As conflicting stories emerged about Rulla Nehme Pontarelli’s husband, Brian Pontarelli, allegedly using his sick mother’s hospitalization as an excuse to sneak away and visit his “mistress” on The Real Housewives of Rhode Island, she set the record straight.
On The Real Housewives of Rhode Island After Show for Episode 5, Rulla maintained that Brian’s mom really was sick, despite any claims to the contrary.
“She’s had a lot of trips back and forth to the hospital, and this was a situation where, you know, her hands were cold, her feet were cold,” she said. “The nurse wasn’t there.”
RELATED: Does Rulla Think Her Husband Brian Is a “Serial Cheater”? She Says… (EXCLUSIVE)
Rulla also unpacked the moment Brian’s dad called him with the news, just prior to them boarding a bus to a polo match in Newport with her RHORI castmates.Â
“My father-in-law was in a panic,” the mother of two recalled. “I didn’t want to be, like, unsupportive to Brian. ‘Bye, I’m gonna go to polo, but you can go, you know, take care [of your mom].'”
Rulla Nehme Pontarelli’s addresses Brian taking off his wedding ring on RHORI
The RHORI ‘Wife also brushed off the suggestion that Brian removing his wedding ring sometime between him receiving the phone call about his mom and when they showed up together at the polo match was evidence of any wrongdoing.
“He’s a foot and ankle surgeon,” Rulla explained. “I mean, if you look at him, his colleagues, and a lot of docs … they don’t wear their rings often. Now he’s wearing it just to kind of, like, prove a point. I never had an issue with it. When we’d go out, he’d wear it. But otherwise, like just on the daily, he wouldn’t.”
RELATED: Rulla Nehme Pontarelli Shares Unaired Details of Her Husband’s Affair (EXCLUSIVE)
When Kelsey Swanson noticed Brian’s ring was missing during RHORI‘s April 26 episode, the podiatrist told her that he’d taken it off to “put gel in [his] son’s hair” and then simply “forgot to put it back on.”
Highlighting the fact that she also sometimes doesn’t wear her ring either, Rulla added on the After Show, “Look, when you know where you’re at, it’s not all about the ring. That is a symbol, but a lot of people, for decades and even a century, you know, choose and have chosen not to [wear a ring].”Â
Rulla Nehme Pontarelli weighs in on Brian’s alleged texts with his mistress
Prior to the situation with Brian’s mom igniting new drama in Episode 5, Rulla met with Jo-Ellen Tiberi. During their sit-down, Jo-Ellen accused Brian of still going to see his mistress every morning when he claimed to be at the gym. She also showed Rulla an alleged text message between Brian and the woman.
“I know the mistress because our children went to daycare together,” Jo-Ellen explained in a confessional. “She and I ran into each other. She’s showing me her conversations with Brian. She’s telling me that they’re in love, that they’re trying to be together. He wants Rulla to leave him.”
In a separate clip from the RHORI After Show, Rulla doubled down on her belief that the woman had “fabricated” the messages using artificial intelligence.
“You know, a lot of times, like, what Jo-Ellen says doesn’t even faze me, and I think that’s why I stayed so calm,” Rulla said of their meetup. “I’d seen other A.I. and doctored texts before. … Jo-Ellen’s also somewhat incredible herself and a s–t-stirrer.”
During the polo match, Jo-Ellen also showed Rulla a photo that the mistress had just posted to her Instagram Stories that allegedly showed her and Brian together in his car at the same time he said he was visiting his mom in the hospital. Rulla was still unconvinced by the evidence, however, and further declared her belief in her husband’s version of events on the After Show.
“Nobody knows my relationship and the circumstances better than I do,” she elaborated. “And Brian’s obviously shown that, you know, there was no love. He wasn’t about her. Otherwise, they would’ve been together. … Without backtracking or really looking at the source and really, like, slicing and dicing the facts, it’s really not fair to, like, keep going down this path.”
Rulla concluded, “But some of it I knew wasn’t true. And I think that’s why I just handled things a lot behind the scenes, my own way.”
As the drama continues on RHORI, find out how Rulla explained Brian’s silence when Jo-Ellen confronted him with the affair accusations.
