‘RHOM’: Marysol Patton and Alexia Nepola Recall ‘Jaw-Dropping’ Moment They Learned of Lisa Hochstein’s Divorce (Exclusive)

It was a “jaw-dropping moment” when The Real Housewives of Miami‘s Lisa Hochstein broke the news to her castmates that she and her husband Lenny Hochstein were going their separate ways after 12 years together. Alexia Nepola and Marysol Patton opened up to PopCulture.com about the shocking moment ahead of RHOM‘s Season 5 premiere on Dec. 8, revealing that Lisa’s big announcement happens on Nepola’s birthday trip to the Florida Keys. 

“It was a jaw-dropping moment. Everyone was taken aback and shocked,” Patton recalled. She added, “I mean, thank God we were away on a trip because we turned into an angry mob and we would’ve gone to Star Island and beaten Lenny up, all of us.” Nepola agrees that she “never saw” what was coming for Lisa and Lenny before learning the truth, even after spending time with the then-couple in Aspen a few months before filming started. 

“People are always going to talk, people [are] always going to judge. But I’ve always thought, you never know what happens behind closed doors,” she told PopCulture, adding, “And that’s why I never judge other marriages because I’ve been judged all my life in my marriages and in my relationships and you never really know.”

Nepola took the end of Lisa’s marriage personally, saying that she couldn’t sleep the night after her castmate shared the news with her. “You were really affected,” Patton told Nepola, who agreed, “Because I care a lot, I know what the consequences of breaking up a family. … [It’s] just another broken family and then repercussions on the kids long term. I just took it very personally. I’m sorry.”

Looking back, Nepola and Patton can see Lisa’s relationship problems as the root of some of her anger towards Larsa Pippen, which came to a head at Nepola’s wedding celebration. “I’ve been there, I’ve had to lie. I’ve had to say things, show up with a smile or really be mad,” Nepola sympathized. “Obviously I was there, but I wasn’t involved in that [fight]. But now after watching it on TV, I see that she was really in a bad place. And this is where you can see that anger towards Larsa … and Lisa was still defending her husband at that point.” 

The newlywed noted of her co-star, “She was really, really still fighting for her family till the end. So I do have to applaud her for that because I’m that type of woman also who fights to the end.” Real Housewives of Miami Season 5 premieres Thursday, Dec. 8 on Peacock.