Scheana Shay on the Moment She Knew She Had to Divorce Mike Shay: "So Much Trust Had Been Broken"
The #PumpRules SURver realized she "couldn't ever move forward" with her ex.
Scheana and Mike Shay's decision to end their marriage came as a shock to many fans of Vanderpump Rules since their relationship seemed to be better than ever this season. But now Scheana is opening up more than ever before about why she decided to call it quits with her husband after two years of marriage in a recent interview with E! News.
Scheana revealed that her marriage was plagued with issues right from the start. "There were a lot of things from the beginning of our marriage that kind of tainted the whole relationship. Three months in I found out he had a pill problem. Right before our one-year anniversary, I saw some inappropriate text messages," Scheana shared. "Then, fast forward to our second anniversary, and I'm just trying to pretend like everything's fine, because in my mind, we're married—for better or for worse."
Things did get better for Scheana at the beginning of 2016, and she said "everything was genuinely good." But then Scheana started suspecting that Mike had been using again. "My mom and other people around me had noticed a change in his behavior," she said. "I was either oblivious to it or I just didn't want to believe what I was seeing right in front of my face."
Scheana and Shay went on a second honeymoon in Hawaii after Tom Schwartz and Katie Maloney-Schwartz tied the knot in August 2016, but their problems were waiting for them when they returned home to Los Angeles as Shay "was always in the studio and I was always at home by myself. We were growing apart more and more," Scheana explained. "Towards the end of October, he just didn't come home one day."
But at that point, Scheana still wasn't even thinking about divorce. "I had never considered getting a divorce whatsoever, because I took our vows very seriously," Scheana said. "This was the 'for worse' part. I just thought that we would be able to get through it, because he was still my best friend. We had so much fun together. I felt like all of those things would outweigh the bad, and eventually, we'd pick ourselves back up and be fine."
When Scheana finally confronted Shay about allegedly resuming his substance abuse, he denied her claims, but she thought he wasn't telling the truth. Two days before Scheana had that heart-to-heart with Shay in the Vanderpump Rules finale, she was told that he had been buying pills again. Scheana realized then that divorce was the only option. "I was like, 'I'm now done. I'm done. I'm done. Nothing at all can change my mind. I was willing to forgive you after you left me, and try and move past that, and work through it and start over and become best friends again and do all of this.' I was still willing to try," Scheana explained. "The second I found out he was still lying to me—and had been for six to eight months—I was done."
Scheana said she couldn't see herself staying married to someone she didn't trust. "How can we ever have a real future when I can't trust you? You're lying. You're stealing. It was just one thing after another that I kept forgiving, but then something worse would happen. It became just unforgivable at that point," she said. "I couldn't ever move forward with him when so much trust had been broken."
Scheana and Shay announced their divorce last November. “While we have made the difficult decision to move forward separately, our story will continue on through the love and mutual respect that we have cultivated throughout our 15-year friendship. Much of the recent speculation and reporting on our relationship has been misguided, and we have come to an amicable decision on all matters,” the Vanderpump Rules couple said in a joint statement. “We might have failed at our marriage, but we are committed to succeeding as friends and will continue to support each other’s personal happiness and professional success."
Scheana and Shay kept in touch as they went through the divorce process. "Things have stayed amicable for the most part," Scheana told The Daily Dish in January. "Maybe one day we can be friends."
But Scheana told Us Weekly that she wasn't quite ready to start up a friendship with Shay after sitting down with him at this season's Vanderpump Rules reunion. “We’re not speaking as much as we were before,” she said. “I did see him when we filmed the reunion last week. Hopefully one day we can be friends again. But for now, I think it’s good to have some space.”
In the months after announcing her divorce, Scheana has begun a new relationship and found her "happy place" with Robert Valletta. The two have recently vacationed in Hawaii and Amsterdam. They also made their red carpet debut at the Power Rangers movie premiere and made their relationship Instagram official earlier this month.
We'll find out more about Scheana's decision to end her marriage when the Vanderpump Rules crew sits down with Andy Cohen during this season's reunion. Check out a preview, below.
