Mention It All - Beggars & Choosers Ft. Caroline Brooks
Episode Date: July 17, 2024Dylan has been slowly making his way through the Real Housewives of Dubai cast, and as the season hits a new high note, Caroline Brooks hits the studio to mention it all. She has lots to say about her... complicated situation with Taleen and Caroline Stanbury, and why she stands by calling Taleen a beggar after helping her get on the show. She also weighs in on the surprising divide between Ayan and Lesa, and admits it was refreshing to not be in the center of a major conflict. Later, she reflects on her family dynamics on the show, and how she handles all the opinions online. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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Betches Media presents.
Ha ha, laugh, funny.
Mention It All, a Bravo by Betches podcast.
We don't say that, but now we said it.
With me, Dylan Hafer.
We're going to check, me, though.
Hey, everyone.
Welcome back to the Mention at All podcast.
I am so excited.
We have had some great Dubai conversations already this season,
and so we're keeping the energy going in the studio.
And today, I'm happy to meet for the first time and to chat with Caroline Brooks.
Hi.
Hey, Dylan.
Nice to meet you.
You're in New York for a few days.
You're doing a little watch What Happens Live.
You're making the rounds.
Yep.
How does it feel we're like, you know, in this midpoint of the second season, you're kind of in the thick of it all with the group.
It's we're in the thick of it all with the season.
How is it feeling these days as Caroline Brooks?
It's interesting.
Watching the drama back and having to relive it all over again.
It's overwhelming sometimes.
But overall, I feel like it's a great season.
I think the fans are having fun going on this journey with us.
Yeah.
And it's going to get even better.
It's so interesting because you guys had kind of a long,
a little bit of a long break between season one and season two.
And I remember at BravoCon last fall,
when the premiere, we got a little sneak peek and then you guys had a panel.
And it was like, oh, I don't know what's happening this season yet.
But like, these ladies have a lot to get into on this panel.
Oh, yeah.
It's a lot of drama.
What is it like?
it's been a while since what we're watching on the screen right now,
but I get the sense that there is not a lack of stuff happening in the group itself.
What is it like kind of with the time difference and thinking about where things are now
versus what you're watching back?
Do you feel like things have changed even more?
Yeah, I think that some of the friendship dynamics shifted a little bit after post-show,
which we're going to have to watch that.
And I think also some of the dramas kind of got bigger because we didn't resolve them fast enough.
So I think that some things started to now, people would start to process some of our cast is processing some of what happened.
And it's making it bigger, which makes for a better reunion.
I know.
We have a lot to catch up on.
Oh, yeah.
Once people just start to get to thinking, like when you think, oh, my God, like, I forgot that that happened.
Yeah.
Now you get pissed all over again, but double pissed.
Well, and you're seeing people's interviews and scenes that you weren't there for.
It's a whole, it's a new experience to watch.
For sure, for sure. To like live through it over again. And then also to see some of the things that you didn't know were said is like what is making things become more and more inflated. And then post show like everybody doing press, I feel like some people who are just fighting for a moment just does a little bit too much. And that's not going to reflect well when we all have to sit in front of each other. I think all of you on this show have big personalities in different ways.
Very alpha.
So when you talk about the idea of people looking for a moment or kind of doing too much, where do you kind of, how do you frame that for yourself in terms of when you're going into filming, when you're doing press, any of that stuff?
Like, how do you kind of decide what the right energy to bring to it is?
Because it can be, it can be, it's possible to overdo it, I think.
It is.
For me, I, well, this season I haven't done much press.
Mine is more.
there was a moment of time where I wasn't really on social media much.
I had a tragedy of my family, so I haven't done much.
But for me, I go into everything as myself.
I'm more of a responsive person.
I don't start it, but I'll finish it.
So I watch what people do and I'll respond.
I won't go out of my way to start and ignite.
There are certain people in our show who will create the problem,
and then there are people who finish it.
I'm a finisher.
I'm a closer. You open it. I'm closing it.
