support from Andy.
“Andy Cohen sent me a text. He was like, ‘I just watched the scene of you and Jax and that gutted me,’” she revealed.
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