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Sutton Stracke discussed her ex-husband Christian Stracke‘s relationship with her friend after last week’s episode of The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills saw her revealing that she had learned about the romance from their son.
As she shared how her children have been handling Christian’s relationship, confirmed whether she confronted the woman, and revealed if she missed her former spouse, Sutton, 54, looked back on their 16-year marriage, and her castmates weighed in.
“This was a situation where the woman knew Sutton’s husband while they were married … It’s like a double betrayal,” Jennifer Tilly, 67, admitted on the February 26 episode of the RHOBH: After Show, as Sutton noted that “men are lazy” and go “where it’s closest.”
According to Sutton, her former friend and her family used to vacation with Christian and her children while she was still married.
“Our boys were best friends … we had been friends since James was in kindergarten, and then I was in a friend group still with her, and we would talk about my divorce … she had gotten divorced, and then I found out they were dating about six months later,” she continued.
Sutton shares three children with Christian, including daughter Porter, 23, and sons Philip, 22, and James, 19. She believes they are uncomfortable with their father’s romance.
“James opted out of their trip to Venice this Christmas. He was like, ‘I’m gonna stick with you, Mommy.’ And good for you, James. But I think they are also uncomfortable because they still go on their trips and she’s there, but they’re good kids, and they’re polite, so that’s how they’re gonna be,” she reasoned.
While Sutton confessed to doing her best to avoid the couple when James was still in school, and noted that she didn’t want to stay at the same beach house with them when Philip did his ring ceremony, she confirmed that they crossed paths over Christmas.
“It was fine … He came by the house, and he came to my brother’s for Christmas breakfast,” she shared.
Then, after Kyle Richards, 57, revealed that she, too, would be uncomfortable sharing a home with her estranged husband, Mauricio Umansky, 55, and a woman he was dating, Sutton said that she never confronted her former friend about her relationship with her ex.
“What was the point?” she wondered. “And also, my son had told me, he said, ‘I’m telling you this in confidence, so please don’t tell Daddy that I told you.’ I didn’t say a word. I waited until I got the first annulment letter, and I said, ‘I think there’s some things that you need to tell me, Christian.’ And I said, yeah, ‘I know.'”
As Sutton insisted that she is “unbothered” and “unburdened” by Christian’s courtship, Kathy Hilton, 66, and Jenifer suspected she still “misses” Christian.
“I think she misses him,” Kathy stated.
“I think Sutton misses Christian,” Jennifer agreed. “I don’t think he will ever love anybody as much as he loved Sutton and still does love Sutton. Even when they were separated or going through the divorce, he was always checking in on her.”
Meanwhile, Sutton shot down the idea, saying, “No, no, no. I don’t miss him.”
“Jennifer was always very pro-Christian and was always saying, ‘I think Christian still loves you. I think y’all are gonna get back together.’ She kind of fed that in me, that idea … [But] it’s really about the children. I think, more than anything,” she noted. “It’s like you want that unit back. They’re not sad about their parents. They all kind of understand that we are not supposed to live in the same house together. They’re okay now. It’s been like nine years. They probably have a remnant of sadness.”
As she looked back on their marriage, Sutton revealed that she’d known Christian since she was 13.
“His love was very passionate for me, and so I have experienced that kind of love, and passionate love can be equally as impassioned when it breaks,” she explained.
The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills season 15 airs Thursdays at 8/7c on Bravo.