'The Real Housewives of Dubai' star Caroline Brooks isn't ready to write off her friendship with Taleen Marie, despite their issues.
Beggar. Liar. Gaslighter.
That's how Caroline Brooks describes her friend -- yes, friend -- Taleen Marie. The two women fell out over the course of filming season 2 of Bravo's The Real Housewives of Dubai, which wrapped nearly a year ago. Now, they're getting to relive their feud and learn new things about it, as they watch scenes they weren't present for and hear confessional commentary filmed in private.
"She is so delusional," Caroline tells ET of Taleen, after Taleen told ET that the show had changed the woman she's called a friend for nearly a decade.
"She said, 'It changed her,' as if I'm the season 1 newbie," Caroline scoffs. "Excuse me, I've been at this. I brought you into my friend group, and I brought you onto the show I am on. Don't tell me a camera or something changed me when I'm the very same person. I stuck up for you, and this is what got me to shift, when I saw your behavior being a two-faced person."
Caroline says every narrative Taleen is pushing about her is actually a projection about Taleen herself. She also says the season 2 addition is starting to write a revisionist history when it comes to the show.
"She's a liar. She's a liar. She's a liar," Caroline repeats, hitting back at Taleen's claim that she didn't have aspirations of joining RHODubai in season 1, because she wanted to see if the Middle East was accepting to a reality show of this style before signing up for it.
"She wanted to be a part of the show from before we even filmed season 1, when I told her, 'Don't tell anyone! I'm going to be on The Real Housewives of Dubai,'" Caroline recalls. "She's like, 'Get me on there! Please, dude! Get me on there.' She's a liar."
Caroline alleges Taleen "played dumb" on camera when the fourth-wall breaking conversation surrounding her supposedly desperate desire to join the cast came up, after Lesa Milan revealed to Taleen, Chanel Ayan and Caroline Stanbury that Caroline Brooks had apologized to Taleen for calling her a "beggar." Taleen acted as if it was the first time she'd heard that term.
"Taleen actually said to me that that's what hurt her, is that I called her a beggar," Caroline stands firm, sharing that the term came out of her mouth just after cameras went down at their episode 5 rooftop restaurant confrontation.
"I was going into the elevator shafts after we finished that scene," she says. "I told her, 'You're a beggar.' I said,' You begged me to be on this show.' Ad so she said, when she had called me after that -- prior to seeing each other again -- she had said that that's what hurt, is that I said, she begged, and so I said, 'I apologize for calling you a beggar.' So, for her to act shocked was shocking to me."
"Maybe she's embarrassed of it, and maybe that's why she didn't want me to repeat back what the issue was, because it's an embarrassing thing to say," she continues, "but it was actually show-driven, had nothing to do with [begging for] clothes or money. She didn't beg me for anything [like that]. She has her own lifestyle. It was about being part of my friend group."
The pair's feud hit a crescendo at Stanbury's housewarming dinner, which ended in a screaming match between the two in the driveway. Taleen, cigarette in mouth, spouted about Caroline borrowing her designer duds to dress herself in season 1.
"I have never worn an article of that girl's clothing in my life," Caroline fires back. "I think I have more clothes than anyone I've ever met. So, that was just a throwaway, stupid comment. My entire first season wardrobe is still hanging on racks in my house. I wonder if her season is on her racks."
The fight started inside the house, with Taleen's husband, Raffi, stepping in to, at first, cool things down. His involvement only ramped things up.
"I remember a lot more happening," Caroline teases. "But, of course, the show is not that long enough to show every single bit of it. But reliving it was even difficult watching again."
During the verbal sparring match, Taleen made comments about Caroline not having a husband to defend her.
"Out of line, that was so distasteful," Caroline laments. "You, [Taleen], were around when I was still married to that man, who abused me so badly. And now, you're watching your husband yell at me? It just goes to show who she is as a person. It's more a reflection of her than a reflection of me."
"I think that Taleen's little theater needs to end," she says. "Stop saying I drink too much. Stop saying I'm an alcoholic. ... I don't have a drinking issue. I actually work seven days a week. I own two companies that are thriving."
All that said, though, Caroline isn't writing off her friendship with Taleen.
"Can we move on? For sure," she offers. "Will I ever trust her the same? No, but we can get past [this]."
"There's love in my heart for Taleen," she says. "She owes me a a very big apology for all of the games and the gaslighting, and she's continuing to do it, as I can see in interviews."
And despite what some might think (partially by reading Caroline's posts on X, formerly Twitter), she doesn't regret bringing Taleen into the fold.
"I brought her in with-- every intention was good in my heart," she says. "I know this is something she really wanted, so I would do that for her, or for any friend, for that matter, and I don't regret it. I think that, if anything, she should have a lot of regrets, not me."
Caroline and Taleen's friendship isn't the only one tested by season 2. Fans are gearing up for the big blow-up between besties Lesa and Ayan, set to play out over the next few weeks. The mid-season trailer featured a snapshot at Caroline's reaction, seemingly delighting in "the house of cards" crumbling.
"They were really mean to Stanbury, myself, [Nina Ali and Sara Al Madani], season 1 and so, for me, I won't lie, like, yeah, it's childish that I was giggly a little bit, but I'm still traumatized," she explains. "They were really nasty to us. ... They were taking a lot of jabs and blows, season 1, and they made it really hard for some of us on the cast, and they were thickest thieves and didn't actually allow anybody else in, and it felt very like team-y, you know?"
"It gave them a dose of their own medicine, so to speak," she says of the split. "I don't like to see anybody's friendships break up, or any problem like that in the end, because we're all friends, but they had that coming."
Caroline is hopeful the duo can repair things at the soon-to-tape reunion, where she knows she'll have to answer for some of her own missteps, too. That includes shading Ayan's makeup line launch, giving all credit to her partner, makeup artist Toni Malt.
"Toni Malt is a legend I, like, stan her," Caroline says. "It was like a little bit of a shade toward Ayan, but, obviously Ayan owns her company. They are business partners."
"What it was is, I heard a rumor that Ayan went around saying that I have business partners in [my salon] the Glass House," she continues. "I do not. I am the sole owner. I'm the founder, owner -- no partners in that business. But in my consultancy firm, I do have a business partner. ... So, when she said that, I said, 'Oh, you got it.' This is before Ayan and I became close. I was like, I'm definitely going to shade her right back, because it's not a bad thing to have a business partner. But ... it's almost like she was discrediting all my hard work, and so I just fired back."
It didn't exactly help Caroline's case, though, that her shade came after Stanbury remarked that Caroline doesn't like to see others succeed.
"That was very rich, coming from her, very rich coming from Caroline Stanbury," Caroline muses. "What a throwaway comment. I support everyone. I support everyone's businesses. I've always been supportive of everyone in my cast, and whatever they have success with, of course, through the confessionals I throw a little bit of dry, light shade. We all shade each other, but I always show up for everyone."
The Carolines will surely go up against one another come reunion, too, after Caroline Brooks claimed Stanbury's life is fully paid for by her friend, Michael Davis, aka "Dubai Michael." Stanbury's already denied it.
"Michael's the one that said it, not me," Caroline holds firm. "She should talk to her friend, 'cause he says that a lot -- to everyone. He says it to Ayan, he said it to me, and then, as we hear from each other in our friend groups, we hear that he keeps saying this. So, she should deal with Michael about that comment. Not with us, because we didn't make that up."
The Real Housewives of Dubai airs Tuesdays at 9 p.m. ET/PT on Bravo. Episodes stream next day on Peacock.
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