'The Real Housewives of Dubai' star Caroline Stanbury tells ET she's confused by Lesa Milan and Caroline Brooks' behavior in season 2.
The Real Housewives of Dubai's Caroline Stanbury wants "noting to do" with Chanel Ayan and Lesa Milan's fallout, despite becoming "the monkey in the middle" of their drama.
"I'm always dodging a bullet somehow," the Ladies of London alum laments to ET, speaking over video chat. "I've got nothing to do with their fallout and, quite frankly, I want nothing to do with it. I don't want to touch this drama."
"Lesa just pins anything and everything on me," she says. "You know, the sun doesn't come out, that's my fault. Everything's my fault, as far as she's concerned."
The one-time besties' relationship deteriorates over the course of season 2, coming to a head (or maybe, officially an end) at the finale party previewed in the season trailer. After declaring that Lesa is trying to stop Ayan and Caroline's friendship, Ayan storms away from Lesa, Caroline chasing after her. In the lead-up, Lesa labels Caroline a "snake" and proclaims that Ayan's "jumped on the Stan-wagon," after the two women were at odds for all of season 1.
"I mean, Lesa simply can't get a headline unless I'm in it, so just let her keep going," Caroline purrs. "I just don't want to play in the dirt with her. She can roll around by herself."
Caroline famously claimed hell would need to freeze over in order for her to entertain a friendship with Ayan, but the women put their differences aside after taping the season 1 reunion in 2022.
"It got so bad that, you know, where do you go from there?" Caroline reflects. "At the end of the day, we're a friend group and it made it very awkward for everybody around us."
All it took was one, off-camera date for the pair to realize what everyone around them had been saying for months: they're more alike than they are different.
"Now, we realized how much we do have in common," she says. "We both have teenagers. We both went away to boarding school -- be it very different ones -- her reactions to things, how I see them, and how I understand her now, and the way she understands my sarcasm now, you can see her sort of going, 'Oh, that was funny! That wasn't meant to be a dig...' and, you know, she doesn't always get on the defensive when I open my mouth. And we're actually really building a good relationship together; our husbands get on. The kids get on. So, it's great."
That relationship includes a journey into Ayan's past, or rather, her mouth, visiting a dentist together to find out whether Ayan is actually older than Caroline.
"I'm over the moon," Caroline teases of the results, after Ayan spent the better half of season 1 taking digs at Caroline's age (she's 48) when she, in fact, may be the same age... or older.
The new dynamic duo didn't only cause friction for Lesa; it appears Caroline Brooks is also upset with Caroline for making amends with Ayan, though it's come out a bit... misdirected. Brooks rooted her upset with Caroline in a snide remark Caroline made about Brooks' friend, season 2 newcomer Taleen Marie, accidentally flashing concert-goers at a resort opening headlined by Beyoncé.
"I've still not had an answer," Caroline confesses of Brooks taking hits at her. "I'm just as confused as all of you are."
"I'm like, wow, that is a lot of hate for a very funny statement that [season 1 'Wife] Nina Ali and I made about Taleen," she says. "It was a fleeting thing. ... It was just a giggle and very light."
Caroline points out that Taleen herself isn't mad about the comments made at her expense, so therefore, Brooks doesn't have a foot to stand on when it comes to that argument. Instead, Caroline suspects Brooks wanted to come for the biggest target after learning the reality TV ropes in season 1.
"I was blindsided by one of my friends," she notes. "You know, TV does funny things to people, doesn't it? And you can never really know how people react to it, you know? I think authenticity is what the audience wants, and they can see through takedowns. They can see through bullying people. They can see through all these things."
Caroline's been sharing her life on TV for the better half of the past decade (Ladies of London aired from 2014 to 2017, ending when Caroline moved to the UAE), but it took until season 2 of RHODubai for her to feel relaxed into the process.
"I was doing IVF, which I don't think was brought onto the show," she reveals of season 1. "I was like a deer in headlights. I had so much going on, I was getting married. You know, everything was sort of thrown at me."
"This year, I don't care what the girls think of me," she adds. "I'm here, I am exactly who I am, and I think you're all seeing that."
