For maybe the first time in her adult life, Michaele Salahi isn't rushing to get in front of a camera to capitalize on this latest self-made scandal.
But her soon-to-be ex-husband is ready to tell his side.
Less than a week after making headlines with the kidnapping-that-wasn't, and discovering that his Real Housewives of D.C. better half made him a cuckold with Journey guitarist Neal Schon, a "devastated" and "blindsided" Tareq Salahi sat down with E! News, and opened up about how he was feeling in the wake of the oh-so-public betrayal.
In the exclusive interview airing tonight, the reality husband described his marriage prior to last week as "happy" and "perfect," and said that he was particularly blindsided by the affair because, on many occasions, Michaele dismissed any desire he suspected she had to couple up with her rocker ex.
"Michaele used to always tell me that she would never want to date a rock star like Neal Schon, because of that lifestyle…the lifestyle of, there's always cheating…there's guys who are always doing these things backstage. She always told me, she never wanted to be associated with that."
As for the Other Man, Tareq didn't hold back his opinion of the musician, who he had previously considered a friend, and revealed that the deception of Michaele's so-called "double life" had been going on for—wait for it—two whole years.
"I mean, Neal really should be ashamed of himself for doing this, this was a beautiful marriage we had, and I was just blindsided that it was going on for two years. I just had no idea."
The one potential bright spot in Tareq's stormy personal life?
"We did have a prenup," he confirmed. "So the winery and all of the property is protected. Michaele came into this marriage with love. She's leaving with at least one broken heart, because she's a lying, cheating woman. She's a liar and a cheater."
And, per the prenup, adultery renders any parting gifts from their marriage completely obsolete. Under the terms, if Michaele is found to have cheated on Tareq (and that seems a given at this point), she loses her right to any portion of the money or property accumulated during their marriage, as well as her right to request spousal support. Hope it was worth it!
For more of the explosive interview, tune into E! News tonight at 7 p.m. and 11:30 p.m. for part one of the sitd-own, including how the MS-suffering Michaele's health is holding up, what Tareq really thinks of Michaele's behavior, the true state of his often murky finances, his relationship with Schon and what, exactly, first led him to believe his wife had been kidnapped. And set those DVRs: Part two airs tomorrow night.
Trust us, you don't want to miss this!
(Originally published on Sept. 19, 2011 at 10:10 a.m. PT)