Real Housewives of Miami newbie Stephanie Shojaee is detailing her past romance with Anthony Lopez, the fiancé of former cast member Dr. Nicole Martin.
While also sharing which Real Housewives star advised her against joining the show, reacting to being deemed the “richest” of the franchise, and explaining her drama with Alexia Nepola, 58, Stephanie revealed she was stabbed in the back by an unexpected co-star and disclosed how long she and Anthony dated.
“We dated 20 years ago. He was my dad’s attorney. We ended up meeting that way. We got along great. We dated. It didn’t last longer than like a year or so. It’s really not that big of a deal,” Stephanie explained to Entertainment Tonight on July 2.
Stephanie’s past relationship with Anthony was such a non-factor amid season seven that she and Nicole actually formed a friendship.
“Nicole and I don’t have any bad blood. I met her … maybe mid-season. We get along great. She’s fabulous. I’m fabulous. Who can blame Anthony for liking us both?” Stephanie wondered.
Before signing on to film season seven, Stephanie received plenty of advice from other members of the franchise, although a lot of it was contradictory.
“[Caroline Stanbury] said don’t do it … [Larsa Pippen] told me like seven times, ‘If you don’t do it with me I’m going to kill you’ … and Lisa Rinna, at first, she said, ‘I don’t think you need this,’ and then three days later, she called me, she was like, ‘You’re going to be perfect. Just do it,’” Stephanie revealed.
After being touted as possibly the “richest” housewife of all time, Stephanie admitted that she tends to “be one of the ones that flaunts it the most” and joked about being “new money.”
“I am. I do like to dress expensive. [But] you never really know who’s the richest because you don’t know who has it and isn’t flaunting,” she noted.
While Stephanie came into the RHOM cast as a friend of Larsa’s and made other friends during filming, she and Alexia butted heads.
“We go at it a lot this season. I think she’s very opinionated. I’m very opinionated. She’s an alpha. I’m an alpha. And I’m a very reactive person, and I don’t even think before I speak,” Stephanie shared. “And I think Alexia’s a little like that, and some of the things she says really irk me. So I’m not going to stay quiet.”
As for who back-stabs her, Stephanie admitted it was “the person that [she] least expected.”
“They did it from behind. So I really, I didn’t even notice it was them until really the end of the season,” she teased.
Looking back on her debut season, Stephanie said it was “so much fun” but felt like a “rollercoaster.”
“I think it’s been one of the hardest things I’ve ever done in my life. No joke,” she added.
The Real Housewives of Miami season seven airs Wednesdays at 9/8c on Bravo.