Her new attitude about the show translates directly into what she shares on the show; known for her stiff upper lip approach to almost everything, the Brit let cameras document a regression therapy session that transported Caroline back to her childhood. It was a chance to confront the feeling of abandonment she's battled under the surface for years.
"Now I understand a lot more why I am the way I am, and what made me this way, which is I what I think a lot of people didn't understand about me," she says. "I hope that [the cast and viewers] understand my reactions a little bit more. I spent a long, long time in boarding school and, unless you've been through something like that, you can't really understand it. So, I'm not the warmest and fuzziest person, but I've got a very, very good heart."
Caroline credits that therapy, in part, with shaking up how she views life, in all ways, especially when it comes to her marriage to former soccer star Sergio Carrallo. As her therapist put it, Caroline needed to stop mothering her man, who is nearly 20 years her junior.
"I'm hyper-independent," she explains. "I used to micromanage him on everything. Not because he couldn't do it, just simply because I can't let go of stuff, and I feel at my age I know better than he does, and I understand now that maybe I don't know better at everything, in every aspect. Like, he's better at some things than I am. So, I actually have given him like freedom to run with projects without me."
Those projects include the couple's health and wellness range, Bust the Label, and a real estate endeavor in Bali.
"I haven't even seen the land he bought," Caroline admits. "The old me wouldn't have done that. The old me would have talked him out of everything. ...So I think I'm quite proud of myself for that, and also it's important for him, otherwise I will totally emasculate him."
That said, Caroline isn't fully done taking digs at Sergio's manhood. She notes his (non-existent) "ovaries are on fire," with Caroline feeling the pressure to make a decision about expanding their family. As she shared in an essay for Today.com, Caroline is navigating the divide of wanting a baby at all, and wanting to give Sergio the chance to be a father. She shares three teen children -- Yasmine, 18, and twins Aaron and Zac, 14 -- with her ex-husband, Cem Habib.
"I can be selfish now, you know? I feel my kids don't need me as much, which is amazing. So, to go back to the nappy stage and think about, you know, I actually built a grown-up house. I have white sofas. How's that gonna work?" she laughs. "I think like this, and then I'm like, oh, but maybe I'd be a different type of mom. Maybe now I'm so much more relaxed."
Sergio and Caroline's IVF round resulted in one viable male embryo. The pair is currently contemplating doing another round to up their chances of having a successful pregnancy, which would likely be carried out via a surrogate should they decide to move forward.
"I've started looking to see what that even looks like," she says. "Sergio thinks the surrogates gonna live with us. I'm like, 'No, no. That's not happening.' You know, all of these things are a real concern."
"I found an agency, but I haven't even made the phone call yet," she continues. "I pick up the phone, then put it down. ... It's very difficult. But then I look at his little brown eyes, and then I go, god! He'd make a beautiful father."
Caroline also sees the reality TV gold that could come with her and Sergio inserting a baby into their life: "You guys would have a very good laugh, let's face it."
For now, though, Caroline's current kids are keeping her busy; Yasmine is off to college in the fall, meaning she won't be home to rib Sergio. A comment she made about her stepdad being a "lost puppy" who follows around her mom didn't exactly land with viewers.
"She doesn't realize how harsh she can be," Caroline offers in her daughter's defense. "I don't think she meant it as it comes across, and she's very like me. She's very deadpan."
"I'm very close to my daughter, regardless of how moments come across on a show," she says. "I defy anyone to live in a house with three teenagers and get off scot-free. Teenagers, by nature, hate their parents."
While there may be more cringe to come on season 2 (Caroline's getting a kick out of watching her pre-facelift visage: "I needed so much makeup!"), there's also a lot of fun.
"I probably had a bit of a Taleen moment in Bali," she previews, seemingly a reference to an accidental flashing.
"I think cast trips just end up as Girls Gone Wild, don't they?" she quips. "I just remember nightclubs and a lot of alcohol, and some man called Fabio that joined us all. ... He wasn't with me; I can tell you. He was, I think he was set up with Brooks, but it was just very funny. I can't imagine what Bali's going to look like."
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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