Even though the footage that we’ve seen of Noella Bergener’s brutal divorce was filmed last year, she’s still going through it.
Both on screen and off camera, she has had to adjust to a whole new life — and her estranged husband has been no help.
There is happy news on the horizon for the gorgeous The Real Housewives of Orange County star.
She has moved on and is now in a relationship. Noella is dating again!
Early on the week of Valentine’s Day, Noella Bergener spoke to E! News with a timely love life update.
“I’m in a relationship!” the newcomer-turned-fan-favorite Housewife announced.
Noella did share that she intends “to be respectful” by not divulging more.
While Noella is not quoted as having identified who she is dating, E! News refers to her new datemate as a “boyfriend.”
“We are not announcing just yet,” Noella clarified.
Giddily, she added: “I can’t wait to share more.” But she will, in fact, wait to share more.
Last summer, Noella was totally blindsided by her now estranged ex.
What she had thought was an unexpected but resolvable debt totally blew up in her face.
She went from a happily married woman to someone who was practically ghosted by her husband.
James didn’t just leave her and their son, he took things a step further.
He filed paperwork in Puerto Rico to begin the divorce process. The papers were in Spanish.
It was odd, because their family has no real connection to the commonwealth except owning property there.
Noella also lamented how she had been cut off from all marital finances.
While she has clearly managed to feed herself and her young child, it was a nightmare.
Speaking this week, Noella shed further light upon where things stand with Not-So-Sweet James.
“The last text exchange that we had was about him coming to collect his things,” Noella revealed.
“He’s got a quarter million dollars worth of wardrobe,” she noted.
“He’s got cars,” Noella added.
Noella was filmed last year telling her castmates how her husband had left everything behind.
“When I said to the ladies that he literally took his toothbrush,” she emphasized to E! News, “that’s exactly what I mean.”
“Six months ago, the man left the house, got on our private plane and left,” Noella described, “and has not been back.”
“He’s been back to Orange County multiple times,” Noella noted.
“He comes back every two weeks,” she described.
“I hear my lawyers were annoyed that I didn’t want to serve him when he stayed at the Hyatt,” Noella noted. “I see the charges.”
So what exactly does Noella think happened?
“He had a midlife crisis coupled with shame,” she explained.
Noella continued: “coupled with like some narcissistic spiral of just bats–t craziness.”
Though this is a painful topic, Noella said that she “loved” having the opportunity to open up about these struggles with her castmates.
“I just was really real about my life and my journey,” she explained.
“And,” Noella continued, “how it’s connected to so many people.”
“And to realize that I’m not alone and that I’m not freak and I’m not an alien is pretty phenomenal,” Noella expressed.
“So in that sense it’s been pretty rewarding,” she commented.
Noella then gushed: “Shannon [Beador] is amazing.”
“There has been genuine, lovely moments with all of the women,” Noella affirmed.
She detailed that, despite their unfriendly status, she has had these good moments “even with Heather [Dubrow].”
Noella also signaled how much she would love to return for another season. Most viewers would like to see that, too.