The Real Housewives of Potomac‘s Ashley Darby spilled some hot new tea on Stacey Rusch’s love life — and her latest bombshell involves Chris Samuels, aka the ex-husband of Monique Samuels.
Amidst Ashley’s mission to make sense of Stacey’s reconciliation with ex-husband Thiemo Rusch (and whether or not they were actually divorced) on the heels of her messy breakup with Thomas Anthony “TJ” Jones, she revealed at the end of Season 10, Episode 2, how this new piece of intel came to her attention.
After Karen Huger’s friend, Cherita “Cookie” Whiting, mentioned she’d just received a text message from Monique’s ex while celebrating the Grand Dame’s birthday with Gizelle Bryant and Keiarna Stewart, Ashley dished, “Chile, now [we’re] finding out that Stacey’s been trying to get with Chris Samuels.”
RELATED:Â Stacey Rusch Sounds Off After RHOP Drama Reaches New Heights: “Suddenly Turned Against Me”
In a confessional, Ashley explained that she’d met Chris through Monique, and a “few years ago” [in 2023], the couple announced their divorce. Then, during her recent Second Bloom Ball, a friend who arrived late provided her with the latest relationship details.
“As we’re about to go downstairs, she goes, ‘Girl, you know Stacey reached out to me to hook her up with Chris Samuels,'” Ashley recalled to a producer. “I said, ‘Did you?’ And she said, ‘I Introduced them.’ That kinda shocked me.”
How the RHOP cast reacted to the Stacey Rusch and Chris Samuels rumor
As it turns out, Ashley wasn’t the only one who was “shocked” by the rumor.
“You are lying!” Gizelle responded, while a similarly stunned Keiarna added that she thought Stacey was “back with her husband,” anyway.
RELATED:Â Stacey Rusch Shares the Real Reason She & Her Husband Got Back Together: “Crazy as It Sounds…”
“Maybe this was before they got back together,” Ashley replied. “But she was really making a play for him.”
In a confessional, Gizelle added of Stacey, “I don’t know who this woman is. There’s a whole man you paid to be your boyfriend. There’s a whole divorce that we can’t find. There’s a whole former Potomac husband that you are trying to have sex with…” (For the record, Stacey denied paying TJ and insisted that she and Thiemo are “absolutely” divorced. She’s yet to address the Chris rumors, though.)
RHOP teases Monique Samuels’ Season 10 return amid speculation on Stacey and Chris
As Gizelle concluded to a producer, “Call Monique. Get Monique in the chat.”
Ask and you shall receive, apparently, because RHOP‘s Oct. 12 episode ended by jumping forward three weeks to preview Monique arriving on the scene.
The sneak peek showed Keiarna expressing surprise to Monique that she and Stacey “didn’t know each other,” since the latter apparently “was dating Chris,” as she put it. Cut to Stacey claiming, “Chris called me,” and Monique later declaring, “There’s two people who are a part of this who are complete liars.”
Inside Ashley Darby and Stacey Rusch’s drama on RHOP
From the jump on Season 10, Ashley and Stacey’s friendship had been on a metaphorical roller coaster, to say the least. Ashley’s primary issue with Stacey was that she felt she was “misrepresenting” herself to the friend group.
More specifically, Ashley didn’t buy that Stacey and Thiemo were really divorced, because she couldn’t locate any public court records to confirm that was the case.Â
After the drama reached a boiling point at Ashley’s Bloom Ball, Stacey later presented her with legal documents that she said proved her and Thiemo were, indeed, divorced. So, a seemingly satisfied Ashley agreed to move forward with repairing her and Stacey’s friendship.
You’ll have to tune in, however, to find out if Ashley’s new bombshell about Stacey and Chris will set their progress back any further.
As the drama plays out, don’t miss how the cast reacted to Monique’s RHOP comeback news.
