Beggar. Liar. Gaslighter.
That’s how Carolina Brooks describes her friend — yes, friend — fairy tale marie. The two women had a falling out while filming the second season of Bravo The Real Housewives of Dubaiwhich ended almost a year ago. Now, they are reliving their rivalry and learning new things about it, while watching scenes they weren’t present for and listening to privately filmed confessionals.
“She’s so delusional,” Caroline tells ET about Taleen, after Taleen told ET that the show changed the woman she called a friend for nearly a decade.
“She said, ‘It changed her,’ as if I am the new girl from season 1,” Caroline scoffs. “Excuse me, I’ve been there. I brought you in my group of friends and I brought you for the show I’m on. Don’t tell me a camera or something changed me when I’m the same person. I stood up for you, and that’s what changed me, when I saw your behavior as a two-faced person.”
Caroline says that every narrative Taleen is pushing on her is actually a projection onto Taleen herself. She also says that season 2 Furthermore, he is starting to write revisionist history when it comes to the show.
“She’s a liar. She’s a liar. She’s a liar,” Caroline repeats, countering Taleen’s claim that she had no aspirations to join RHODubai in season 1because she wanted to see if the Middle East would accept a reality show of this style before signing up.
“She wanted to be a part of the show before we even filmed the first season, when I told her, ‘Don’t tell anyone! I’m going to be on the show. The Real Housewives of Dubai,'” Caroline recalls. “She’s like, ‘Put me in there! Please, man! Put me in there.’ She’s a liar.”
Caroline claims that Taleen “played dumb” on camera when talk of breaking the fourth wall arose around her alleged desperate desire to join the cast, after Lesa Milan revealed to Taleen, Chanel Ayan It is Carolina Stanbury that Caroline Brooks had apologized to Taleen for calling her a “beggar.” Taleen acted as if it was the first time she had heard that term.
“Taleen actually told me that’s what hurt her, that I called her a bag lady,” Caroline stands firm, sharing that the term came out of her mouth shortly after cameras cut to the rooftop restaurant confrontation in episode 5.
“I was walking down the elevator shaft after we finished that scene,” she says. “I told her, ‘You’re a beggar.’ I said, ‘You begged me to be on this show.’ And then she said, when she called me after that — before we saw each other again — she said that’s what hurt, is that I said, she begged, and then I said, ‘I apologize for calling you a beggar.’ So for her to act shocked was shocking to me.”
“Maybe she’s embarrassed about it, and maybe that’s why she didn’t want me to repeat what the problem was, because it’s an embarrassing thing to say,” she continues, “but it was actually show-driven, it 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 group of friends.”
The couple’s feud reached a boiling point at Stanbury’s housewarming dinner, which ended in a shouting match between the two in the driveway. Taleen, cigarette in mouth, spoke about Caroline borrowing her designer clothes to dress up in Season 1.
“I’ve never worn a piece 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 stupid, throwaway comment. My entire first-season wardrobe is still hanging on hangers in my house. I wonder if her season is on her hangers.”
The fight began inside the house, with Taleen’s husband Raffi intervening to initially calm things down. His involvement only made things worse.
“I remember a lot more happening,” Caroline teases. “But of course, the show isn’t long enough to show every bit of it. But reliving it was even harder to watch again.”
During the verbal argument, Taleen made comments about Caroline not having a husband to defend her.
“Out of line, that was so nasty,” Caroline laments. “You, (Taleen), were around when I was still married to that man, who abused me so much. And now, you’re watching your husband yell at me? That just shows who she is as a person. It’s more of a reflection of her than a reflection of me.”
“I think Taleen’s act needs to stop,” she says. “Stop saying I drink too much. Stop saying I’m an alcoholic. … I don’t have a drinking problem. In fact, I work seven days a week. I own two businesses that are thriving.”
That said, Caroline isn’t ruling out her friendship with Taleen.
“Can we move on? Absolutely,” she offers. “Will I ever trust her the same way? No, but we can get through it.”
“There’s love in my heart for Taleen,” she says. “She owes me a huge apology for all the games and the gaslighting, and she continues to do that, as I can see in interviews.”
And despite what some may think (partly from reading Caroline’s posts on Xold Twitter), she doesn’t regret bringing Taleen into the group.
“I brought her with– every intention was good in my heart,” she says. “I know this is something she really wanted, so I would do it for her, or any friend, for that matter, and I don’t regret it. I think, 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 bracing themselves for the big one. explosion between best friends Lesa and Ayanwhich should happen in the next few weeks. The mid-season trailer presented a snapshot of Caroline’s reaction, apparently delighted at the “house of cards” crumbling.
“They were very mean to me and Stanbury, (Nina Ali It is Sara Al Madani), season 1 and so for me, I’m not going to lie, like, yeah, it’s childish that I laughed a little bit, but I’m still traumatized,” she explains. “They were very nasty to us. … They were getting hit and punched a lot, season 1, and they made it really hard for some of us in the cast, and they were the dumbest thieves and they wouldn’t let anyone else in, and it felt very much like a team, 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 anyone’s friendships fall apart, or any problems like that at the end, because we’re all friends, but they deserved it.”
Caroline is hopeful the pair can patch things up at their soon-to-be-taped reunion, where she knows she’ll have to answer for some of her own mistakes too. That includes throwing shade at the launch of Ayan’s makeup line, giving all the credit to her partner, makeup artist Toni Malt.
“Toni Malt is a legend, I’m like a fan of hers,” Caroline says. “It was kind of a shadow on Ayan, but obviously Ayan owns her company. They’re business partners.”
“What happened was I heard a rumor that Ayan was saying that I have business partners in[my salon]Glass House,” she continues. “I don’t. I’m the sole owner. I’m the founder, owner — no partners in that business. But in my consulting business, I to do having a business partner. … So when she said that, I was like, ‘Oh, you get it.’ This was before Ayan and I became close. I was like, I’m definitely going to slap her 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, so I just snapped back.”
But it didn’t help Caroline’s case much, as her criticism came after Stanbury commented that Caroline doesn’t like to see others succeed.
“That was very rich coming from her, very rich coming from her. Carolina Stanbury“, Caroline reflects. “What a throwaway comment. I support everyone. I support everyone’s business. I’ve always supported everyone in my cast, and no matter what they’re successful at, 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 are sure to be at odds with each other when they reunite, after Caroline Brooks claimed Stanbury’s life was paid for entirely by her friend, Michael Davis, aka “Dubai Michael”. Stanbury has since denied this.
“It was Michael who said that, not me,” Caroline stands firm. “She should talk to her friend, because he says that a lot — to all. He says it to Ayan, he says it to me, and then as we hear it from each other in our friend groups, we hear that he keeps saying it. So she should deal with Michael about that comment. Not us, because we didn’t make that up.”
The Real Housewives of Dubai airs Tuesdays at 9pm ET/PT on Bravo. Episodes stream the next day on Peacock.
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