Credit: Instagram, Jamie McCarthy/Getty Images for SiriusXM, Instagram
Jennifer Fessler spoke of her ongoing drama with West Wilson and Ciara Miller on Tamra Judge and Teddi Mellencamp‘s podcast on Monday.
After Ciara, 30, suggested that she and West, 31, had slept together, leading Jennifer to hint at a potential lawsuit against her, the 57-year-old Real Housewives of New Jersey alum set the record straight about her relationship with the Summer House cast member while also sharing husband Jeff Fessler‘s reaction, addressing what West told her family, confirming whether she wants to sue Ciara, and revealing if she wants an apology for the “categorically untrue” claim she made against her.
“The first thing I said was, ‘I love Ciara. Everybody loves Ciara. It’s impossible not to love Ciara. But West is a friend of mine,'” Jennifer began of her reaction to the reveal of West’s shocking romance with Amanda Batula, 34, on the May 11 episode of Two Ts in a Pod, via Vanderpod Recaps on Instagram.
According to Jennifer, her “instinct” was to defend West’s betrayal of Ciara because the two of them had been “friendly for a while,” and he had “always been just very sweet to me.”
“I see this kid who has hurt people. No doubt about it, but we’ve been friendly for a long time,” she explained.
As for the nature of their relationship, Jennifer described it as “very motherly” before expressing regrets over the way she “defended him so staunchly.”
“I do not want to be friendly anymore. This is not what I was bargaining for,” Jennifer admitted.
Following Ciara’s claim against her, West insisted to Jennifer that he didn’t give that information to Ciara.
“I don’t understand what motivation he would ever have for lying about having a relationship with a 57-year-old woman,” she noted, adding that she didn’t have a clue why Ciara would think they did.
“I have never slept with West Wilson,” she continued. “My nickname is Messy Fessy because I’m messy and sloppy. [But] that is not the same thing as sleeping with that child.”
Regarding her husband’s feelings toward the scandal, Jennifer explained that “it was funny for most of the day until it wasn’t.”
“My daughter, I think, thinks it’s funny. My son, not so much,” she shared. “Because Jeff Fessler is privy to everything, all of my texts, all of my encounters, it’s like, he’s laughing about it … He feels bad for me.”
Amid the drama, Jennifer and her family received a call from West.
“He was on the phone with my family, and he was just very sorry and apologetic. He’s like, ‘Jen, I don’t even know how this is happening. I am so sorry. I’m so sorry that you got pulled into this mess,’” she recalled.
While Jennifer took major offense to Ciara’s accusation, she made it clear that she and Jeff were fine.
“My problem is not that my marriage is going to suffer from this, or my children are going to think I’ve done something. That’s not the problem. The problem is that something was said about me that is categorically untrue,” she stated.
After admitting to being flattered that anyone who slept with Ciara would be attracted to her, Jennifer said that she didn’t want to sue Ciara.
“But I can’t not say, you can’t just lie and say something and put it on social media and have it affect my family and my husband and my children and think that that’s not going to affect me and that I’m not going to have a response to that,” she clarified. “I didn’t hurt Ciara. And her saying that about me, putting that out there about me, is hurtful.”
While Jennifer sympathized with Ciara and wished her well, stating that she got “so screwed” and that what West and Amanda did to her was “awful,” she confirmed that she hadn’t reached out and added that she felt she was owed an apology.
“I do,” she said. “There’s like danger in that. You can’t just say whatever you want unless it’s true.”