Credit: NBCUniversal Media
Emily Simpson spoke of her husband Shane Simpson‘s decision to quit working after last week’s episode of The Real Housewives of Orange County saw them at odds.
As their marriage drama continues to play out on Bravo, Emily, 50, suspected that Shane, 51, became resentful of her career on Bravo as she explained the dynamic between them and her co-stars weighed in with their own experiences and expressed concern about Shane’s ego.
“We’ll be married 18 years soon. We’re talking about a long-term marriage. We’re talking about two people who have been together a long time and two people that have gone through a lot of things,” Emily began on the October 8 episode of the RHOC: After Show, giving a nod to her fertility struggles and family dynamic with Shane’s two older daughters.
According to Emily, her relationship with Shane changed a lot during season 20, and it was “not easy to navigate.”
“Shane quit working, period, to be able to take care of [our] kids, and take care of Luke,” she explained of their 11-year-old son, who is battling a number of health conditions.
“When he made that decision, I wasn’t filming. So we were together, a team, that was both home, taking care of kids, divide and conquer,” Emily continued. “Then when I started filming, it took me away from being able to parent with him as much as I normally did. So then the brunt of taking care of the kids was on him. And I think what was hard for me was we got into this place where it was this constant competition between the two of us.”
Emily also felt that Shane was becoming bitter during that time.
“I think maybe he had some resentment because it looked like I was ‘out having fun’ because it’s like, we’re in Vegas, and then we’re in Tokyo, and then I’m going to dinners, and I’m doing all these things,” she reasoned, “and I think he’s at home trying to take care of all these kids and Luke and all the needs and everything and I think he was worn out, and I think he was exhausted, and instead of saying, ‘I’m worn out and exhausted and we need to figure out how we can manage this better,’ I think it came out like snarky shots at me. And then I just get pissed, because it’s like, I’m tired too.”
“It’s not like I’m lying on the couch eating Bon Bons and you’re holding down the fort. Like, I felt like I was working equally as hard too,” Emily added.
After Tamra Judge, 59, and Heather Dubrow, 57, agreed that Shane’s decision to stop working was “confusing,” Jennifer Pedranti, 49, admitted to seeing similarities between Emily’s marriage and her past marriage to Will Pedranti after Emily revealed she and Shane were sleeping separately.
“Automatically, I was like, ‘Oh no,’ because Will and I, we didn’t acknowledge sleeping in different beds, but we were, and we had reasons for separate beds except for what it really was, and then here come the cracks in our marriage,” she recalled.
Shannon Beador, 62, also related to Emily.
“[When David Beador] and I moved into our Crystal Cove home, he slept in the guest room,” she shared. “A lot of time when you’re in that rut in a marriage, things just get even more and more awkward, like they just get worse and worse. And so the idea of saying, ‘Well, let’s have a conversation to make it better,’ you don’t want to do it. So I feel for her.”
Meanwhile, Carmella Garcia, 44, worried that Shane lost his identity.
“I’ve been told that a man’s ego is attached to his wallet, so if you’re staying home and you’re the husband in the marriage, I can imagine that would be difficult,” Shannon agreed.
Then, during another segment in which she was seen chatting with Gina Kirschenheiter, 42, Emily offered an update on her marriage to Shane.
“I’m sitting here, and we’re still married, but I’m gonna be honest about the fact that, like, we had a rough year and it’s still been rough,” she shared. “[But] it’s just recently, like, yesterday gotten a little better. He just like started doing all the laundry and like cleaning the house.”
The Real Housewives of Orange County season 20 airs Thursdays at 8/7c on Bravo.