The Real Housewives of Potomac fans will never forget Monique Samuels blasting her co-stars with a binder full of receipts at the Season 5 reunion. She called out Gizelle Bryant for having fake relationships while Bryant constantly attacked her marriage to former NFL star, Chris Samuels. Despite the drama, Monique once credited the show with saving her marriage.
Monique Samuels says ‘RHOP’ saved her marriage
Samels’ acrimonious exit came after Season 5. The season chronicled a physical altercation she had with Candiace Dillard Bassett and the aftermath of the incident. She was asked to return but opted out, blaming unfair production and editing. While she vows never to return to Bravo due to a lack of trust, she credits the show with saving her marriage.
“People always say that reality TV tears your marriage down. What people don’t realize is that Real Housewives of Potomac actually in some ways saved my marriage,” she told Entertainment Tonight while promoting the OWN reality show, Love & Marriage: D.C. “Chris and I, before we started filming that show, we were in a really rough place.”
She continued: “We had lost all of the dating in our marriage. Once we started filming reality TV, it actually helped us because it forced us to date. So we were able to get out, just reignite that intimacy and be excited about each other. So I will not lie, season two RHOP saved my marriage. And at the end of the day, sometimes you still have to come back to those moments. Because some of the things that I expressed on Love & Marriage: DC, people who watched Potomac saw I had those same concerns back then. So it’s not like this is something new.”
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After appearing on OWN, she and Chris separated
Though she admitted she had “reality TV PTSD” after her dealings with production and executives on RHOP, Samuels and her husband agreed to appear on the D.C. spinoff of OWN’S Love & Marriage: Huntsville. Unfortunately, her marriage was going through a major shift amid their 10th anniversary, leading viewers to believe she wanted out.
Ahead of the Season 2 premiere, reports surfaced that Chris and Monique were separated and headed toward divorce. Sources claimed the couple hadn’t filed any paperwork, but they were living separately, and their close friends knew about their split.
The couple took to YouTube to dispel rumors. They admit that they were living a few days a week separately in an effort to repair their marriage, which they said was working, and their communication improved. They also claimed they had no intention of divorcing and were fighting for their family.
Monique quits reality TV for good
After her stints on Bravo and OWN, Monique decided that reality TV wasn’t for her. Season 2 promos showed an absent Chris and Monique. She confirmed on her D.C. morning radio show that she was not returning due to contract disputes. Monique also questioned the timing of her separation from Chris being leaked when she hadn’t filmed the show, hinting that maybe someone from production was the mole.
