The Valley’s Jesse Lally is speaking out after his ex-wife, Michelle Saniei, was recently spotted holding hands with hip-hop icon Dr. Dre.
“Michelle’s divorced and she’s single, and whatever makes her happy is cool,” Jesse, 45, told TMZ while out in Los Angeles on Tuesday, April 28.
“I did not get a heads-up,” the reality TV star added. “I saw it on social media the same way as everybody else.”
“The Dr. Dre thing — didn’t see that one coming!” Jesse said, adding that he never witnessed Michelle, 37, “listen[ing] to rap music, so dating Dr. Dre, good for her.”
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Jesse noted, however, that the first cassette tape he ever bought was an N.W.A record in 1988 — the year Michelle was born.
Jesse and Michelle were married from 2018 to 2023 and share daughter Isabella, 6. Following their split, Michelle dated Aaron Nosler, from whom she split in July 2025 after a year of dating.
According to Jesse, Michelle’s split from Aaron was particularly hard on their daughter.
“I hope she continues to be a great mom to Isabella and has Isabella’s best interests at heart, because I don’t think we can deal with the same collateral damage that we dealt with Aaron and Michelle breaking up,” the Bravolebrity said. “I just hope she’s really focused on Isabella right now. Other than that, she can do whatever she wants.”
“She’s happy. She’s single. She can do whatever she wants,” Jesse reiterated. “I just want her to really focus on making sure that Isabella doesn’t have to go through what Isabella went through with the Aaron breakup, because it was really difficult on all of us.”
Michelle and Dr. Dre, 61, were seen holding hands in pictures published recently by social media gossip account DeuxMoi, which reported that the pair were leaving a Nobu restaurant together.
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Neither Michelle nor Dr. Dre has publicly addressed the photographs or dating speculation.
On the Wednesday, April 29, episode of the “Two Ts in a Pod” podcast, Bravo alum Teddi Mellencamp revealed that she reached out to Jesse after the pictures dropped online.
“You realize I couldn’t help myself but text Jesse?” Teddi, 44, told cohost Tamra Judge. “[I wrote], ‘Dr. Dre?’ And he was like, ‘I was wondering why Isabella got a new pair of Beats.’” (Dr. Dre launched the Beats headphone brand in 2006.)
“I want to know how long has Dr. Dre been around this group,” Teddi pondered on her podcast. “Does he live in Santa Clarita? … But also, like, Michelle and Dr. Dre holding hands walking into Nobu? I couldn’t. I need more pictures, [and] I need more sightings. I need to understand. I mean, how do you go from Jesse to Dr. Dre?”