Do you think that everybody in the group would agree with that assessment of yourself?
Or do you think?
Well, I would say if you're watching the show in real life and everyday day, yeah, yeah.
But I think if we're racing it solely off of episodes one through six, it can look like in the beginning that like, let's say, one through three with the whole vagina gate.
It can look like I was the one who started that.
But in reality, I wasn't.
It was Caroline Stanberry who started that.
So we didn't have a chance to talk during season one.
Obviously, that feels like such a whirlwind.
We were meeting all of you for the first time.
We were figuring out this world of Dubai for the first time on this show.
What was it like kind of going from season one to season two?
Did you feel like you had a different energy going in or like the show itself maybe was in a different place?
I felt like it was a totally different energy.
I feel like it became second nature to do the show.
I do feel like the energy was different because dynamic shifted.
from season one to two.
Friendships developed.
Some friendships started to crumble.
And I feel like going into two,
I was really defensive of Tallinn.
And because of that, I was angry with Caroline Stenberg
for some of the things she had said prior to us filming.
So do you feel like your issues with Stanbury
were sort of based on your friendship with Tallinn?
Like, do you think if Tallinn wasn't in the equation,
you guys would have had a better chance?
We would have been fine.
There were other elements to why I was,
angry with her, but those are things we would have gotten over really quickly, really quickly.
But the Tallene thing was just like, what is this? You know, so yeah, there's a lot to unpack
there, but we'll wait for you. Yeah. Does it make you feel sad or disappointed at all that
that relationship with Stanbury got to the point it did and that maybe it doesn't, does it feel
like it was worth it in a way? I mean, hindsight being 2020, if I can go back, I wouldn't have defended
Talene at all, I would have let Stanbury eat her up like she was going to. But yeah, so yes, I
feel like our friendship suffered because I was defensive of a person who I thought I can trust.
And I thought I was doing a good thing by being defensive because I felt like she deserved a chance.
You know, she came into this new group of girls who are not her friends. She doesn't know them.
She only knew me. And I brought her into my friendship circle, which she wanted to be a part of for years.
And I brought her into the group. And I said, no, I feel like Stanbury was going to be hard on her
based on things that she was saying.
And that's when Stanbury then saw Tallinn is thirsty.
So what she did was she's like, hmm, Stanbury's clever.
She's like, I'm going to befriend this girl.
Because I can see she's looking for a moment.
She's thirsty.
And Stanbury can sense the disloyalty.
I think she smelled it from a mile away.
She'll never trust Talene.
Because I think anybody who watches what Talene has done
won't never actually trust her.
Because they're like, if you did that to your friend of that many years,
How the hell will I ever trust you?
Stamborey's only friends with her to get back at me.
Interesting.
I think it's always worth considering when somebody is brought on to the show
and they have one person in the cast that they're friendly with her
that they knew before more than anyone else.
And if that relationship deteriorates or doesn't last
or the person kind of switches sides soon after they come on the show,
you know, I don't know Talene well personally,
but you do kind of have to think about.
like, okay, if there's nine years of one thing and then six weeks of another thing.
Literally less than that.
It's tough.
I mean, it's interesting because.
I feel like she knew from episode.
I feel like she knew going into it she's going to do that.
I think she pre-planned that.
I don't think Stanbury pre-planned becoming her friend.
But I think Talene planned I'm going to social climb.
Because Stanbury, I think if anything is, she's not necessarily in the position where she
needs to be like counting her friends.
She saw an opportunity and she jumped on it.
Yeah.
And I think that she was being clever and smart.
Talene just showed her disloyalty and she showed her hand very quickly.
And when I caught on to what she was doing, I disengaged.
That's where it went left because I was like, I'm not even engaging with you.
Yeah.
This is phony.
On this week's episode is when we see you give Talene a bit of an apology at the Ayan Beauty event, I think.
And there's a little bit of a disconnect over what we think that you are apologizing.
for or what? Talene thinks you're apologizing for versus then...
She knew what I was apologizing for.
