Dodging shadiness, hatred, and half-truths is the secret to surviving any Real Housewives season. The key—coming from someone eight franchises deep—is to be direct. No one does this better than Mrs. I-have-four-homes, Monique Samuels, who tried to be as low-key as possible on this season of Real Housewives of Potomac.
“I did enjoy filming Season 4—I was pregnant,” Samuels tells Jezebel. “The women were a lot nicer.” Nicer, meaning her castmates threw less shade, hate, and lies her way. Nevertheless, drama persisted, partly driven by sexual assault allegations against househusband Michael Darby during an event to celebrate Monique’s rainbow baby. “It was such a weird position to be in because we usually don’t break fourth wall when we’re filming,” says Samuels.
She adds, “I was told that the incident allegedly happened inside my basement. So, everyone’s asking me for footage. They’re like did your cameras capture it? That area of my basement, I do not have cameras because there is no reason to. Then come to find out, when we see the unseen footage, it actually happened outside, allegedly. And I’m like—oh well, if y’all would have told me that, I have cameras in that area outside that would have caught whatever could have been caught. But no one told me until I actually saw it on the screens and that footage is long gone.”
Charges against Michael Darby were dropped, and while some cast members still have concerns about the incident, Samuels remains neutral. “I just have advice, which is if something happened, use this as a time to make sure going forward you respect people’s boundaries,” she says. “Also, my advice would be to—in the future—when it comes to other people and what they’re going through, maybe show a little empathy moving forward.”
In the video above, Samuels talks more about handling conflict with her castmates and shares which housewife causes the most drama.