Credit: MediaPunch/INSTARimages, Noam Galai/Bravo
Ashley Iaconetti weighed in on the drama Rulla Pontarelli faced with Jo-Ellen Tiberi on The Real Housewives of Rhode Island during an interview last week.
As she also seemed to shade Kelsey Swanson, 32, revealed how Audrey’s coffee shop was doing, and reflected on her emotional state amid season one, Ashley, 38, admitted that Jo-Ellen, 38, did “too much” digging into Rulla’s marriage to Brian Pontarelli and his affair, reflected on how she was cast by Bravo, and explained why she couldn’t say “no” to being part of the Real Housewives franchise.
“I think that Jo-Ellen just bothered her by, you know, digging a little bit too much,” Ashley said on the June 26 episode of Dear Media‘s Not Skinny But Not Fat. “[Rulla] did say at the polo match, she was like, ‘If you find something, let me know.’ And then Jo-Ellen went digging, and I think Rulla didn’t appreciate that. So it’s a sticky situation … [But] I’m supportive of Rulla, whatever she wants to do with her marriage, like she’s got to do whatever is right for her and her family.”
Then, when asked to describe her castmates with just one word, Ashley said Rosie DiMare, 35, was “fun,” Alicia Carmody, 41, was “hysterical,” Jo-Ellen was “friendly,” and Rulla, 46, was a “boss b*tch,” before admitting that Liz McGraw, 56, could be “intimidating” and seemingly getting a little shady by saying Kelsey was “heavy.”
Moving on to Audrey’s coffee shop, Ashley said she and husband Jared Haibon, 37, had gotten “a ton of business” since making their RHORI debut, which they are “really, really grateful for.
“It’s so crazy, but it’s always, it always did well. It’s just honestly…We’ve realized a coffee shop can never be like a gold mine. It’s all about like becoming a Dunkin’ or Starbucks where you franchise out…You live, and you learn,” she explained.
“It’s so crazy the way that like I’m actually just crying all the time still. And I tell people I’m not always crying like this in real life. It’s so weird. I can go like a month without crying in real life,” she insisted. “[And] it’s heightened situations [on the show] … People are watching you in the moment and then people are watching you on TV and you’re talking about like the most like intimate issues…I’ve only ever thought that I cried that much over love and like romance and like getting the guy and heartbreak. Apparently, I just cry all the time on TV.”
Regarding how she got cast for RHORI, Ashley revealed that her role on the series came about through one of her friends from The Bachelor.
“I got on the phone with [producers], and they didn’t necessarily say it was a Housewives show, but it was like an Italian vibe, like, family-oriented thing, and, you know, eventually those conversations led to it being like, it’s gonna be a housewife show,” she shared.
As for why she signed on, Ashley added, “It’s pretty simple. I just was like, I can’t have the FOMO.”
