NEED TO KNOW
Rachel Zoe is opening up about her complicated dynamic with her ex-husband Rodger Berman.
During the season 15 premiere of The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills on Thursday, Dec. 4, the fashion mogul, 54, addressed how Berman was photographed with his girlfriend Bree Jacoby only four months after they announced their separation in September 2024.
“Rodger has had the same girl for a year,” said Zoe, who shares sons Skyler, 14, and Kaius, 11, with Berman. “The kids have known probably for 10 months.”
When a producer told Zoe that means Berman, 57, “got a girlfriend right after you guys separated,” she responded, “I’ll let you do the math.”
Zoe said that the boys’ relationship with Berman has also been “tricky” since their split.
“I think that they wonder why he sometimes does or says things he says, why he acts the way he does, why there’s time spent with his girlfriend versus his kids,” she said.
While Zoe said she’s “trying” to look at Berman “as a friend,” she admitted that “we’re not there yet.”
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Zoe and Berman first met in 1991, while they were both students at George Washington University, and got married in 1998. Zoe compared their relationship to The Notebook.
“[We were] married 26 years, together for 33,” she said. “We were together for 18 years before we had kids. I think after we had kids, I think it changes, at the end of the day. I think we’ve outgrown each other… we became very different people.”
Zoe said that “there’s a lot of reasons that our relationship was strained,” but her biggest regret is “working together.”
“Lines got crossed,” she said, adding that Berman became “unrecognizable” over time. “Ultimately, that person didn’t feel right around me or my kids.”
While she said the summer after their split was “brutal,” she now does not miss having a man in the house.
“I don’t come home to an empty house sad,” she said. “I come home to an empty house smiling. It’s very peaceful.”
Zoe added that what matters most to her is that her sons are doing well. “If my kids are great, all is fine,” she said.
Zoe previously addressed the cheating rumors surrounding Berman in a recent interview with PEOPLE, saying, “the timeline’s the timeline.”
“Everything I answer is through a lens of what my children will see and hear,” she said. “It is what it is. Whether or not they’re together now, I don’t really know. Life is wild, and I can say it takes a whole lot to really shock me.”
The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills airs Thursdays at 8 p.m. ET on Bravo. Episodes will be available to stream the next day on Peacock.
