Credit: Charles Sykes
Rulla Pontarelli spoke of husband Brian Pontarelli‘s affair after Sunday’s episode of The Real Housewives of Rhode Island, sharing how she initially learned of his infidelity.
As she also confirmed how Brian reacted when she confronted him about the photos of him with another woman, accused Jo-Ellen Tiberi of having a vendetta against her, and suggested that Liz McGraw was being hypocritical when she brought up his cheating, Rulla recalled the moment Liz contacted her about Brian’s behavior.
“It was like December [2024], and Jo-Ellen, for like a quick blip, had seen a couple pictures that this person put online. So then I got a text message from Liz in the middle of the night,” Rulla shared on the April 5 episode of the RHORI: After Show.
“I felt kind of like a moral obligation to reach out to her,” Liz explained. “I was like, ‘Babe. Everything okay?’ And she’s like, ‘Yeah, I’m fine, why?’ And I’m like, ‘I don’t know, a couple of things were posted online, and she’s like, ‘What? You have to tell me.’”
According to Rulla, she told Liz to call her, and when she did, she learned of the images of Brian and the other woman.
“At that point, I hung up the phone with her and, you know, turn to Brian, who was at home, and I said, ‘Is there something that you want to tell me before I have to find out from Liz or anybody else?’ And he got a little nervous, a lot nervous, yeah, and it was a whole thing,” she admitted. “And I went from like livid to numb to, like, tears.”
Amid the drama, Rulla spoke to Liz for a second time, during which she requested that she send her the photos. But Liz didn’t want to give them to her.
“I thought that since Jo-Ellen found the photos, she should be the one to show her,” Liz explained. “And [Rulla]’s like, ‘Jo-Ellen’s in my business.’ And I’m like, ‘No, but she saw an opportunity, saw something was f*cked up, and dug into it. That’s her nature.’”
“The mistress posted these pictures. I follow her. Our children went to daycare together. I’ve known her for about eight years,” Jo-Ellen revealed. “So I’m just minding my own business, scrolling, looking for funny memes, and I see Rulla’s husband, who I’ve never met in my life, and her kissing, and her on his lap, and so what I did was I sent them to Liz … [Then Rulla’s] like, ‘You’re looking into my marriage.’ I’m looking on Instagram, actually.”
Although Jo-Ellen acknowledged that she “would’ve wanted to know” if her husband was cheating, she felt “really uncomfortable” with the idea of forwarding the images to Rulla. Still, after Rulla pulled on her heartstrings, she ended up sending them to her.
“Maybe I shouldn’t [have]. I don’t know. She wanted them. I said no 10 times. She’s like, ‘Please, send me these,’ so I sent them to her,” she reasoned.
Once Rulla got her hands on the photos, “there was sort of no denying [it]” for Brian.
“[He was] definitely downplaying everything as any probably guy would do. He was just, not in the right place, not in the right headspace. And after the cat came out of the bag, I wanted to handle things my own way,” she shared.
As for how she and Brian moved forward, she added, “There was a lot more togetherness. He was making changes. That person was no longer involved. I had to make sure that I knew his whereabouts. I had to make sure that he was very present.”
In another segment of the RHORI: After Show, Rulla admitted that it “didn’t really feel great” that Liz brought up Brian’s cheating to the group, especially since Jo-Ellen was present.
“I was, like, sitting there thinking, she’s just, like, talking way too much to Jo-Ellen, who, for some reason, has this, like, vendetta against me,” she shared.
While Liz said she was simply trying to prevent Rulla from “sounding like an idiot” as she denied what “everyone [was] witnessing” from Brian, Rulla suggested she was talking “out of two sides of [her] mouth,” stating that she didn’t like that she was doing that, considering what Liz, as she claimed, has “been through in her personal life.”
“I felt like, as a friend, she should’ve handled things one-on-one,” Rulla continued, making it clear that she didn’t like that so many of the other women were present as Liz defended herself.
“My intentions weren’t bad. They weren’t. And when she reached out, I was under the impression it was to meet two of us, and then she had told me afterwards she was broadsided that [Kelsey] was there, and I was broadsided that she was broadsided,” Liz explained.
The Real Housewives of Rhode Island season one airs Sundays at 9/8c on Bravo.