Ashley, 35,announced the pair’s separationin April 2022 after eight years of marriage. ButThe Real Housewives of Potomacstar — who shares sonsDean, 4, andDylan, 2, with Michael, 64 — exclusively tells PEOPLE the exes still haven’t filed for divorce.
“I don’t know what this is. As I mentioned, I did this meditation retreat, and one of the things that I meditated on was what is my issue? What is it? So I’ve decided I’m going to talk to my lawyer and really try to get it going,” Ashley said while atBravoCon 2023. “I’ve just been a little bit complacent about it, if I’m honest, because there are benefits to being married.”
“Emotionally, there’s none. I think he’s moved on, I’ve moved on, but I don’t know. There’s just some sort of emotional underlying attachment,” she admits. “There are some benefits professionally and financially that he and I have. It’s not big, but there are reasons that it’s beneficial for us to be married. But [the] reality is we just have to pull the plug and just do it.”
In the meantime, Ashley says they’re “still navigating” co-parenting of their two children post-split, though she believes “parallel parenting” is the more accurate term for their dynamic.
“I think that’s probably a more adequate approximation of where I am. We’re not divorced yet, so as we’re still navigating that,” she explains. “I want to say that we’re on better terms than we are, but unfortunately we’re just not. That’s the way the cookie’s crumbling.”
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The Bravolebrity adds, “So we’re parallel parenting and thankfully, both of us are very involved in the children’s life. They don’t see any difference. All they know is that they have two houses and they get to have double the toys. So that’s been good, but we really don’t really have a relationship at all.”
“Pieces of all these may have affected our pure love for each other, but no one reason is the root cause of our mutual decision to go our separate ways,” she concluded. “We are now both at very different stages in our lives and have different goals for our futures. We both want the other to achieve true happiness and fulfillment and feel that we cannot do this together.”
Ashley was later romantically linked toSummer HousestarLuke Gulbranson. However, sheconfirmed the pair’s breakupin January after less than three months of dating.
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BravoCon 2023 is continuing through Sunday, Nov. 5 at Caesars Forum in Las Vegas.
source: people.com
