Credit: Charles Sykes/Bravo, Noam Galai/Bravo
Jo-Ellen Tiberi explained the video evidence she received of Rulla Pontarelli‘s husband, Brian Pontarelli, at his mistress’s house after Sunday’s episode of The Real Housewives of Rhode Island.
As Brian’s relationship with the other woman, believed to be Beth Walker, continues to be a hot topic on the show, with many cast members suspecting he was involved with her for far longer than he’d admit, Jo-Ellen revealed how the clip came about as Alicia Carmody spoke of Rulla’s heartbreak and other castmates weighed in.
“So, my girlfriend shows me this video, and it’s horrible,” Jo-Ellen recalled on the May 10 episode of the RHORI: After Show. “She and I went to aesthetics school together. She’s a sweet girl. She’s friendly with the mistress.”
According to Jo-Ellen, the woman who gave her the clip had regrets about filming Brian at his mistress’s home.
“She’s like, ‘Listen, this was wrong of me. I filmed this thing of the mistress and Brian early morning, and him leaving her house,'” she shared. “She’s not wearing a bra. They’re making out. That was the longest hug I’ve ever seen in my life. I wanted to cringe. If [Gary Tiberi] ever hugged me that long, I would be like, ‘Get off of me. Like, go away.'”
“So, when Brian’s at the gym, he’s actually at the mistress’s, as I told [Rulla],” Jo-Ellen continued. “And so I believe that the mistress and my girlfriend came up with this, and then they sent it to me. And, honestly, I only asked my friend. I said, ‘If you can do me a favor and get me a picture of the mistress and Brian with a timestamp on it, that’s all I’m asking.'”
After Jo-Ellen confirmed she wasn’t present when the video was filmed, and added that she didn’t know where the woman lived, Alicia defended her co-star’s sharing of the clip, pointing out that she was simply “trying to show that [she wasn’t] lying … Jo-Ellen is, what do you call, the detective of things.”
“I know a lot more, Alicia,” Jo-Ellen replied. “Things came to me. I watched them with my own two eyes. People talk to me. People tell me things.”
In addition to the video from her friend, Jo-Ellen said she’d gotten clips from a staffer at a coffee shop where Brian and his mistress reportedly spent time together.
“Whe barista’s texting me videos of Brian and the mistress getting coffee together. I didn’t even ask. It was just given to me. He goes to the same coffee shop, and he sits with the mistress and her in the exact same seat,” she shared. “[But] it’s not my problem. I don’t really care. It’s [Rulla’s] problem. It’s her life.”
“[And Rulla] cares, and that’s what hurts. She really cares,” Alicia responded.
Elsewhere on the RHORI: After Show, Kelsey Swanson and Liz McGraw weighed in.
“We didn’t need a video to confirm anything, really … The video was just the nail in the coffin, but we didn’t really need it,” Kelsey noted as Liz admitted the snippet was “not surprising at all.”
The Real Housewives of Rhode Island season one airs Sundays at 9/8c on Bravo.