A storyline for the reboot of Real Housewives of Miami involves the newly divorced Adriana De Moura heavily flirting with new co-star Julia Lemigova. The problem is that Julia is married to tennis star Martina Navratilova. Even though she’s in a relationship, Julia’s behavior with Adriana is quite intimate in front of the cameras, which leads fellow newbie Guerdy Abraira to speculate that Julia and Adrianna are “friends with benefits.” Furthermore, Julia’s wife Martina is upset that Julia gave Adrianna a foot massage even though she’s only given one to her over the years. Is this brewing love triangle a real thing, or just some innocent fun for a storyline?
Adriana has been known to fake things for the Real Housewives cameras. When she started Season 1, she lied to the audience about not being married to Frederic Marq. The couple married in 2008, but their storyline was about Adriana having cold feet about going through with the wedding because she said she was betrayed by her former husband.
The truth that Adriana and Frederic had been married for years was revealed to her fellow cast members in Season 3, and Adriana explained it away with several different stories, including that she wanted a public church wedding in order for the marriage to feel real, but Frederic kept canceling wedding plans. She also said that her son Alex didn’t know that she and Frederic were legally married, so that’s why she was lying. Her son found out by reading about it online. Adriana and Frederic finally got their church wedding in Season 3, which aired in 2013. The couple divorced in 2020 when COVID-19 lockdowns exposed the cracks in their relationship.
With the 4th Season, (which started streaming 8 years later in 2021 on Peacock on Thursdays) Adriana’s flirtation storyline seems a little suspect, given her past behavior of playing up drama for the cameras. Hopefully, it is fake, and Adriana isn’t really encroaching on her friend’s marriage. From the start, however, Adriana sets the tone that she has a special connection with Julia.
Things heat up when Julia makes a suggestive comment about Adriana’s lips, but everything comes to a head when Adriana and Guerdy visit Julia and Martina’s farm. Adriana is wearing stiletto heels, which immediately get dirty with mud (and possibly animal feces,) so Julia takes off her shoes and washes them, as well as Adriana’s feet. During the foot washing, Julia gives Adriana a sensual foot massage.
Later, at Julia’s birthday party, Julia makes a comment that she doesn’t dare smell a flower that Adriana has placed in her cleavage. This prompts Guerdy to ask, in front of Martina, about watching Julia massage Adriana’s feet. This doesn’t seem to impress Martina, as she says her wife has only massaged her feet once even though she massages Julia’s feet all the time.
Adriana insists that her special connection with Julia is a platonic kind of love. Guerdy still can’t help but wonder if Adriana and Julia have crossed Martina’s boundaries with their behavior.
Later, at the birthday dinner, the conversation again goes to Julia and Adriana’s foot massage. Martina asked Adriana what she did to “deserve” getting a foot massage, and Adriana explains that she had been sinking in the chicken and goat poop in her designer shoes, so her feet had to be washed.
To this, Martina asks “Are you the pope, or something?” Martina says that Adriana gives a great foot massage, and she would even pay her to give her one, but she won’t.
Guerdy then interjects that she wouldn’t let her husband give a foot massage to anyone. Soon, the drama moved between Adriana and Guerdy and shifted away from the foot massage.
Adriana recently appeared on Watch What Happens Live, and told host Andy Cohen that Martina isn’t jealous of her friendship with Adriana.
He asked Martina if Martina was “jealous when she sees what goes on between you and Adriana.” Julia replied, “Martina is not jealous, and there is nothing to be really jealous about. I’m married, happily married, and love Martina. And, you know, Adriana is my best friend.”
She further explained that she is what is perceived as flirtatious with everyone because it’s part of her personality, but it doesn’t mean anything deep. “And I’m like this butterfly who is — people think I’m flirting,” she says. “but I’m not actually flirting. Even my dress has butterflies. You know, it’s my way to communicate with people.”
All this seems to add up to a fake flirtation to add some spice to the RHOM mojito this season.
It was even Adriana who convinced Martina to join the show. Adriana told Yahoo that she’s known both Julia and Martina for a long time and she had to convince Martina to join the show. Martina has been using tennis balls to make art, so Adriana convinced Martina to use the show to showcase her art to the world.