So you don't buy that she didn't know that you had called her a beggar.
She's lying. I called her a beggar to her face right in front of the elevator shaft
when I left August on the roof when I was a skinny astronaut.
I called her. She's lying.
I love the specifics.
Yeah. She called me skinny astronaut then I, but yeah, she can, yeah, she's lying.
She knows I said it to her face.
And then she got upset about it.
I don't know if she cried or what, but that's when she had addressed it with me.
And I said, I'm sorry if what I said hurt you.
That's so interesting to, because from your version of events, it makes so much sense why you would be thinking like, okay, I said this thing.
It hurt her feelings.
I'm going to apologize because I don't need to hurt her feelings.
I feel like beggar was a strong word.
It was accurate and fitting to what she did.
She begged for a couple of years to be a part of the show and be a part of my friend group.
Bring me in.
You have to be a part of my friend group.
to be on the show.
So please, and I implanted her everywhere I could,
how many birthday parties that were not filming,
post-show after the fact,
during my season one,
I put her into as many scenes as I can.
Some got cut, some made it.
She was at Lisa's fashion show.
I put her there in the second row.
You know, the producers cut to that, shady.
She was there.
Then Caroline Stenberg's birthday party,
I put her in that birthday party.
She was my plus one.
And so I implanted her everywhere,
where I could, so there became a history of her being a part of the group, and so she can integrate
better. And we really plan, I plan that with her. Yeah. And I said, yeah, it's a tough group. It's a
tough badge, but I'm going to, she was my girl. And I was like, okay, let me make this happen for you.
Yeah. So then I imagine that makes it, you know, sting a little more when you feel like the
makes it 10 times worse, because how dare you? You know, you already know that my frustration,
I never said come in and fight my battles. I never made that statement at all. If anything, I had more
of a quarrel with Ion and Lisa than I did with Caroline Stanberry. I just was reactionary to
Stanbury's disdain for Tallene before Tallinn even started. She was judging her and I didn't like it.
And so I was I was defensive. Yeah. Talk to me about Ayan and Lisa. How are how how do you feel about
them? Because I feel like it's a little bit of a it's a little up and down. Like sometimes it's,
sometimes it's really easy, breezy. Sometimes it's not. You're you and Lisa are two thirds of the, the
cohort for this Bali trip.
Oh, yes, we are.
And I did not.
Yeah, we're the eat in the party.
And that's very fitting because I like to have a good time.
You're going to watch that in Bali and Sarah's the prey.
But yeah, Lisa and Ion's issue is a lot.
And I feel like there is a lot of confusion overall from all of us to know who's really
at fault.
One day you lean toward one of them, the other day you lean toward the other.
And I think they both have faults in what happened.
But I want to watch it on, I want to watch it because I wasn't there for everything that happened
between the two of them.
I mean, I'm happy because for once it doesn't involve me.
I'm happy about that.
For once, it's not my fault.
For once, I didn't do anything.
So I'm like, yes, I'm here for the drama.
Let me see what happened.
Yeah.
And do you feel like because you've had a little bit of ups and downs with each of them that you,
it didn't feel maybe as close to you when they were having their issue?
In the moment I was actually like, I know this is horrible to say, but I was laughing inside.
In the moment when they went through it, because I was like, this is karma.
They would mean to some of us season one in the press, in the show.
And I was just like, ew.
And so that to me, when I saw the house of cards falling, in that moment, I was like, good, serves them right.
But then, like, after the fact, I felt really bad about it because I was like, they were good friends.
I can see there's pain from both sides.
And I didn't want to see anybody hurting.
Yeah.
It's tough because I think it makes sense what you're saying.
I think season one, Lisa and Ion, both kind of really had a lot of, there was like a lot of fan attention.
People were really enjoying their kind of shadiness and sense of humor and stuff.
And I think sometimes if you have that kind of fan reaction coming to you, then you can kind of start to almost not realize.
And then you go too far.
And you say some things that can really hurt people.
Yeah.
And it got to be where it wasn't really shady, like funny.
