Summary
- Peacock added RHODC to streaming after a decade, focusing on Salahi's White House scandal.
- Salahis caused mayhem by crashing the Obamas' dinner, leading to an FBI probe.
- Michaele & Tareq's scandal led to RHODC cancellation, messy divorce, and legal battles.
Peacock recently made the scandalous Real Housewives of D.C. (RHODC) available for streaming (but may have started to disappear), over a decade since it was canceled in 2010. It was the first-ever Housewives franchise that didn't get a second-season renewal. Years later, Bravo's "Snake-in-Chief" Andy Cohen revealed it was due to Michaela and Tareq Salahi crashing the White House, on film, in 2009.
At that time, the Salahis even met then-President Barack Obama, questioning the competence of the Secret Service. Following their efforts to deny their uninvited presence, things just got harder for the couple. The rest of the cast seems to have kept a low profile in the last few years. But the two kept making headlines over messy legal battles common among Bravo stars. Here's what happened to Michaela and Tareq.
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Michaele And Tareq Salahi Crashed The Obamas' First White House State Dinner With Bravo TV Crew
On November 24, 2009, Michaele and Tareq crashed the Obamas' first state dinner at the White House (pictured above). They arrived at the event at 7 p.m. along with a filming crew from Bravo. Despite two checkpoints that had a name-checked guest list and a metal detector, the couple managed to blend in with the crowd for two hours.
Around 8 p.m., they went to the Blue Room where they met President Obama and India's Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh. By 9 p.m., dinner started, and they were able to make their quiet exit. "Those people could have had an outstanding arrest warrant or could have been involved with a terrorist group," said Robert Kessler, author of In the President's Secret Service.
"They are taking a tremendous risk with the life of the president of the United States."
The following day, a White House official confirmed that the Salahis "weren't invited" to the event despite their lawyer saying they "were cleared, by the White House, to be there." On December 3, 2009, the U.S. House of Representatives Homeland Security Committee invited the couple to a hearing about the security breach. However, they "respectfully declined" the invitation, but appeared on the Today show instead.
The committee then voted to subpoena Michaele and Tareq for a hearing the following month, where they invoked the Fifth Amendment. They didn't face any criminal charges despite the initial assessments by the Secret Service. During the investigation, an insider revealed that the Salahis emailed the media affairs office at the White House for an invitation to the event, citing the then-still-in-the-works, RHODC.
Michaele and Tareq's request for an invitation didn't get a reply "as it was sent to a general inbox for generic press inquiries," according to administration spokesman, Nick Shapiro. As a result, they "have never produced anything that showed they were invited."
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Real Housewives Of D.C. Was Canceled After Season 1 Following Michaele And Tareq's White House Scandal
RHODC premiered on August 5, 2010, nearly a year after Michaele and Tareq's White House scandal. In 2018, Andy revealed the show was canceled due to the FBI's involvement. "Frankly, I really wanted to bring D.C. back for season 2," he said on Watch What Happens Live. "When the FBI is asking for raw tapes of your show, [a] good thing to maybe not move forward?"
The "King of Reality TV" also said on SiriusXM's Andy Cohen Live: "When the FBI subpoenas your raw tapes, there ain’t no way. This was such a big internal [shanda] at NBCUniversal that there was no way this show was coming back."
Responding to her fault in the cancelation, Michaele told the LA Times in 2011 that she "sort of knew this was going to happen" because "the other women didn't want [her] back on the show." However, she said Andy apparently "stood his ground and said there wouldn't be a show without [Michaele] on it. I'm grateful to him for that."
When the show recently came out on Peacock, cast member Mary Schmidt Amons told the Washington Post: "I felt like our show was very authentic. As much nonsense and ridiculous behavior that was conducted by the Salahis that basically crashed the show, I still feel like it was a great snapshot of D.C."
Here are the main cast members of Real Housewives of D.C. along with their taglines:
| Mary Schmidt Amons | "I don't make money, I spend money." |
| Lynda Erkiletian | "I give people enough rope to hang themselves, and the smart people don't." |
| Cat Ommanney | "I'm here for a good time, not a long time." |
| Michaele Salahi | "People have a hard time saying no to me and that's just been my blessing." |
| Stacie Scott Turner | "D.C. is my town and I thrive in it." |
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Real Housewives of D.C.'s Michaele And Tareq Salahi Had A Messy Divorce After Their White House Scandal
A few years after their White House scandal, Michaele and Tareq got into a messy divorce battle. After eight years of marriage, Tareq filed for divorce, citing "abandonment of the marriage" and "adultery". Back then, he also filed a missing person report for Michaele, only to find out she was with Journey lead guitarist, Neal Schon, with whom she's been married since 2013. At that time, Michaele and Neal had already been dating for a year.
Tareq then sued Michaele and Neal for $50 million for costing him TV gigs.
Before it was settled in 2012, the suit stated: "Through their concerted efforts [they] held themselves out as not just Husband and Wife but as business partners and further, a brand. They wrote a book together, made countless appearances together and were essentially inseparable in both their personal and business lives." The couple were meant to relocate to Australia to do Dancing With the Stars for 2012. They were reportedly set to be paid $150,000.
As for Tareq's legal feud against Neal, the suit read: "Rather than being satisfied with stealing his wife, Neal Schon intentionally and maliciously began a public campaign to demoralize, embarrass and defame [Tareq] by publicly demonstrating that he could better provide material items for his wife."
After the Salahis split, their talent agent dropped Tareq who was then informed by DD Entertainment that they'd "be representing Neal Schon and Michaele Salahi" from then on.
