Another day, another (former) Real Housewives couple is divorcing. This time it’s Monique and Chris Samuels from the Real Housewives of Potomac. Monique and Chris, a former NFL player, were married for 10 years. Before Monique’s unceremonious departure after a physical altercation with a castmate, the couple brought some much-needed opulence to an iteration of the franchise that is lacking a bit in terms of glitz and glam and, well, big houses. Monique filed for “absolute divorce” in April and filed an amended version of the same request last week.
Monique Samuels has filed to legally end her marriage to Chris Samuels.
The Montgomery County Family Court confirmed to PEOPLE on Tuesday that The Real Housewives of Potomac alum, 39, has officially filed for divorce from the former NFL player, 45. Though Monique has filed a petition to seal the documents, the docket shows that she filed a complaint for absolute divorce on April 14. She then filed an amended complaint for absolute divorce on June 15.
The former couple’s divorce has yet to be finalized. However, Monique and Chris have a scheduled hearing for Wednesday.
PEOPLE has reached out to Monique and Chris for comment.
PEOPLE confirmed in October 2022 that Monique and Chris had called it quits after 10 years of marriage. The former couple — who wed in 2012 — share three children: sons Christopher and Chase, plus daughter Milani.
They haven’t appeared on each other’s respective Instagram grids since December 2022. Neither party posted anything to commemorate their 11th wedding anniversary on March 3 as well as on Mother’s Day or Father’s Day. Additionally, Chris has unfollowed Monique and her company, Not for Lazy Moms, on Instagram.
Monique and Chris’s marital issues were apparent during the first season of Love & Marriage: D.C., airing earlier in 2022.
“It’s no secret that Chris and I have been struggling in some areas of our marriage and anybody who watched Love & Marriage: D.C. last year, y’all saw the arguments, y’all saw everything that was going on,” The Real Housewives of Potomac alum said in a lengthy YouTube video as Chris was beside her, per Us Weekly.
“It was a lot of confusion, it was crazy building up to that 10-year marker of our marriage and when you’ve been married that long and when you have things that you’re like, ‘Listen, this is being unmet or I’ve been unheard’ you start to get frustrated and it’s like, ‘Oh, my God, is this what life is going to be? I can’t take it anymore,'” she continued. “So what y’all saw on Love & Marriage: DC last season, it was my cry for help.”
And while she also confirmed that the pair were doing therapy solo to work “on their personal issues,” Monique insisted that they “aren’t getting a divorce” and are “absolutely not” going their separate ways.
Absolute divorce sounds extremely dramatic and way more final than regular-degular divorce. But I looked it up and according to the Maryland courts it just “legally ends your marriage. It settles all issues, including property. Once finalized, you and your ex-spouse may remarry. In a limited divorce, some important issues are settled, but it does not end your marriage.” So I guess it sounds more dramatic than it actually is. This news is a little surprising based on how they presented their marriage on Potomac. I remember Monique saying she 100% put him and their relationship first, which bothered me since they had three young children to prioritize. But I did always get the sense that Monique was flattening herself a bit for Real Housewives and maybe also for her marriage. But, the writing was on the wall and the cracks were starting to show early in 2022 when the couple appeared on Love & Marriage: DC. Monique tried to hide it by denying the rumors for months, and even going so far as to request that the divorce documents she filed this year be sealed. She probably just wanted to make sure they outlasted Ashley and Michael Darby. Anyway, I’m sure there’s a lot under the surface here, but I doubt they’ll get as petty as, say, Kim and Kroy. The Potomac ladies keep stuff a lot more locked down than most of the other franchises do.
My husband told me about this earlier this morning and I was like damn- I thought that they had already divorced lol.
I’m not surprised (his mom was very disrespectful, and it was clear that as a couple they didn’t see eye to eye on a lot of things on RHOP) but it definitely makes me want to watch that DC show to see what happened.
So true @angryjane I will never forget when the monster-in-law called Monique a heifer and laughed about it and Chris did nothing. I don’t have more recent viewing for reference, but my impression from the early days of RHOP was that Chris was a nice guy with some good values who was also deeply sexist and wanted Monique to make the world revolve around him 24/7.
Well, seeing this headline this afternoon really makes me sad. RHOP is my jam. (along with RHOBH, sometimes RHONJ/RHONY) . RHOP is one of the few hws franchises that I haven’t gotten weary of. The others need reboots/recasting/real storylines instead of attacking of castmates (do you hear me Margaret). It is kind of a sad state to see where the franchise is going lately. RHONJ was a big disappointment this year and if they don’t clean house and stop focusing on the Tre family drama as the main source of entertainment, I won’t be watching next year. They also need some serious recasting but they must keep my queen bee Tre. But back on track — I initially liked Roin from rhop but when she got violent with Candiace on her last season, I did not like her anymore. That doesn’t mean though that I wanted that beautiful family to fall apart. I feel so bad for them. Their kids are soooo freaking cute. It just makes me sad to see families fall apart like this. Oh well, *sad shrug* i do wish them the best though. Maybe a miracle will happen and they can fix their marriage.
I’m happy for her. He seemed very controlling on the show. In one scene she had just had a beautiful rainbow baby, and he said to her something about getting pregnant again right away. Her face was very telling.
Is she implying that 10 years is hard? I’m on 7 years together and it’s not. lol
Then it means the relationship was never that great.
10 years seems to be the mark for when issues that may have been ignored really come to a head. You’ve got 3 years to go. Alot can happen.
This is a woman who calls her business ‘Not for Lazy Moms’, just getting her mom-shaming right out there in the open. This is a woman who, when her children were sick, rubbed some sort of oil on their temples then got really concerned when they didn’t get better. Can’t remember what else I dislike about her, as it’s been a couple of years since I watched. All I remember about him is his awful mother.
Yep, she’s an essential oil ingesting (and shilling), anti-vaxxer, judgmental-of-other-moms type who does not have it all together.
She and Chris weren’t a match, but the relationship served the purpose it was meant to fulfill for both of them. I don’t think he was as controlling as sometimes portrayed, but I do think they had very different ideas about what their marriage would mean to each other by the end. I think she went along with his idea of it for a while, but once he retired and was around all the time, it was untenable for her, which is fair.
But she tried really hard to make him look pretty bad on both her shows toward the end, and somehow failed at that. She could have just owned that she changed and wasn’t into their once shared vision anymore. It didn’t have to be “his fault.”
Oooh, interesting. She did seem she flattened herself for him. I have a soft spot for her because I thought Candance should have been removed, not Monique. Candance is the worst, along with her mother.
She’s a stunner and had her moments on Potomac, and no doubt Chris’s mom was awful to her, but she was also kind of nuts. I remember on one episode, she went to a four-martini lunch with Ashley Darby then DROVE HOME and fell asleep on the road. She spoke openly about this and blamed falling asleep on being tired, refusing to acknowledge that she’d driven drunk on national television. We’re not stupid, Monique!!! And I believe she espoused more than a few anti-vaxx sentiments during covid and leaned heavily into the essential oils nonsense. Also, her “company” is called “Not for Lazy Moms,” which is incredibly off-putting to say the least.
I’m a Monique fan but still find it strange they tried to deny it back in October. He seemed kinda like a meat head and only interested in the physical part of their relationship. I wish her well!