You're not funny.
You're just being nasty now.
Yeah.
Well, and I think then it's like something that you say on Watch What Happens Live
that gets retweeted and is funny and iconic.
Yeah.
When you're at a dinner with two friends in real life filming the show, it might not land the same.
Yeah.
Your audience is different.
I feel like Lisa and Ion were a little bit.
Their shade was not well received by the rest of the cast in season one.
So when season two rolled around and they started to fight each other and had nothing to do with us, I was like, woohoo.
You go, girls.
Have at it because, I mean, gosh.
Yeah, I just sat back and I watched.
Because it had nothing to do with me.
So I was like, yeah, it doesn't involve me.
They didn't fall out because of me.
And I was here for it.
I was like, yep, this is what happens when you're mean to other people.
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Looking back on it,
I'm sad for them because I can see there's pain from both sides.
Yeah.
Well, maybe that's what reunion is for.
Maybe.
I hope so.
I think that they can come to some sort of resolve,
but I think it's going to take a lot of work to rebuild the friendship that once was.
Yes.
And I think the same stands for Tallinn and I.
I think Stamberry and I are, it's weird.
Me and her, when we fight, we're weird.
I'll tell you something.
It doesn't take a lot for us to rebuild.
She and I.
That's the weird.
dynamic between Caroline Stamberry and I.
Interesting.
It's very odd.
I think in the cast, she's the only one I have that with.
I'm trying to think because her, like, her kind of sense of humor and her way of kind of dry, cold, rigid.
Maybe because for her, if she is, even if she loves you, she doesn't have to, you know, hold your face and cry and be like, I love you so much.
I'm not like that either.
That you don't have to get to that kind of like raw, vulnerable place with each other maybe to just,
have a good time.
This is why she and I get each other.
I don't like the holding the face and crying.
Me and her are the same in that regard.
I hate that.
I'm not overly.
I'm emotional sometimes.
And once you get that out of me, then it's there.
You get it once.
You may not get it again.
I have feelings, but I don't have the whole.
We're very similar, Stanberry and I.
There is a coldness about both of us.
Yeah.
And I don't know.
Maybe it could be similar things in our past
that made us like that.
But she gets me and I get her.
We don't need to cry it out.
We don't need to hug it out.
I don't need to kiss it out.
Right.
We'll just.
Right.
Like, I'm not picturing either of you on the reunion couch.
No.
I miss you so much.
Oh, God, no.
We just share a drink and said, okay, it is what it is.
Like, she tells me off.
I tell her back off.
And she goes, okay, now what?
Now we're good.
Yeah.
Fine.
We're good.
Let's go move on.
I think for a show.
oh like this, that can be really helpful and necessary sometimes.
It works.
Not that you would get back to that place solely for the show,
but I think that just in terms of being able to move on and keep things,
keep it pushing kind of, yeah.
That is the formula with me.
And this is one thing that Stamberry has an advantage over some of these other girls.
I think she actually learned me, and I learned her.
And we both kind of seen like a twinkle in each other's eye, like you're like that, too.
Mm-hmm. Yeah. I'm like that too.
It's funny because I feel like, I don't even know if Sergio has learned her at this point.
No, she doesn't like the overdoing of the cries, the tears, the rah-rah.
And I get rah-rah, but like once you just say, can we just dead this?
And I'm like, yeah, we can.
Yeah.
If you try to, like, if you want to just, let's talk about it again, like, tell you, let's talk about it again.
How about again? How about again?
Now you're going to make me mad.
Yeah, it's like you, you like move the dial a little too far.
Yeah.
Like, I don't want to.
I don't want to talk to you in the desert.
I don't want to talk about this again.
I already had a phone conversation with you.
Dead it.
Because now it seems performative.
Yeah.
I'm curious to hear about your kind of relationship with Sarah
because I feel like you and her,
I don't think, are very similar in terms of...
At all.
And she's another one.
She understood me.
After season one, people saw we weren't getting on
because of what she had said about, you know,
you should be closer to your son or whatever, you know.
