Monique Samuels is revealing the reason she filed for divorce from her husband of over a decade amid confirmation of their split.
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The Real Housewives of Potomac alum went on Instagram Live this week to talk to fans about the end of her marriage to Chris Samuels, whom she was married to for more than a decade. One of the main reasons Samuels cited for the split was the influence their marriage has on their kids, not wanting them to think that their relationship was “normal.”
“The marriage becomes like a battlefield, so you get to the point where you have to consider the fact that we also have three little people that are literally looking at us, and they’re taking notes, and they’re like, ‘okay, this is what’s normal.’ And it’s not normal,” she told fans.
Monique went on to tell her viewers that there’s no reason to be sorry about their separation, insisting it’s for the best. She also talked about other couples she knows who might not have gotten a divorce, but instead chose to live their lives being “miserable” in their marriages–which she didn’t want to do.
“You guys don’t have to be sorry, it’s just a part of life, unfortunately,” the reality star said. “Sometimes it happens, some people stay married forever, some people don’t.”
She continued, “My parents were married for 23 years and got divorced…I know couples that have been married for 60 years and they’re miserable and they literally let their whole life just fade away.”
After calling their marriage a “battlefield” and citing other couples being miserable in their relationships, Monique summed things up by saying that she and Chris had simply “grown so far apart” that their life as a couple wasn’t working anymore.
“It’s really what you make it, and if you get to a point where it’s like, ‘You know what? We have grown so far apart that it may be best that we focus on ourselves individually, and then focus on the three important people in our lives, which is our children.’ And that’s what we decided to do,” she explained.
Monique Samuels filed to legally end her marriage last month.
The Montgomery County Family Court confirmed to PEOPLE that the 39-year-old filed for divorce from the former NFL player, filing a complaint for absolute divorce on April 14. She then filed an amended complaint for absolute divorce on June 15.
You can watch Monique address her impending divorce in full below.
