The Bravo star explains everything he wants 'Shahs of Sunset' viewers to know about his issues with his once-close friend.
Editor's note: this interview was conducted before Friday's episode of Shahs of Sunset aired on Bravo. ET did not have access to the episode ahead of time and had no knowledge of the content of the conversation between Reza Farahan and Mercedes 'MJ' Javid.
Reza Farahan says he has the receipts.
The Shahs of Sunset star is currently locked in a feud with his best friend of 30 years, Mercedes 'MJ' Javid, after he says she orchestrated drama that directly affected his marriage -- and he tells ET, he'll be ready to prove it at the upcoming cast reunion.
"There are recordings," he claims. "I've heard recordings. I would never drop -- you think I'm insane? I'm gonna drop my best friend of 30 years over hearsay? You better believe that I have receipts."
"And that is the heartbreaking thought, that she sat there and thought this so well planned and orchestrated," he adds. "The two things she didn't think would ever happen was that her little friend would turn on her, or that I would ever find out. Destiney [Rose] was supposed to take the fall and go down."
The "little friend" Reza mentions -- and never by name -- is Ali Ashouri, a relatively new acquaintance to many in the Shahs group. Reza alleges that MJ did all this to get him a spot on the show, something he claims Ali has been angling for, for years, having been a longtime fan of Shahs. Ali became, for Reza, uncomfortably close to his inner circle, including MJ, Destiney and his husband, Adam Neely.
"There's nothing worse you can do than be in cahoots with someone that has an axe to grind between me and my husband," Reza says
Adam and Ali exchanged what Reza describes as innocuous text messages between friends ("memes and GIFs of little porno clips") as jokes; but, Reza says, when MJ caught wind of Adam and Ali's interactions, she began plotting.
"My friend of 30 years betrayed me," he declares. "They took something [innocent] and turned it into something that wasn't. And MJ fed to her little friend that this is borderline sexual harassment … and it got super convoluted and I immediately knew that MJ's dirty fingers were all over it."
"Listen, MJ is a very, very smart woman," he adds. "She says to people, 'I'm so gangster. I would have done it myself if I wanted to confront Reza…' She's gangster, but she's more gangster in that she tried to keep her hands clean. What she didn't account for was that her new little friend would turn on her and reveal what she was up to. And that is what she is struggling with now."
Golnesa 'GG' Gharachedaghi told Reza that Ali confessed the whole alleged plot to her, while MJ has denied being involved in any plotting. Reza compares the whole thing to "puppy-gate" from The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills, with Destiney being Teddi Mellencamp, Ali being Vanderpump Dogs employee John Blizzard and MJ, Lisa Vanderump. Lisa denied ever orchestrating the "puppy-gate" plot, which was allegedly designed to make her co-star, Dorit Kemsley, look bad.
"And I'm not saying Lisa had anything to do with 'puppy-gate,' I was only making a comparison for the audience to better understand a situation that is our situation," Reza notes. "My only reason for bringing it up was to point out that there's multiple people and there's a story that's going around and unlike the Beverly Hills cast, I actually have all of the receipts to prove what it is I'm talking about and why I terminated a 30-year friendship."
Those "receipts" will likely come out at the reunion taping -- which will be the first time Reza has interacted with MJ in months. Reza first confronted MJ over the issue via a phone call, while MJ was in the hospital recovering from a difficult birth -- and not filming for the show. Reza caught some flak from viewers for laying into MJ like that, and he admits he wasn't thinking straight. Still, he doesn’t regret it.
"When I called her in the hospital, which I'm so glad I did, she answered the phone. She did not say to me I had nothing to do with it," he notes. "They showed on the screen that what she said was, 'Full disclosure…' She lied on [Watch What Happens Live With Andy Cohen] and said, 'I said absolutely nothing. I've never betrayed my friendship with Reza…' She's betrayed constantly and I always forgive her, because her mom is such a horrid mother. Her father was dying. She was older, single. Wanted to get married. Have a baby. All I did was have compassion for her and want the best for her. And this is how she repaid me."
Reza and MJ come face to face for the first time since this all started to go down on Friday's episode, an encounter that Reza calls "nuclear." While the cast doesn't get episodes until just before they air, Reza says he has actually seen all the raw footage from the meeting.
"During my trial for my restraining order against MJ's husband, her side subpoenaed that footage," Reza says. "It was very, very, very eye-opening for me. And I realized from that raw, unfiltered footage what was happening. It was really an important thing for me to see. And I'm glad I got to see it."
Ahead of the episode airing, MJ released this statement on Instagram: "Warning: In tonight's episode, you will witness morally reprehensible behavior by the ABHORRENT, REPUGNANT, gas lighting Raza [sic]. Unfortunately, while he makes light of his VICIOUS attack in tonight's episode, you will witness his deepest form of PARASITIC behavior, to date. His FALSE, SLANDEROUS, DEMORALIZING treatment of WOMEN is UNACCEPTABLE. People who align themselves with his ABUSIVE attack have blinders on."
"The pool party is just the beginning, actually," Reza adds. "MJ was going around town, telling every outlet that I blocked her while she was dying in the ICU, [which] couldn't have been further from the truth. She and I were communicating the whole time. I was just gathering all my information, because I knew she was behind it, so I was livid. I was on fire. So, I knew if I went to the hospital, I would get into a fist fight with [her husband] or some bad thing would happen."
