‘RHORI’: Jo-Ellen Claims Rulla Is Covering up Her ‘Marital Issues’ Amid Cheating Allegations (Exclusive)

The Real Housewives of Rhode Island star Jo-Ellen Tiberi thinks Rulla Nehme Pontarelli should come clean about her “marital issues.”

After the two Housewives went head-to-head during Sunday’s episode of RHORI over accusations that Rulla’s husband, Brian Pontarelli, had tried to get Jo-Ellen fired for spreading allegations that he was stepping out with another woman, Jo-Ellen told PopCulture.com that her issue is not with Rulla, but with her “villain” husband.

“[Sunday’s episode] was a little tough to watch, because I genuinely care about Rulla,” Jo-Ellen insisted. “I think she’s a good person. It infuriated me watching Brian, because I’m just I’m watching him [and] he’s just living his best life — his best double life. Rulla’s trying to blame everyone that she can except for him. It’s a tough situation. I don’t envy that for her.”

Despite Brian’s insistence that he was not trying to get Jo-Ellen fired when he reached out to her work colleague about having her “stop saying certain things,” Jo-Ellen said there’s more to come as the season continues.

“It’s not Rulla that I have a problem with,” she continued. “It’s her husband, who’s sleeping down the hall. I think that [with] his behavior this whole season, Brian’s going to be the villain in all of this. It’s a shame that Rulla had to put the blame onto me and onto everyone else that was trying to open her eyes [to] who he is. … I did not sleep with her husband. This is not a me thing. This is a you thing. Handle it.”

Jo-Ellen thinks that RHORI viewers will see as the season progresses that Rulla is “doing anything and everything to cover up her marital issues, and she does not want to own up to it.”

“It’s very interesting to see somebody that is more mad about the truth getting out than the actual behavior,” she continued, adding that while she believes her castmate wants to “put on this persona of this happy wife, happy life,” it’s OK for “things to be messy.”

“I own my messiness, I own my drama,” she said. “When Rulla kind of stoops down to my level, she has to own that.”

The Real Housewives of Rhode Island airs Sundays at 9 p.m. ET on Bravo and streams the next day on Peacock.