And Sarah actually got it quickly.
We had a quick, she realized that I'm not the boo-hoo.
Like, let's just move on.
Okay, done.
How about we never look back?
We start from today and we become real, okay, done, deal.
Handshake, done.
And I've never looked back.
And she's been my friend ever since.
We know what boundaries not to cross.
It seemed to catch other people in the group by surprise that you guys had this kind of connection.
But Caroline Sandberry is a hypocrite.
And I'll tell you why, because she has something to say about Sarah and I's friendship.
but then we could say the same for Ayan and you, Stanberry.
You guys did not like each other season one.
So how dare you say to Sarah you don't even like her?
Ayan despised you.
And you despised Ayan, and I actually had to protect you from Ayan in reunion season one.
So that was very rich coming out of her mouth because we can just say the exact same thing for the Ayan and Stanbury friendship.
So everybody has a right to move on if they want to move on.
Yeah, I think with your group especially, knowing that it's only the second season that we've watched you all together, it's like nothing should be so set in stone that we can't do something new.
Yeah, it was genuine.
Like, our, me and Sarah, we had a lot of time to build that friendship that you guys didn't get to see us on camera.
There was a little bit of a gap between season one and two.
And there was a lot of time to nurture a new friendship.
And nobody got to see all of the behind the scenes, the play dates and us traffic.
and taking vacations together and like just spending more time together, Sarah and I'm
building that bond and speaking on the phone every single day for over a year.
I feel like there might be something to the fact that you and her are single mothers in the
group.
Like I think that that might kind of.
That bonds us, but not really.
Like I feel like we don't even focus on it because we're such, we're very busy as well.
Like we're two business women who are very busy.
Yeah.
I guess that that is something in common because we don't have a husband and we're not what
you would call necessarily a stay-at-home mom.
We're not really like a soccer mom type.
I work seven days a week, and I've cut back a little bit on that because naturally,
even watching back the show with my son, I'm like, you know, it made me sad.
I was like, poor thing.
Like, I spend a lot of time with my son, so don't get it wrong.
It is a show.
I spend a lot of time with my son, but I still watch it back and feel guilt,
even if I feel like it's not 100% in tuned with how we are.
That makes sense.
I still watch it back and feel sorry.
I think anybody watching themselves on a platform like this, you're going to kind of feel, you're going to overthink everything.
Whereas like, I'm doing too much here.
I'm doing not enough here.
This thing that I said, you know, like even if you feel good overall about everything you did, you're still going to kind of be like, hmm.
I think the hardest is watching back mine and Adam's interactions because what people don't actually see is that my son is a little quirky, a little nerdy.
And he is aware of the cameras.
Whereas me, I'm an adult, and I kind of forget, and I don't care.
I'm just, my child acts not like himself all the time.
So he's getting a little, but the producers learned early on to back off when Adam is doing a scene.
They realize that he's acting unusual and it's affecting the way I am toward him because now I'm uncomfortable.
Right.
And so that projects onto the show.
And then people think I'm being cold to my kid and I'm not.
I'm actually just getting annoyed.
Yes, people who don't know me think I'm being cold toward my child.
But in fact, I'm actually annoyed because he's not acting like himself.
And now it's going to show that I'm getting, this is awkward.
Yeah.
You know, so I, but the producers did catch it around like mid-season that Adam is a little shy and a little camera shy.
And they now started to retreat and there's less people around when we were filming.
And it was really just one or two camera people at a distance.
and he started to really open up and let his hair down.
Yeah.
He wasn't before.
And then he came across as disrespectful or I came across as I was being cold because I was angry.
I'm like, stop doing that.
We just get a little 30 second here and there.
Yeah, a little bit.
But you guys don't get the moments like, of course, it would break the fourth wall for you guys.
He'll tell him, you tell him, stop.
Yeah.
Like this is, stop it.
Like, be normal.
Don't do that.
Because, you know, kids will do funny, weird things when they feel uncomfortable.
