Monique Samuels is back in the Bravo spotlight — and believes her ex-husband, former NFL star Chris Samuels, is watching her every move.
The “Real Housewives of Potomac” star returned to the franchise this season in a “friend of” role for Season 10. She exclusively tells Page Six’s “Virtual Reali-Tea” that even though Chris never reaches out to her directly, he is very much paying attention to her re-entry into reality TV.
“Oh you better believe he’s paying attention and keeping tabs. But the thing about Chris and I, we are not in a good space. The co-parenting is a nightmare,” claims Monique, who shares three young children with her ex: Milani, Christopher and Chase.
“He won’t ever come to me about anything that he sees. He goes through people and he has them do their bidding for him. It’s very sneaky, it’s very shady. It’s very him. It’s on brand for him.”
Monique, 42, says the disconnect between their public and private reality continues to be frustrating. According to the mom of three, viewers often struggle to reconcile the man they see on screen with the one she was married to for nearly a decade.
“Unfortunately, because I had maintained such a good front and image back then, it’s unbelievable for most people,” she explains. “So even with the last episode [of ‘RHOP’], where they’re calling him, he said, ‘I don’t know [about any of the series drama].’”
Monique adds, “Most people said, ‘Oh, he’s not trying to be in women’s business. He doesn’t even know about it.’”
But she claims Chris, 48, is far more aware of what’s happening on the show than he lets on — and that current cast personalities have allegedly helped keep him in the loop.
“He knows about it — because Cookie’s the mouthpiece. So she’s doing his bidding,” she alleges. “Why is he talking to her? Because he knows she’s gonna run her mouth and do his bidding. And then he can play innocent and say, ‘I don’t know what y’all are talking about.’ I’ve seen this a thousand times.”
She also addresses the bombshell allegations surrounding Stacey Rusch and whether the former QVC host was communicating with Chris after the Samuels’ divorce. According to Monique, the connection was very real — and predated her return to the series.
“There was definitely communication with Stacey because she showed it to me,” Monique claims. “She showed me a message from way before I even signed my contract, where he was texting her, asking, ‘Hey, I heard my name’s being talked about on the show?’ They were already communicating, so why would they not communicate later on?”
Monique claims inconsistencies in Stacey’s story only fueled her concerns.
“The communication was real. I wasn’t at the previous event for Gizelle’s … [‘Reasonably Shady’ podcast] party, so when I’m watching it in real time, she says she didn’t have his number and that’s why Charrisse [Jackson] called him,” she continues.
“So now here I am in my present self watching everything unfold and then the next scene is us sitting down having dinner together and then she pulls her phone out [saying], ‘We know each other socially and here’s what he’s been sending to me,’ in all the text messages scrolling. … It’s just weird. It’s, like, why are we lying?”
She emphasizes that Jackson’s decision to openly call Chris while filming only raised more red flags for her.
“And then she said, ‘I’m filming,’ and then [Chris] proceeded to talk,” Monique says. “So ain’t nobody stupid.”
Now, years removed from her marriage, Monique says she is finally ready to tell her full truth in her forthcoming memoir-meets-self-help guide, “Love Letters from Versions of Myself: A Memoir of Self-Discovery, Transformation & Healing.” The book will go far deeper into the darkest moments of her relationship — and the personal awakening that followed.
“I go into very full detail in my book,” she shares. “I give you every stage of that but I also give you an example. The example is me. … Whether it was during my childhood, during my marriage or post-marriage, I give all of the steps that I went through when it comes to the transformation.”
Monique says that confronting those painful experiences meant facing devastating emotional truths.
“The hardest part is losing people that you thought were there for you but then you realize they were never there for you,” she reflects. “And sometimes you can be sleeping with your own damn enemy. It’s a real thing.”
Despite everything, Monique feels her troubled marriage ultimately became the catalyst for her spiritual growth.
“If it wasn’t for my marriage, I would have never had this awakening moment,” she says. “I do really feel that I deserve to be loved properly.”
And this time around on “RHOP,” Monique is making it clear she’s no longer interested in protecting anyone else’s image but her own.
“The Real Housewives of Potomac” airs Sundays at 8 p.m. ET on Bravo with new episodes available to stream the next day on Peacock.
