'The Real Housewives of Dubai' star Taleen Marie explains why she's no longer friends with Caroline Brooks after filming season 2.
Taleen Marie might just be Bravo's rookie of the year, 2024.
"It does mean a lot it, it really does, that people are resonating with me and relating to me," the Real Housewives of Dubai season 2 newbie tells ET of the fan love she's felt so far. "At the end of the day, I'm not Meryl Streep. We're at, like, the bottom of the totem pole, as far as celebrities goes, like, I'm not gonna let it get to my head."
The woman who brought her into the fold, though, seems to believe Taleen is doing just that. Caroline Brooks has made it no secret she thinks Taleen has an ego, calling her out across social media as the season airs on Bravo, in part for not being grateful to the OG 'Wife for helping her secure a spot on the show.
"Brooks had great intention, you know? We obviously did have a friendship coming onto the show," Taleen acknowledges. "She put my name forward. She also put, like, seven other people's names forward, and so did the other people."
"Am I grateful? Absolutely," Taleen continues. "But I walked myself through that door [she opened]. I will never blindly be loyal to anybody. When I see that something is wrong, I call it out. That's how I am, and she didn't like that, right? I think she wanted me to kinda be her sidekick, and put these preconceived notions of some of the other women in my head. She was doing that from way before we ever started filming, but then, when I joined, I'm like, I'm actually liking these girls."
Taleen says her finding friendship with the other Caroline in the group, Caroline Stanbury, was "kinda going against [Brooks'] game plan."
"She dragged pretty much everybody on the cast except Sara [Al Madani]," Taleen claims of Brooks' pre-season game planning with her, listing Stanbury, Lesa Milan and Chanel Ayan as Brooks' favorites to slam.
Taleen says she stepped into the friend group looking to, well, make friends. That apparently proved problematic for Brooks, who's suggested Taleen pursued Stanbury strategically, playing Housewives like a game.
"Not at all," Taleen hits back. "I came in trying to just give everybody a fair chance. I actually didn't film that much with Stanbury, but ... I connected with Stanbury."
Taleen alleges Brooks "was doing everything in her power" to stop her from bonding with Stanbury. This comes after the events of the season 2 premiere, during which Brooks jumped to Taleen's defense over a snide remark Stanbury made about seeing Taleen's private parts when she fell over at a Beyoncé concert. The comment seemed to bother Brooks way more than it did Taleen, who was able to brush it under the rug and not use if for fuel to create a petty Housewives "moment."
"It wasn't choosing Stanbury over Brooks, leaving Brooks high and dry," she makes clear. "I'm not that calculated, I really am not. I went in my genuine self. Caroline Stanbury and I, we ended up becoming great friends. I wasn't choosing anybody over anybody."
What Taleen was doing, she says, is realizing things about her friend of nearly a decade. Behavior she used to turn a cheek to became hard to ignore with reality TV cameras in the her face. She attempted to talk through those feelings at a one-on-one dinner, which Brooks abruptly ended when she didn't like the direction of the conversation.
"I think TV does change people," she muses. "She's not the Brooks that I met 10 years ago. When I came into the group, I think just the dynamics and all this, it shifted her and it changed her, and I hope somehow we can come back to a better place."
"This is a build up, years-- it wasn't just me joining the show, it was before we even started filming, there was tension brewing," Taleen shares. "There was manipulation happening, and tension between my husband and her. I think she was in his ear, as well, and it got to a point where I couldn't take it anymore, and I really was coming as a friend, I was coming from a good place ... and I spoke to her in private, [off camera], like, 'Please, stop this.' It wasn't stopping."
Things come to a head on Tuesday's episode, when Taleen's husband, Raffi, steps in to defend his wife in another verbal altercation with Brooks.
"I was way caught off guard, because A) my husband is one of the calmest people you will ever meet. He won't hurt a fly. I mean, it's insane," Taleen teases. "For him to get to that point, it takes a lot, but he was actually mediating the situation and he was defending me, because what you will see is, it's hurtful towards me."
"People might not agree with that, but it is what it is," she continues. "And they've had a relationship, you know? I met Caroline through my husband, and through that side of the family. So, they have that [history]. He's not one of the guys who tries to get involved with girls. They've had a close relationship."
It's a relationship that seemingly ended with season 2. Taleen confesses she and Brooks are not on speaking terms, and haven't been since filming wrapped. She's well aware of Brooks' current thoughts on her, though, due to her castmate's prolific posting online. Brooks laughed over Taleen's Instagram story about wanting "truth" to come out at reunion, and hit back at her on-camera claim that she didn't reach out to Taleen after Taleen's family dog died. It turns out, Brooks reached out to Taleen's sister instead.
"I wished she would have reached out to me," Taleen laments. "Yes, she did reach out to my sister, which, actually, when I filmed that episode, I didn't even know she had reached out to my sister. She did, that's fine. My bad."
Taleen says she didn't intend to drag Brooks over the sympathy text; she was simply venting to her family over a frustration she felt about her friend's change in behavior.
"I would have appreciated had she reached out to me, because I had reached out to the girls in the group," she repeats. "I think that's what was the hurtful part of it."
Even with all this said, Taleen is hopeful for her and Brooks' future.
"We're not speaking, let's see what happens at reunion," she rattles off. "I'm the type of person, I want to save it for the reunion, because I do want certain things to be settled, and I want the truth to come out on both sides. I'm a fair person, I'm a logical person. I want to hear her side. I want to explain my side. But right now, unfortunately, we're not speaking. Well, she's speaking a lot on Twitter, but I want to take a step back and the truth will unfold."
With Brooks no longer her BFF, Taleen calls Stanbury and Ayan her closest friends on the cast. She's also bonded with Sara, but is seemingly keeping Lesa at an arm's length after Lesa inserted herself in Brooks and Taleen's feud.
"That was a little hurtful," Taleen admits. "I'm like, you had nothing to do with this. Just back off. Like, stop."
Taleen says viewers are "gonna see something really heartbreaking and sad between Ayan and Lesa" that also helped frame her opinion of Lesa.
"I feel for Ayan, because she didn't deserve what she got," she says. "There's a lot of season left, and everybody is gonna be shocked."
The biggest shock of RHODubai season 2 is that Ayan and Lesa's friendship did not survive it. Taleen says the cast is still trying to understand why, shutting down fan theories that Stanbuy is somehow responsible. However, she may be involved, as a messenger. Taleen reveals the former Ladies of London star drops a "bomb" on the cast trip to Bali -- a bomb which may or may not involve Lesa and Ayan -- that sets the end of the season in motion.
"It kind of just explodes in everyone's face, and we had no idea that that was going to happen," she says. "It's kind of just an avalanche of drama. Bali is nuts."
Much like Taleen and Brooks, Ayan and Lesa haven't been on speaking terms since the season finished filming, roughly a year ago. Taleen is optimistic about their future, though, just like she is with Brooks.
"I have those conversations with Ayan, and I've told her, 'You guys are stronger than this,'" she shares. "Friends, even Brooks and I, there's ebbs and flows in friendship, and there's ups and downs and, hopefully, I really, genuinely hope that they-- Brooks might not want them to be besties, as you saw on the mid-season trailer. She was very happy about that downfall, but I actually, genuinely hope that their friendship reconciles, because it was more than just a friendship."
"At the end of the day, we are a group of friends, we are," Taleen declares. "I hope we can get past all the BS, but there is a lot to come and you guys are going to love it."
The Real Housewives of Dubai airs Tuesdays at 9 p.m. ET/PT on Bravo. Episodes stream next day on Peacock.
RELATED CONTENT:
