The Real Housewives of Potomac Alum Monique Samuels and Ex Chis Samuels Finalize Their Divorce (Exclusive)

Monique Samuels and Chris Samuels are officially divorced.

Former couple — whose relationship is documented on both Bravos The Real Housewives of Potomac and OWN Love and Marriage: DC — finalized their divorce on Monday, Sept. 25, a Montgomery County Family Court representative told PEOPLE.

The divorce papers are sealed, but a judge signed off on the ruling after the couple’s final hearing earlier this month. PEOPLE has reached out to the couple for comment.

Monique, 39, and Chris, 46, married in March 2012 and are parents to daughter Milani, 8, and sons Christopher, 10, and Chase, 4.

‘RHOP’ Alum Monique Samuels Files For Divorce From Chris Samuels (Exclusive)

PEOPLE exclusively revealed on June 20 that Monique filed for divorce from the former NFL player. According to the record, Monique filed for absolute divorce on April 14 before filing an amended complaint for absolute divorce on June 15. Hearings continued throughout the summer.

The exes’ marital troubles took center stage in the show’s first season Love and Marriage: DC, and appeared periodically during their four seasons RHOP. News of their split was first announced during BravoCon in October 2022, when PEOPLE exclusively reported that the former couple had split after 10 years of marriage.

Monique Samuels and Chris Samuels.

Charles Sykes/Bravo/NBCU Photo Bank/NBCUniversal

That same month, Monique and Chris decided to address the issue in a lengthy YouTube video, saying, “It’s no secret that Chris and I have struggled in some areas of our marriage and everyone watching Love and Marriage: DC last year, you all saw the fights, you all saw everything that was going on.”

“There was a lot of confusion, it was crazy building up to that 10-year anniversary of our marriage and when you’ve been married that long and you have things that you like, ‘Listen, this is unsatisfied or I haven’t heard’ you get frustrated and it’s like , ‘Oh my God, is life going to be like this? I can’t take it anymore,’ she continued. “So what have you seen Love and Marriage: DC last season, that was my cry for help.”

Monique Samuels Says She’s Not Returning to Real Housewives of Potomac: ‘Enough’s Enough’

Despite their issues, the two assured fans at the time that they were “absolutely not” splitting up, but were engaging in solo therapy to work “on their personal issues.” At these therapies, Monique eventually decided to leave the relationship.

“I was in therapy and my counselor asked me, ‘What is it that you want? If you could have an ideal marriage, if you could have everything you want from a marriage, what is it that you want?’ And she told me to write those things down,” she recalled during an Instagram Live in July. “Then she said to me, ‘If he’s not able to do those things for you, and he’s the way he is now and never changes, can you live with him for the rest of your life?’ And she said, ‘I want you to think about it. Next time we meet, we’ll talk about it. I don’t want you to answer now.’ ”

Monique Samuels. Heidi Gutman/Bravo/NBCU Photo Bank via Getty Images

Since then, Monique “took two weeks to write down all the pros, all the cons and really, really think about it,” she said. After that, “I just got to the point where I was in a place where I was so miserable,” she admitted.

“It wasn’t all about him, it was also about me, dealing with my own problems and traumas, understanding myself and why I respond and react the way I do, going through my childhood,” she explained. “Everybody, I’ve been doing something. I’ve been doing something and it wasn’t easy. It’s not easy to look at things about yourself that you don’t like and that you don’t like and say, ‘You know what, I’m going to love the bad parts of me, I’m going to love the good parts, which is easier. But even the things I don’t like about myself, I have to really accept it and love it.”

Monique Samuels Reveals What Led to Chris Samuels’ Divorce: ‘I Was So Miserable … And It Wasn’t All About Him’

Self-love was not easy. “Oh my God. It was a good ride. But I was determined to really work and grow,” she said. “And the more I grew, and the more I began to understand myself and I began to create boundaries for myself, that’s when I knew that I was no longer the person I was when I walked through that aisle 11 years ago.”

“You get to a point where you just accept the fact that it’s a fact. Like, here it is, you know?” she added. “And that got me to the point where I said, ‘You know what, I mean [this] is what will be best.’ ”

Chris Samuels and Monique Samuels.

Shannon Finney/Getty Images

While Monique understood that their issues were not insurmountable, she didn’t delve into what they were, instead saying that they “fight with each other and we can’t communicate” to the point that “sometimes they don’t even talk to each other.”

“We are where we are regardless of whether you all know that information or not,” she said. “This is me not I will: I will not say things that will create a negative image of him nor will he create a negative image of me because at the end of the day, what good does that do? Trying to defend my actions and why I am where I am and taking it out on social media doesn’t really do anything for us and it doesn’t do anything for our co-parenting relationship. I know the reasons why and he knows the reason why we are where we are and that’s it.”

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In fact, their children and her desire to set a good example for them only justified Monique’s decision to divorce. “I thought like most people do, ‘Okay, we’ll stay together for the kids.’ But that never works because staying together for the kids means you’re setting a terrible example of what a relationship should be,” she said on Instagram.

Now her children are getting a healthy example of what a relationship is, she said.

“My children notice the difference in how we can be parents without focusing on the marriage. We focus on ourselves and our children,” she said. “I know that right now I am a far better example of self-love to my children than I have ever been in my life.”

“It wasn’t the easiest decision to make, but we are here and we will continue to be a family. We will continue to co-parent in a loving way,” Monique said. “At the end of the day, there’s only three people I care about and that’s Christopher, Milani and Chase. That’s it.”

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Source: HIS Education