Shanna Moakler wants to get back on track and in a “good headspace” to move forward after her ex-boyfriend Matthew Rondeau was arrested for domestic violence last month. The former Miss USA, who recently returned home from competing on Celebrity Big Brother, told Us Weekly that it was “very difficult” losing the man she had been talking about marrying.
“It’s very difficult because it’s, like, I just lost the man that I thought I was going to spend the rest of my life with and my best friend,” Moakler explained. “I had a plan for my life. … Now I don’t know where I’m at in my world, so I’m trying to get the help that I need to get myself back on track and in a good headspace so I can move forward.”
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Rondeau, who had been dating the former beauty queen off and on since 2020, was arrested on Feb. 24 on suspicion of felony domestic violence after police say he grabbed Moakler by her hair, threw a chair at her and urinated on her, leaving visible injuries. Moakler obtained an emergency protective order against Rondeau in the aftermath and has not spoken to him since the incident, she told Us.
Having been released from jail after six hours, Rondeau wrote on social media, “Today was one of the most heartbreaking days of my life. To my family and friends, I just want you to know I love you so so much. You know I’d never lay a hand on another woman. My mother is my angel and my best friend. She raised me right.”
Moakler also addressed Rondeau’s aggressive behavior the morning of his arrest, in which he took her phone and livestreamed on her Instagram account him yelling obscenities and ranting about how she allegedly was cheating on him. “I definitely was not having an affair with my neighbor,” the model clarified. “I think those were things that were being said in a heated emotional state. He was obviously confused. He was obviously upset.”
“He obviously was acting like a crazy person but … I think he deals with highs and lows and he was just having a low and that doesn’t make his behavior acceptable, and I hope he can see that because this isn’t someone I can just turn my feelings off,” she continued. “I was just engaged to this man a week ago. I do understand I need to take care of myself, and I need to go get the help that I need to work through this because I never experienced anything like that myself.”
Moakler is also “highly concerned” by the death threats Rondeau’s family has received. “He’s not a monster. He’s a good person who’s going through a difficult time, and I’m not condoning the video or any actions, but I think attacking someone’s family with small children is not the way to heal this, or even to bring awareness to these types of situations,” she said. “I do hope that we are able to both get the support we both need to get healthy. And I don’t even mean together, I’m just saying as individuals.”
