Marriage ain't easy.
Ahead of Sunday's season two premiere of WAGS Miami, Ashley Nicole Wheeler is getting real about married life in the world of professional sports. After tying the knot with her longtime love, Arizona Cardinals linebacker Philip Wheeler, this past May, the newlyweds are currently in a long-distance relationship as he prepares for the upcoming football season.
"Married life was great up until about maybe three weeks ago because he had to leave for training camp, so it kinda sucks," she admits. "Just being a newlywed, of course, we want to be up under each other and do newlywed things, but then football season comes around. He's in Arizona, so we're on different time zones."
She adds laughing, "Other than that, it's cool."
The couple, who wed in a lavish beachside ceremony on the Caribbean island of Curaçao, has been together for over seven years and has one son together. But Ashley says marriage has already strengthened their relationship for the better.
"I think it changed him a little bit," she confesses. "I think marriage just made him feel a little bit more like grown-up. Phil's like, 'Wow, we're like real-life married now and we have a real family.' He just mentions it every now and then and I'm like, 'Uh, yeah.' But I think for him it definitely made things a little bit more real for him."
Even though the wedding was pretty much perfect, she admits the process was actually quite stressful. (No surprise there!)
"I literally planned my wedding in three months," she says. "Just going through football season and going to the Super Bowl at the same time, it was a lot. I was also starting my own business, my hair care product line [Ashé Hair Care System], so I was just doing all of that at the same time. I don't know what I was thinking trying to tackle planning a wedding, starting a business and football season at the same time, but thank god it's over! My wedding was amazing and at the end of the day I just wanted to be married, so I'm happy."
In the upcoming season of WAGS Miami, fans will get to see everything from the wedding planning to Ashley's bachelorette party and her walk down the aisle. Throughout that process, she reveals even more about family life, including her tense relationship with her mother-in-law.
"It's just a lot of emotions and not so much of the drama," she reveals. "People have already characterized me as the messy one. People will be really surprised to see that difference this season."
This time around, the reality star made an effort to bring the women together following all the fights and confrontations that erupted in season one.
"I was more focused on just rising above that and really enjoying the moments and bonding because at the end of the day we all need each other as WAGS," she says. "Right now Phil's a billion miles away and I could really need my girls at any moment. I just wanted to squash a lot of the drama this season."
Now, let's just see how that turns out...