So he started to get a lot more comfortable on camera as we progress.
into the seasons.
So good, so good.
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When you have a family and kids and stuff on a show like this,
there's an opportunity for it to be something so special and unique.
Yeah.
But it can be challenging too.
It is.
And they didn't over-filmed our kids, which is great.
Yeah.
But because of that, because it's not overly filmed of the children,
it makes the kids not as used to the filming.
Right.
Whereas us, we let our hair down because we're filmed so frequently
that we don't even think about the cameras being there.
Now, ushering a child into a scene or like a day that we film with our kid,
then they may be a little bit more conscious of what's happening.
You know, and Adam is a little bit older and he has YouTube.
So he can watch clips, which he did.
He watched clips of season one.
Okay.
And as a preteen, I don't know how that may have affected him.
Yeah.
And maybe he's thinking to what he's going to say or what he should, you know.
So I think as he gets older and he understands again more,
They're going to go through these little, you're watching our kids grow up on TV.
Yeah.
They're going to go through all these life cycles in front of everybody.
Yeah.
I like that we see the families on Dubai, but that it doesn't feel like there's like a storyline
kind of being formed around it.
There is no storyline.
It really is like tomorrow we're shooting whatever you're doing with your kid.
Yeah.
So there is no storyline involving our children because kids are unpredictable.
And you can't really predict how they're going to act.
Definitely not my kid.
I mean, you ordered Earl Grey Tea in my salon.
And I'm like, what the heck?
What the heck?
You hate tea.
And out of all teas, why not a green tea with honey?
Earl gray?
I was like, Adam.
Earl gray?
I think that was a moment where he was just not sure what to do.
Because normally he would have ordered maybe a Coke or a Sprite.
But again, he knew her filming.
And he was like, I'll order an Earl Grey tea.
Like, that is so not my kid.
Yeah.
So I was confused.
I was like, huh?
Yeah.
But then he also revealed.
something that shocked me. So watching it back too was like another big shocker that he had talked to
his dad about something I was shocked about. I was like, you and your dad have these kind of conversations
and then for him to turn to me and say, yeah, but you wouldn't know because you come home at 10 o'clock
at night or something. I was like, as a mom. No, I was happy he said it. Okay. I may as hard
as it is to hear it. I was happy he said it because he also acknowledged the fact that, yeah,
grandma, I do know she works hard. I know my mom works really hard. I,
get it, but I think he still is hurt. He wants me home. He wants me with him. So I think he,
you know, it hurt. Yeah. You know, and I think he wants his mommy, but at the same time,
I don't have the luxury to be able to be with my kid all day. Yeah, it's a balance. And I mean,
like you said, it's like what we see on the show is not, you know, 24-7 of your life. Yeah, no, I work,
I work between 12 to 16 hours every day, seven days a week. So I, I, I, I, I, I, I,
take a day off here and there. And if I take a full day off, it's to spend with my son. So now
on the day that my nanny is off, I spend that full day with my kid. And Adam spends the
weekends typically with his dad. So where does it fit me in if I'm Monday through Friday operating?
I have two big companies. Plus I do other work with other avenues. And it's a lot of work.
And I have to because Dubai is expensive. I have to sustain paying everything on my own.
My ex-husband doesn't pay child support or give me alimony or I never got a settlement check for
my divorce. Nothing.
Is that different in the UAE than it is in the U.S.?
Like is that?
Yeah.
Okay.
So there's, we are naturally, as you know, we're under Sharia law.
It is a Muslim country as open as it is.
But it's not like it's a harsh thing where no.
It was me agreeing that he gives me nothing in exchange for full custody because I said,
Dubai is really a transit place.
I'm not from there.
My son is born in the United States.
I went back to America when I was pregnant, gave birth in America and came back to Dubai.
And so I said one day if I leave, I don't want anyone to stop me.
I premeditated and pre-planned taking nothing.
I said the only way I can get my ex-husband to sign this paper is by not letting him
dangle his money over my head.
So he thought I would come back and beg him, basically.
