Real Housewives of Salt Lake City star Mary Cosby knows her relationship with husband Robert Cosby Sr. isn’t exactly normal. In Wednesday’s episode of the Bravo show, Mary explained exactly how she came to be married to her late grandmother’s second husband, or her step-grandfather.
“I always say, ‘I have beauty in all my mess.’ The reality is, I’m married to grandmother’s second husband, which was my step-grandfather,” she told cameras on the show. Mary explained that when her grandmother died, inheriting her grandmother’s estate, as well as her place in the Pentecostal church, hinged on marrying Robert Sr. “Before she passed, she made it very clear that she wanted me to be the one to take her place in the church and inherit everything,” she said. “That came with homes, money, our church and also marrying her husband. …Don’t think it wasn’t weird, because it was!”
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The start of their marriage may have been unusual, but Mary and Robert Sr. have now been married 21 years and share teenage son Robert Jr. “I did it because I trusted my grandmother,” Mary explained. “I’m so glad I did it.” That doesn’t mean everyone was on board with the arrangement. Mary said she stopped talking to her mom when she was 19 because of her mom’s objection to the marriage. “It was all bizarre. I was actually 22 when we got married. It split our church,” she recalled. “My mom had a fit because she wanted the church, she wanted my grandmother’s place. My mom felt like she was the one that should have been marrying Robert Sr.”
When she first married Robert Sr., Mary said she did not have sex with him on her wedding night because “everything was weird,” but they built a loving “partnership” over the years. “After we married, I had to get to know him,” she said. “I really felt like, ‘Wow, my grandmother really nailed it. If I had to pick a guy, this is what I’d pick.’”
Mary and her husband have grown apart romantically since welcoming Robert Jr., however. “You get in a space where you grow apart. Robert Sr., he’s in love with his son, like he will do anything for him. I’m the helicopter mom. We became partners as opposed to a marriage,” she explained. Leaving, however, is not an option, she made clear, as she is committed to her husband 100 percent. “My marriage was arranged, we have to make it work,” she said. The Real Housewives of Salt Like City airs Wednesdays at 10 p.m. ET on Bravo.
