This article originally appeared on People.
Since The Real Housewives of Atlanta debuted in 2008, Shereé Whitfield hasn’t suffered any fools — always appearing as the strong, confident tough girl and rarely getting vulnerable in front of the cameras.
But on Sunday’s all new episode, the 47-year-old reality star broke down in tears when confronted with what she claimed were memories of the alleged physical abuse she had experienced while married to ex-husband Bob Whitfield.
The emotional moment happened while the two were on vacation in Maui, Hawaii — during an already explosive couple’s trip.
Bob was there as part of his continued efforts to woo Shereé back. The two divorced in 2007 after 7 years of marriage and 14 years together — and have spent the last decade or so involved in legal and emotional squabbles.
While they’ve put most of that behind them, co-parenting and focusing on their friendship as of late, Shereé hasn’t been ready to rekindle their romance just yet. “It’s like ice-skating uphill with Shereé,” Bob explained. “We had a tough road and I f—– it up a little bit. I’ve put a lot of wounds on her, so she’s calloused towards me.”
Subscribe to our daily newsletter for the latest in hair, beauty, style and celebrity news.
Shereé’s reluctance, it turns out, was for good reason.
“I feel like he still hasn’t owned up to a lot of things that he did,” Shereé explained to friends Phaedra Parks and Porsha Williams. “And it’s not just the infidelity — you see how immature he still is.”
That immaturity was on full display during a car ride in Maui. Looking back at how tense things were between them during their split, Bob joked about violent thoughts he had.
“After we split, we were in Las Vegas,” he recounted. “I was driving her and she fell asleep, and I was like, ‘Yeah, it’d be easy for me to take the seatbelt off of you and hit the breaks.’ So she can fly her ass through the window, you know?”
He then said that he didn’t remember ever physically hurting Shereé in the past.
“I never hit her,” he said, asking her. “Have I ever physically touched you? Have I ever smacked you? Choked you? Have I ever choked you? For real, have I? I might have forgotten.”
When Shereé said that he had, Bob kept questioning it. “Could you still breathe?” he said. “I don’t remember choking her, but if I did, I’m sorry. ‘Cause maybe I didn’t choke you hard enough.”
Shereé then burst into tears. “I always said that he was like a Jekyll and Hyde,” she said. “The funny one, he’s nice, I like him. But there’s two sides. There’s a bad side — a dark side — a frightening side to Bob.”
Bob did his best to comfort his ex-wife, holding her hand and telling her, “You know I don’t like to see you cry. And you know I don’t like to be the one to make you cry. This is why we’re growing together. Because we’re willing to do this again — if it’s for the sake of the grown kids
“I’m still your number one confidant,” he continued. “I believe in you the most — trust.”
But Shereé was not over it. “I thought I was over what Bob did to me, but I guess I’m not,” she said.
“I honestly thought Bob was a changed man,” she added. “But this Bob right here is taking me back to the cheating and the abuse. I don’t want my girls to ever be treated like that from a man. And then here I am thinking I might give that person a second chance? I’m f—— stupid.”
The next day, the two came face-to-face again with Bob trying to apologize by buying Shereé a diamond ring. When she brought the issue up again, a smile once again returned to Bob’s face.
“The only reason I can only laugh about it because I’ll be crying,” he said in his defense. “And there are times I’ve shed a tear because of the things I chose to do. But those ain’t the things I’m doing now. That was then.”
“Maybe that was my coping mechanism to deal with this s—-,” he said. “I don’t know, maybe it’s the wrong way to handle it. But am not laughing. I am not.”
His smile was too much for Shereé, though — and she freed herself from Bob’s grip and stormed out of the jewelry store in tears.
“I am thankful that I invited Bob on this trip,” she confessed to viewers. “This is a test and he failed. He has not made the changes that I needed him to make. So this is kind of like an eye opener. I’m glad I can see now. I dodged a bullet.”
The Real Housewives of Atlanta airs Sundays (8 p.m. ET) on Bravo.