Mike Shouhed is coming clean.
The Shahs of Sunset star has been at the center of a sexting scandal since season nine of the hit Bravo series premiered two weeks ago. The first two episodes found Mike in hot water with girlfriend Paulina Ben-Cohen after she found NSFW texts with another women on his phone.
After initially denying it on the show and claiming the conversations were fake, Mike is now setting the record straight.
"It was a dark time. We were going through COVID, being on lockdown, and I let the anxiousness of going through that and just being bored allow me to do things I shouldn't have done," Mike tells E! News exclusively of the sexting scandal. "Looking back, I feel really stupid for allowing myself to engage in that conversation, even though those text messages were for a few hours and one day that those messages happened, reliving it now feels like…like it was going on for a long period of time. It just hurt her, it hurt me, it was a learning experience and I realize that I shouldn't do that. I'm glad we got past it and are in a much better place now."
Mike added, "I feel bad about what happened. I learned a lot from it. Because of it I grew and we're in a much better place today than when we were when this show was being filmed."
As for where his relationship with Paulina stands today, the Bravolebrity revealed, "I tell you, as odd as it may seem, we are more in love than we've ever been. I groveled, I begged, I apologized and I realized that what I have with Paulina means more to me than any amount of stimulation I might have gotten from a conversation I shouldn't have had."
In the preview for Sunday's new episode of Shahs, Mike reveals to his co-stars he hasn't been "honest" and seemingly admits to the sexts.
Miked teased of this week's revelation, "With this group, we hold each other accountable for everything we do—sometimes a little extremely. In most groups, if two people are having an issue in their relationship and you have a group of friends, typically people are trying to make things better and help you overcome these issues and obstacles that you have."
He continued, "But with this group, they wanted to get to the core of it: 'What's going on, how did it happen? What were the details?' So they're a little intrusive, but that's what I love about these guys. I just had to set the record straight for everything. So you guys will have to watch and see how it unfolds but it was just time that we had a real conversation with each other because I was tired of some of the nonsense that was happening and the chatter that was being done behind our backs."
Shahs of Sunset airs Sundays at 8 p.m. on Bravo. Binge past episodes on Peacock any time.
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