Real Housewives of Miami’s Alexia Nepola is smiling again.
Two weeks after her husband Todd Nepola filed for divorce, the Bravo star, 56, made her first official public appearance — accompanying her costar and BFF Marysol Patton to co-host a drag brunch at HK Hall in Manhattan’s Hell’s Kitchen. Radiant in a strapless, gold-sequined jumpsuit, Nepola gamely cheered on drag performers, bantered with Patton and emcee Janelle No. 5, twirled for the crowd, and fielded some lighthearted questions.
“I’m doing good now that I’m here!” Nepola said after she and Patton took the stage.
The beauty salon owner was quick to praise all of her RHOM costars, including on-and-off frenemies Larsa Pippen and Adriana de Moura, for supporting her during a heartbreaking time. “That’s the beauty of our show,” she told the audience. “Even though we say things to each other that we don’t like, at the end of the day, when I need them, they’re there. After my news broke out about two weeks ago, Larsa was one of the first ones to call me after Julia [Lemigova]. Everybody called me, texted me. They’re all there for me. They check up on me. Honestly, that’s what I love so much about our franchise.”
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Despite that gratitude, Nepola couldn’t resist a dig at de Moura, 58. “Adriana will probably be nice to me next season,” she quipped. “What I’m trying to say is that Adriana is the kind of person that, when she sees you down and she feels sorry for you, she won’t be mean to you. But then when she sees you up and happy and thriving, she wants to bring you down and she gets jealous of you. And that’s when she’s mean and becomes a hater.”
As previously confirmed by Us Weekly, Todd, 51, filed divorce papers in Miami on April 11 after nearly seven years together and three years of marriage. A few days later, Alexia told fans via Instagram stories that she didn’t see it coming. “I am shocked and heartbroken that Todd has chosen to dissolve our marriage.”
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“Alexia loves hard. She is all about love, she is romantic in that respect. She is hurting right now,” a source told Us earlier this month. Added a second source, “She had no idea and there were no signs. Alexia believes he wanted to keep her in the dark about how he was feeling about ending the marriage, because he knew she would try and convince him otherwise.”
Throughout season 6 of RHOM, Alexia denied speculation from the other women over marital discord and rumors about Todd’s finances. Todd clashed onscreen with Peter, Alexia’s 31-year-old son from a previous marriage, over issues regarding the care of his special needs brother Frankie, 26. “Peter tried to warn her about him,” the second source noted.
But, as Nepola famously said on the show, she was “born a star,” and she hinted at Saturday’s event that such confidence will power her through this dark period. “My grandmother wrote a poem to me and she said, ‘You were born a star,’ and my parents raised me that way,” she said. “Latina parents really, like, uplift you and they tell you to believe in yourself. I had a very strong mom and dad, and my parents were always so proud of me, so that is why I feel the way I do about myself. I’ve been able to overcome so many things in my life because I’ve always believed in myself.”
