BY: Denver Sean
Published 3 years ago
Drew Sidora has been catching a lot of flack for staying with husband Ralph Pittman after she found messages suggesting he was getting too close to one of his assistants.
In the premiere episode of ‘The Real Housewives of Atlanta,’ it was revealed that Drew caught Ralph in a text exchange with a former assistant who offered him a massage.
via Page Six:
“I thought we were in a better place. Then, last summer, there were some things that happened,” Sidora exclusively tells Page Six in a new interview.
“I went to Chicago with the kids for a while. And he ended up showing up in Chicago to say, ‘OK, I need my family back, stop playing.’”
The Illinois native, 37, recalls being “on this journey” of “getting through this particular issue of this assistant” for quite some time.
Sidora, who shared her relationship struggles with Kandi Burruss and Sanya Richards-Ross on the “RHOA” Season 14 premiere, is grateful that her castmates were there to validate her concerns over Pittman’s behavior.
“Talking to Kandi and Sanya, I felt in a safe place at that time because they’re wives and I felt like they could relate and call me out if I’m tripping. But they [agreed with] how I was feeling and what was going on,” she says.
“I was just happy that they stepped up for me, that they stood their ground, because they feel like he needs to hear that this is not cool,” Sidora continues. “It just put me in a situation that I hated. I didn’t want it to be on this season, but it is just where we were in our life at that point.”
Sidora tells us she certainly appreciated Burruss for holding Pittman’s feet to the fire, when she pressed him to reveal his response to the assistant: “Kandi held no punches!”
Despite Burruss’ efforts, Pittman, 39, didn’t provide a clear answer — and the mystery of his communication with the assistant will linger throughout the latest installment of “Atlanta,” according to Sidora.
“Honestly, I was waiting for her to pop up!” the “Step Up” actress says with a laugh. “It was a whole thing of trying to get to the bottom of it and I’m still trying to [figure out], like, ‘OK, is it resolved? Are we good now? Is she gone forever?’ I don’t know, because I don’t know this woman.”
What Sidora is sure of, however, is that marriage counseling is helping her and Pittman avoid the dreaded reality TV curse that so many “Real Housewives” couples have succumbed to over the years.
“We literally just stay in counseling because I always think I’m right and he always thinks he’s right,” she acknowledges. “We are pushing through and we’re really showing what a relationship can look like when you choose to stay together and really be vulnerable and work through your various issues.”
Sidora — who shares son Machai, 6, and daughter Aniya, 4, with Pittman and parents son Josiah, 11, from a previous relationship — tells Page Six that she is using her mother and father’s 56-year marriage as a blueprint for her own.
“I grew up seeing marriage. I saw them fight, I saw them make up. Marriage is not perfect, relationships aren’t easy. But if we both make a commitment, then that’s what it is,” she says.
“It’s just the journey of trying to get through life and trauma and triggers. And you have to be patient on both ends because I’m not always perfect. He’s not always going to be perfect … [but] we both married to stay together forever.”
Sidora, who tied the knot with Pittman in 2014, promises that a softer side of her spouse will soon emerge onscreen.
“I feel like this season, people are going to see the layers of Ralph. Yes, he is what you guys see,” she says of her “strong-minded” partner.
“But he’s so many other things and that’s ultimately why I married him. At the end of the day, he’s a good dude. He’s a great father, he’s very giving, he’s very loving, he’s very vulnerable — at times — and that’s what I love about him.”
‘The Real Housewives of Atlanta’ airs Sundays at 8 p.m. ET on Bravo.
