‘The Valley: Persian Style’: Reza Farahan Shares His Initial Reaction to Mercedeh ‘MJ’ Javid and Tommy Feight’s Divorce (Exclusive)

Reza Farahan was admittedly surprised when his The Valley: Persian Style and Shahs of Sunset co-star Mercedeh “MJ” Javid first told him that she and her husband, Tommy Feight, had split.

Farahan opened up to PopCulture.com ahead of Thursday’s episode of the Bravo show to share his honest initial reaction to Javid’s divorce news.

News that Javid had filed to end her marriage of seven years first broke in October, but Farahan confessed that he knew “a lot sooner” than that.

“It was surprising when she told me, but I knew a lot sooner than the world found out,” he told PopCulture. “But for a very long time, I was under the impression that everything was not only good at home, but it was great at home, because she wanted me to look at him and her marriage with rose-colored glasses.”

“She always went out of her way to make it sound like everything was great when it wasn’t,” continued Farahan. “So when she finally opened up to me, it was very heartbreaking, but I was very proud of her.”

Farahan said he promised to support his longtime friend “regardless” of what she chose to do moving forward, “but I thanked her for being honest with me about the state of her marriage.”

While Farahan didn’t see Javid and Feight’s divorce coming, watching The Valley: Persian Style back, it’s been much clearer to him why the couple, who share 6-year-old son Shams, split.

“Now in hindsight, I can see why she got to where she got and why she made the decision that she made,” he said.

Farahan sat down with Javid during last week’s episode of The Valley: Persian Style to extend an olive branch to Feight, who refused to spend time with the rest of the cast in the wake of his fallout with Farahan back in 2019.

Farahan told PopCulture that he really had no idea how “not good” things were between him and Feight so many years later, “because MJ had done a really amazing job of putting my mind at ease and making me feel like he was in a different place than he actually really was.”

“So I kept seeing my friend attending events [and] not having her spouse with her. And at some point, it was hard for me because I knew she wanted him there,” he shared. “But I didn’t understand what was at play. So once she started to open up a little bit more, I really felt like I had to do something to try to make the situation better.”

While Feight shut down Farahan’s offer on Thursday’s episode, the real estate broker pointed out that his parents had always instilled in him that it was important to try to repair rifts in relationships.

“Things may not go the way you want them to go, but how you pick the pieces up and move forward from that point on is what defines you,” Farahan told PopCulture. “So you can make mistakes, you can have a breakup, a fallout, whatever it is. But if you pick up the pieces and try to right a wrong, apologize and move forward in a positive way, that’s how people will remember you. … I try and do that. Do I always succeed? No. Do I make mistakes? Absolutely. But I try.”

Farahan will be taking a walk down memory lane, “the good, the bad, and the ugly,” in his new book, Memoirs of a Gay Shah, which is scheduled to be released on April 7.

“It’s basically the story of my life from the time I was born until I got the phone call to do The Valley: Persian Style, with every detail of relationships, family, ups and downs, Shahs of Sunset starting [then] getting canceled, and how it affected me — everything is in this book,” he teased.

Memoirs of a Gay Shah is available for preorder now and on shelves everywhere on April 7.

The Valley: Persian Style airs Thursdays at 9 p.m. ET on Bravo and streams next day on Peacock.