Credit: Instagram, Charles Sykes/Bravo
The Real Housewives of Rhode Island‘s explosive first season is set to come to a close tomorrow night when the second part of the reunion airs.
Prior to the episode debuting, RHORI star Jo-Ellen Tiberi sat down for an interview to respond to claims she’s “disingenuous” and a “pot-stirrer.”
“Do I think that I’m the pot-stirrer?” Jo-Ellen said to Boston Magazine. “I think I might add a layer of things. I am a truth teller. I get to the bottom of things.”
“I don’t like when people are disingenuous, so I don’t agree when people call me disingenuous, because I think I’m pretty genuine,” she continued. Maybe at times, my loyalty is not to that specific person, at that moment—maybe that’s when they find me disingenuous– but it’s to who I feel like is telling the truth. In my group of friends, I’m the funny one that kind of says it how it is, unapologetically. And I think that comes across to the audience, because that is who I am.”
On the show, Jo-Ellen was very open about issues she had with her mother, who sent her away multiple times to behavioral programs and treatment centers during her childhood.
Jo-Ellen was asked if she had any regrets about opening up on that.
“I don’t have any regrets about sharing them,” she noted. “I think that was the hardest part of filming – opening up about my past and my childhood, because it’s something that I’ve tucked away – but I’ve always felt it.”
She added her relationship with her mom has been “very difficult” for her since she “can remember.”
“Bringing it up on the show? I will say that I think it strained my relationship a little bit more with my mom,” she stated. “But, things ebb and flow. I love my mom, I always will, and I know that my mom loves me. But I’m an adult now with three kids: My family is the most important thing to me, and that’s my priority in life. Unfortunately, everyone else has to take a back burner. I’m not saddened by that. I’m okay with that. My kids and my husband come first before everyone, so if that means my mom is on the back burner, then that’s okay, because I think that’s the circle of life.”
One other topic she touched on in the interview is her relationship with Liz McGraw, with whom she had a lot of drama this season.
“That was a real beef – that was a really sad one,” she shared. “I was really, really upset for several days. I do consider Liz to be one of my good friends, and everything you’re seeing is very real. I was just texting Liz yesterday, just checking on her, because I know that the past week or so has been difficult.”
She added, “I love Liz, and I care about her, so I’ll always be there, even if I’m not her best friend. There are work friends, and then you have home friends, and lifelong friends. Right now Liz is going through a lot – the internet is being very, very cruel – and Liz is a good person. But I think we’re in an okay place.”