Like Reza says, MJ was vocal about feeling betrayed by her friends -- namely her castmates -- for not visiting her in the hospital as she recovered from an emergency c-section and hysterectomy.
"You can't show up for someone and be happy for them when you feel like they're doing you wrong, so going to the hospital, you know, was not an option for me, the way I was feeling," he says. "And then, I heard all the press she was doing and all of the slanderous things she was saying about me, I thought I need to put this b***h on ice until I get to a calm, cool place."
Reza was under the impression that MJ wasn't filming the show -- he claims she was holding out for more money to film season eight, a fight he says he was behind initially -- giving him even more time to "process this betrayal."
"But that sleazeball Nema [Vand], that real opportunist sleazeball Nema, who I will never speak to ever again, decided -- knowing me and MJ for two years -- that he knew best," Reza says. "Nema decided it was in the best interest to ambush me and bring MJ."
ET premiered the exclusive first look at the so-called "ambush." Reza attempted to leave the party when MJ showed up, which led to MJ calling him "scared" and a "b***h." Ultimately, Reza had to face MJ -- whom he says had been plotting this takedown of sorts for the "nine months when she was on bedridden with her mom, [Vida], playing Battleship, trying to figure out her little moves."
"Vida is more diabolical and more sinister and more in MJ's ear than you can imagine," Reza alleges. "I've known MJ for 30-plus years, this is not a Shahs of Sunset phenomenon … [it’s] a lifelong thing of MJ's."
"Please ask MJ to give you a list of six girlfriends I knew she was friends with in high school. Where were they at her wedding?" Reza asks. "Not one of them were there. There's a reason why these patterns don't go away and there's a reason why you leave all this carnage by the wayside."
Reza says MJ has abandoned most of her longtime friends in favor of "yes people," adding that she's threatened by "other women."
"God forbid there's a woman who's younger or prettier or more successful than MJ, MJ will annihilate them," he declares, going on to reference his former Shahs castmates Lilly Ghalichi and Asa Soltan, who both exited the show after showdowns of sorts with MJ.
"Poor Lilly, I literally saw her at Golnesa's baby shower and I walked up to her and apologized to her profusely, because half of the venom that MJ gave her was a result of me loving Lilly and wanting to be super close to her," Reza shares. "Poor Asa ... and now Destiney, I can't get close to any female? It's like, are you kidding me?"
Reza says things are working out differently this time, though, because Destiney is the first woman MJ has allegedly gone after who has a longer history with Reza than MJ; Reza knew Destiney's family before Destiney was even born.
A court granted Reza a three-year restraining order against MJ's husband, Tommy Feight, in May, after Tommy vandalized Reza's home, as captured on security camera. Reza says Tommy carried out the vandalism after Reza and MJ’s heated confrontation at the pool party.
"I'm a gay man that came up in the ‘90s in West Hollywood when gay bashing was normal," Reza notes. "It didn't make the front page, it was all the time and the people that got bashed almost felt shame … [so] if you set foot on my property because of something I said at a pool party -- I don't care what the heck I said at a pool party -- if you show up at my house after calling me on the phone and telling me you're gonna kill me, you drive up with a baseball bat, you jump my fence and you vandalize my property and you trespass, I don't give a flying eff who you are. Don't come to my house, you're gonna go down."
"We wanted to sell our house, we wanted to move, we had full-time security 24/7 for a week outside of our door, I was gonna get a gun," Reza confesses. "It was no joke."
Reza says this whole ordeal impacted his and Adam’s relationship "like a 9.0 earthquake." They lost their mutual confidant, MJ, and put plans to have a baby on hold because they were terrified in their own home. Even so, Reza says he cares deeply for MJ.
"I still love MJ. I will always love MJ,” he says. “I just don't like her right now. And the fact that she's more concerned about being seen as the villain as opposed to being honest and coming clean is what's the most hurtful. But I attribute it to the people she has around her and in her ear.”
Reza says, if MJ comes clean, he’ll welcome her back with open arms; but, the future of their friendship is a little more complicated due to that restraining order.
"You think she's gonna stay with that husband?" Reza asks. "You think she's gonna stay with a husband that has no job? What does Tommy do for a living? I have a three-year restraining order with Tommy, so I have three years of not -- I'm not going to her house, and I don't have to be around him and he doesn't have to be around me. I'm praying that in these three years that she and I, in a safe, public location, can have some sort of dialogue where we can turn the page -- and he's just her muscle. I think if she and I can turn the page, then she can talk to her muscle and, you know, calm him down."
The sad part of this whole thing is that Reza and MJ have missed out on major life moments with one another, like MJ giving birth to her son, Shams, and Reza launching a new business venture, his haircare line, REZA Be Obsessed.
"You got caught, not one hand -- not two hands -- elbows deep in the cookie jar, with crumbs all over your face," Reza says. "We all know what you did. Just say sorry, it's cool. We'll embrace you. We all make mistakes. I don't know get [she’s] digging their heels in so tight and denying, denying, denying in the face of so much evidence."
Shahs of Sunset airs Fridays at 9 p.m. ET/PT on Bravo.
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