Just about four hours before Simon Barney filed for divorce from his RHOC wife Tamra Barney, he wrote a long blog post for Bravo addressing the lastest Real Housewives episode, which featured Tamra telling her mother that they were headed towards divorce.
In this blog, he continued his obsessive use of the possessive phrase “my wife” instead of “Tamra.” Sure, lots of people use the term “my wife” or “my husband” in casual conversation, but Simon uses it continuously in his post and on every episode of Housewives this season. And when he uses it, he seems to be aggressively expressing his belief that Tamra’s an object in his possession, not a human being in a committed relationship with him.
Tamra can come off on the show as too catty, superficial, and maybe not a wise decision maker (which is obvious, since she married Simon), but she’s not a dumb lady, and she’s gotten more likeable since she decided to stop warring with Gretchen. As she tells Simon in the last episode, holding on to grudges can cause internal disease and undue suffering. I’m sure staying in a marriage your dignity is daily bludgeoned to a bloody pulp isn’t good for your health either, so Tamra’s definitely better off without Simon and his smoldering unhappiness.
As for his blog? Not only is it a rambling mess of possessive and delusional ranting, but it’s also hypocritical. Now, to be fair, Tamra didn’t hold back on her on-camera criticism of Simon this season, but Simon also took every opportunity to belittle Tamra in front of the camera, and pretty much everyone they hung out with. Interestingly enough, the word he uses in the quote below, disparage, means belittle. So it’s the story of the pot and kettle:
“Tamra has also made her choices in what she has said on the show this season about me, (her husband). My belief is you should never disparage your spouse to anyone for any reason (especially on national TV).”
Another word of wisdom from Simon?
“Don’t talk badly about your spouse, ever.”
