Michelle Lally alleged that estranged husband Jesse Lally was “diminishing” her worth by claiming he was the reason they were on The Valley.
“The end of my first season — not to go too much into detail — but I remember I was having brunch with my ex and my daughter after we had just finished a whole season,” Michelle, 36, who shares 4-year-old daughter Isabella with Jesse, 43, recalled on the Monday, April 7, episode of her “Pursuit of Sassiness” podcast. “And out of nowhere, he just kept saying, ‘You should thank me that I put you on TV.’”
Michelle felt like Jesse would keep “bringing me down,” adding, “That was another moment that I opened up my eyes. I’m like, ‘You’re supposed to be my husband and my partner.’ This is something we did together, and we should be celebrating together. You shouldn’t try to pull me down.’”
Ahead of their split, Michelle didn’t feel appreciated by Jesse.
‘The Valley’ Stars Jesse Lally and Michelle Lally’s Relationship Timeline
“That’s what kept happening to me. It was always about him and never about me,” she claimed. “And [he was] diminishing me. That is what broke me down at the very end. I was like, ‘What am I doing? I don’t deserve this. I don’t deserve to have somebody treat and talk to me like that.’”
Bravo viewers were introduced to Michelle and Jesse’s tumultuous relationship when The Valley premiered in early 2024. Shortly before the show debuted, Us Weekly broke the news that Michelle and Jesse filed for divorce following their fifth wedding anniversary.
“When you’re married, you don’t just walk away. It takes time,” Michelle explained on a March episode of her podcast. “I wanted to be married to him for the rest of my life. That was my mindset and what I wanted as a goal of happiness. But he changed and not for the better.”
She continued: “I felt like I grew and he was just going backwards in life. I stayed as long as I did because the unknown is super scary. I had no idea — how was I going to start all over in my 30s? Now with a child and [I] have to move out and possibly get a new work at a different place because we work at the same office.”
‘The Valley’ Hints Jesse and Michelle Lally Were Headed for a Separation
According to Michelle, filming The Valley caused her to realize she needed to end her marriage. “Now watching back the show, I see how miserable I was and how much I was actually going through mentally,” she admitted. “I tried to hide it and I’ve heard that I look like a robot and I think it’s because I was. I didn’t know how to handle it internally. … I could not at the time make the decision whether I was gonna stay or leave.”
Michelle has since found love with boyfriend Aaron Nosler while Jesse started dating girlfriend Lacy Nicole after their split.
“When Michelle and I first started seeing each other, we worked in real estate together, and we weren’t working together at the time, but eventually it kind of transitioned into that. I started taking her to Europe and she had never been before, and we had a lot of the same hobbies and stuff like that,” Jesse exclusively told Us in May 2024. “I just never thought in a million years — once you make that decision — that’s it. There’s always a way through it or around it. Then I think once my ego got a little involved and it just happened. Now I think we’re both very happy. So it was probably, in hindsight, the best decision that we could have made.”
