Credit: Noam Galai/Bravo
Rulla Nehme Pontarelli revealed more details behind Jo-Ellen Tiberi’s accusation that she and her husband Brian Pontarelli tried to get her “fired.” The Real Housewives of Rhode Island star also said she never thought her marriage would become a storyline, as Jo-Ellen addressed their feud.
Early in the season, Rulla accused Jo-Ellen of showing a group of people the photos of Rulla’s husband with another woman – as she gossiped about it around town. Later on, Jo-Ellen claimed that Rulla and Brian tried to get her fired from her job as an aesthetics rep.
“Neither my husband nor I tried getting Jo-Ellen fired from her job. Allow me to set the record straight once and for all,” said Rulla in an interview for Us Weekly. “My husband has known Jo-Ellen’s now-former boss. He had known him for over 20 years. They were friendly. We have the product that she represents, the laser, in [our] med spa.”
“Long story short, [her boss] was on the phone one day, and they knew that we were [filming RHORI] together, and [the boss] said, ‘Oh, how’s that going? How’s it going with her and her husband?'” Rulla continued. “And my husband Brian had to say, ‘You know what, now that you ask…'”
Rulla shared that she didn’t “hear every word,” though she was somewhat within “earshot.”
“I only heard my husband’s side, and faintly, but it was something along the lines of, ‘You know, she’s done some things that weren’t very kosher, that weren’t professional. She’s kind of persisting and won’t let up on a certain situation. It’s personal, it’s private,'” Rulla recalled. “So he didn’t like her conduct.”
“And so in speaking with the manager, [the manager] suggested that my husband … put in a little inquiry, or a little – I don’t want to call it complaint – commentary about her overall conduct,” she added. “That was it. Not [that] she should be let go. He wasn’t hammering away. I think Brian could have said and done a lot more, and I certainly could have. I had no part in the conversation.”
Rulla said Jo-Ellen put “her nose” in “my personal situation” well before the “dialogue with her boss.”
Speaking to the same outlet, Jo-Ellen also addressed the drama.
“What happened to Rulla is really unfortunate. It’s not a secret, I’m not a fan of Rulla’s husband. I don’t think he’s a great person, and I think she is,” said Jo-Ellen, alluding to the rumor that he’s currently having an affair. “I think she’s a really smart, brilliant, beautiful woman who doesn’t deserve some of the things that he put her through.”
But Rulla doesn’t believe her.
In her own interview, Rulla expressed: “I know that if you ask anyone in Rhode Island, those people who actually know maybe Jo-Ellen in her past and her practices and her character, I think they would agree that she’s not the most credible, not the most authentic source. … When she just continued to kind of push harder and bring more to the group and bring more to the state and the city that she lives in, I just thought to myself, ‘What is her objective here?’”
Rulla also shared that she “certainly did not” believe that her relationship with Brian would grow into a storyline on RHORI.