Abe Lichy is sharing his side of the Bitcoin drama that symbolized a very real strain on his marriage to Real Housewives of New York star Erin Lichy. Erin had shared her feelings of betrayal on the show and explained that it had to do with financial decisions that her husband made without her input.
Now, Abe is explaining why he sold the Bitcoin without consulting his wife. And he gave some context from their former company FRAMEWORK to explain why Erin was so upset. The couple have been married since 2012.
Abe recalled having to build up his income “from scratch”
Abe appeared on Page Six’s Virtual Reali-Tea podcast to discuss the RHONY couple’s “real” issues.
“So, it was representative of kind of a larger, deeper issue,” Abe explained. “I’ll tell you guys what it was because it’s not that nefarious. But, it was real.”
“We had a handbag business, which I think they show a clip of on the show. This was something that I left my white shoe law firm to start with Erin, and we put all our money into it, self-funded it, and it got to the point where we weren’t really making any money from it,” he continued. “So we lost all our cash, and it was a very expensive MBA. I learned a lot.”
The financial loss came at the worst possible time. Abe’s father had “just passed away” after battling brain cancer for three years. The couple also welcomed their second child at the time that they had to start over “from scratch.”
He added, “We had no cash, and so we had all the debt from this business, and it was our business, not hers. I want to clear that up, because it’s not like I’m paying for her business, it was our business. And, so, it was just the aftermath of that.”
Abe’s struggle to “provide” for his family was “part of” the reason that he sold the Bitcoin without telling Erin.
“I started my own law firm, but it took several years to start making real money again, so we had more kids, more bills, and still the debt,” Abe continued. “And it was just a bunch of small things that, at a certain point, I just stopped telling her about it because I didn’t want to add pressure to her.”
He explained, “I didn’t want to take it from our joint checking account, so I took it from the Bitcoin. And I sent it and paid for the debt, and we ended up talking about it because she found out about the Bitcoin, and I then told her about all the other stuff.”
Ultimately, the stress led to a “liberating” feeling. Abe and Erin were “able to have that really honest conversation even though [he] was in the dog house for a long time.”
The timing of it all hit “probably two or three months” after the fact. Erin and Abe were filming the new season of The Real Housewives of New York. For the lawyer, “it was still pretty fresh.”
Catch Real Housewives of New York Tuesdays at 9/8c on Bravo.
