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Credit: Charles Sykes/Bravo
Rulla Pontarelli was featured on Sunday night’s Watch What Happens Live, where she opened up about her status with husband Brian Pontarelli following the reveal of his past affair on The Real Housewives of Rhode Island.
After the alleged mistress, Beth Walker, came forward, hinting at their romance in a series of Instagram posts, which prompted Brian to file a lawsuit against her, Rulla commented on their marriage, Jo-Ellen Tiberi‘s role in the ongoing sharing of details pertaining to the time Brian spent with the woman, and why she believed the “proof” of their more recent alleged interaction was AI.
“We’re working on things. To be honest, we’re in a much better place than we were before … It’s like it was prior to the affair, and better,” Rulla confirmed on the April 26 episode of WWHL.
While some have felt that Rulla should’ve left Brian after his affair, Rulla explained that she was “all about keeping the family together.”
“But I’m not stupid at the same time. I know what we had before. I know there’s potential. So I don’t want to be perceived as wrong or weak just because I’m choosing to work on my marriage. I’m not the type to drop a relationship like that, and we have a family,” she continued. “I do think that Brian is a good person. I think that he’s good to the core but has made some grave mistakes and bad series of choices.”
Then, after denying she met Brian while he was married to Alicia Carmody‘s Spanish teacher and suggesting that she didn’t care that Brian didn’t always wear his wedding ring, Rulla admitted to being in the dark about how many cast members were involved in Jo-Ellen’s gossiping about Brian and his mistress.
“I didn’t realize how much the women were actually sort of backing Jo-Ellen with this perpetuating stuff, and I didn’t really realize how much Jo-Ellen was going back and forth and engaging with the former mistress about everything. It hurt,” she stated.
Then, when asked why she was mad at Jo-Ellen for telling the truth, Rulla set the record straight.
“I was actually very grateful when Jo-Ellen had shown me the photos, and I think that’s something that has been misunderstood. What I didn’t like is the fact that she engaged with the mistress and kept coming back with more and trying to come back with more, and the fact that she shared all the news with not only everybody in town and every hair salon and every gossip queen, but the entire state of Rhode Island, and a lot of that was before the word had even gotten to me,” she clarified.
As for why she believed certain images of Brian and his mistress were AI, Rulla explained that she’d seen things in the past about Brian that had been AI-generated.
“It’s not Jo-Ellen’s fault. It’s the other one’s fault … [She told Jo-Ellen] he was with her on my birthday last summer, and then I showed Jo-Ellen in our little meetup in East Greenwich, ‘Here, Jo-Ellen. Here’s Brian and me on Block Island for two days on my birthday. So what is she telling you?’” Rulla noted.
Also speaking of Jo-Ellen, Rulla fired back at her suggestion that she wasn’t really sick on an episode weeks ago, and was instead dealing with stress headaches from too much Ozempic.
“It’s disgusting because she pops Ozempic like it’s going out of style, which, nothing against Ozempic, but I was sick from the stress that she brought onto me, and my husband brought onto me, and I have proof that I was in the urgent care, so I’ll bring my receipts to reunion,” she declared.
Brian spoke out on WWHL as well, expressing frustration with Sunday’s episode of RHORI, which highlighted his romance with his mistress.
“It’s preposterous that I left the pizza place, went to see this person, and then went back with her to the polo match … A lot of things that have happened have been almost like a setup,” he alleged. “A lot of stuff was edited out, but what I saw about it that I hated was to see the past come back because that was a while ago. That was before. I was a different person then than I am now. I realize what an amazing woman my wife is. And the only thing that matters to me now is my wife and children. I just want to move forward.”
He then clarified that he was not still with the mistress at the time of the polo event on Sunday’s episode.
“I was not engaged — not as a relationship. It was more she was bitter, probably that I was on the show or that I was trying to make my marriage work. And it was like hate texts and things like that,” he shared.
Also on the live airing of WWHL, Rulla revealed that she’s closest to Alicia, Ashley Iaconetti, and Rosie DiMare before sharing her thoughts on Liz McGraw‘s relationship with Dino Guilmette, which some have felt got physical.
“I know that Liz and Dino, from everything I’ve seen and heard, were close at one point, and she’s not shy to admit it. To say that something physically happened, I truly do not know,” she stated.
Later, while appearing on the WWHL: After Show, Rulla was asked if she’d heard how Kelsey Swanson‘s boyfriend, rumored to be John Caprio, felt about her thoughts about leaving him on the show.
“I’ve heard nothing from Kelsey’s sugar daddy boyfriend. Nothing at all. I don’t even think he’s in state. I think he’s in Florida, so it’s sort of like, mum’s the word,” she replied.
The Real Housewives of Rhode Island season one airs Sundays at 9/8c on Bravo.