Like she's just going to, she's, she's an idiot.
Let me just.
Yeah.
Yeah, fine.
You don't want anything?
I'll sign it.
Now I have full custody.
That is my fallback to say if things don't work out in the city, I'm going home.
And home is the United States.
And he could travel ban my son from leaving until he's 18 if I didn't sign that.
If he's paying me.
Yeah.
Okay.
So if he gives me a dime, he has the rights to hold his passport.
I'm so interested with your family relationships, with your friendships, with all of that,
the kind of reactions that you get and see on social media, just kind of out there in the world.
Because things like this are, it's a tricky situation.
You know, people have lots of opinions.
People don't know all the details.
People see things on TV and jump to conclusions.
They do.
What is it like for you kind of filtering out what you see, what you read, what you respond to?
Sometimes it's hard because I feel like it's not their fault to.
Sometimes in certain instances it is just a show.
So we only get about 45 to 50 minutes every week of them being able to get to know us as quickly as they can with not enough context.
And that whenever it's about my kid or something, those are the ones I generally
respond where I get affected.
If it's about the girls, I don't care as much.
But about my son, people don't know.
People are like, yeah, she's a liar.
Season one, she said that her ex paid for it.
I don't have one ex, you Nimwitz.
I have more than one ex.
I have an ex-husband, but I have ex-boyfriends.
I've dated.
I wasn't just going to freaking roll over in 2016 when we finalized everything.
What was I going to do, die?
I went on and moved on to other relationships.
Yeah, it's tough with the fact checkers.
try and come and they're like...
Yeah, they're trying to fact-check me
on something they are wrong about.
You are wrong and loud.
And you are wrong.
I'm not talking about the ex-husband
when I said one ex-invested in the other one.
My ex-husband is a contractor
and a real estate developer.
He built the glasshouse.
But I paid him and he overcharged me.
I've had other contractors come in and say,
how much did you pay for turnkey?
And they were like,
he overcharged you a couple hundred thousand dollars on this.
I paid Zor on every single dollar
it was to build that place.
And my other ex who initially invested,
we were in a relationship at the time.
And when he invested, I paid him back his full investment
because I wanted nothing over my head that states
that anybody did anything for me.
So I paid him back.
Straight away when we broke up, I was like, yeah, yeah,
everything he paid for, I gave it back.
So midway through construction,
we were no longer even dealing or speaking with each other
and everything else was funded by me.
Yeah.
I owe my savings, yeah.
Okay, we got to wrap up, but we have a big trip left on this season.
Oh, my God.
Can you just tell us, give us like a little like, what's the vibe for Bali?
What can we expect?
Bali is probably, I keep saying this, it was one of my most fun vacations.
I've been on in so long.
And it was such a good time.
And I feel like it is going to be crazy.
And the drama finally is not my fault.
I'm so excited.
Yes.
I'm sitting back because Ion and Lisa was so unexpected.
Yes.
Nobody expected that.
I sure didn't.
I don't know if anybody else did.
I didn't.
Maybe Samberry anticipated it happening.
She had the crystal ball.
Well, she's the one in the middle of it, not me.
Okay.
So that's their issues surround her.
And I was so happy to not be a part of that.
Yeah.
Well, I can't wait to see it.
Yeah.
I know you got a reunion coming up.
I don't wait to see that.
either.
Oh, yeah.
Caroline, thank you so much for being here.
Thank you very much for having me.
This is so fun.
Of course.
Thank you, everyone for listening.
Don't forget to rate review and follow the show.
Watch Dubai on Bravo Tuesday nights and then on Peacock.
And until next time, be cool.
Don't be all like uncool.
Mentioned at all is produced by Dylan Hafer, Sean Kilby, Jorge Morales Pico and
Rebecca Sousa McCatt.
Editing by Horace Pico.
Social media by Dylan Hafer.
Guest booking by Dylan Hafer and Ali Friedlander.
Be sure to follow at Bravo by Betches on Instagram and
on Twitter.
Thank you.
