Mary-RHODC Wants To Showcase Her Charity

Article from Reality Wanted.

by Chandra

Mary Schmidt Amons, of The Real Housewives of Washington DC, is a Washingtonian through and through. Born and raised in our nation’s capitol, her grandfather was a radio and TV personality in the city and her father, a lobbyist. She met her husband Rich when she was a young adult and has been married for over 20 years to him. Mary and Rich have a large family and live just outside of the city, where Mary mostly focuses on her beloved charities “Labels of Love” and “The District Sample Sale” and raising her children, including her daughter Lolly who has recently moved back into the house along with her Burmese Mountain Dog! Reality Wanted caught up with Mary as she was celebrating her birthday in Los Angeles!

Q. Chandra, Reality Wanted: What made you decide to open up your home and your family for a show like The Real Housewives of DC?

A. Mary Amons: I basically did it to showcase and grow my charity that I founded in 2006, that has supported women and children in Washington, called Labels of Love. We do fashion and art focused events and I thought it was a perfect opportunity to launch into a national spotlight. I am very proud of my family and I thought it would be a great opportunity to showcase the ups and downs and fun we have as a family.

Q. Chandra, Reality Wanted: You mention on the show that you “met Rich, fell in love, got married and had children, but not in that order.” What order was it in and how did your family help since you were such a young mom?

A. Mary Amons: The order was that I met Rich, fell in love, got pregnant and then got married. I met him in September and I found out I was pregnant in December. My mother found out she was pregnant about five weeks after I did and we gave birth to daughters within seven weeks of each other. I was a month shy of twenty then. When we first got married we rented an apartment in McClean for six months, and in talking through it, my parents were very encouraging for us to not be throwing money at rent but to save money for a house, so they invited us to come move back with them. My mother was also having a baby at the same time, I ended up coming home to my house and lived there for a year so we could put a down payment on a home, which was very pivotal for us as a little family. If it weren’t for the support of my parents I think it would have been a lot harder. They didn’t help us with the down payment, but enabled us to save our own money for a house.

Q. Chandra, Reality Wanted: Have you ever worked aside from raising your children and the charity?

A. Mary Amons: I have worked. My dad gave me a great opportunity when Vince Lombardi died of cancer he started a foundation to raise money for the Georgetown Hospital which has since become the Vince Lombardi Cancer Research Center. That was sort of our family project. When I became a young mom, he hired me to run the foundation from home, so I spent nine years as the Executive Director of the Vince Lombardi Foundation.

Q. Chandra, Reality Wanted: The Washington Post reported that Lolly worked at Leopolds Café in Georgetown. When Cat and you were taping there and eating lunch, Lolly thought that Cat was being rude. Did you pick up on that?

A. Mary Amons: No. Actually, I thought Lolly was being rude. She was actually kind of in the weeds, and stressed out and I thought she was being a little bit abrasive dealing with us. I remember saying that to Cat. In fact, the way that scene unfolds, my relationship with Cat was sort of unfolding and evolving at that point. She is very open, she is very opinionated and I totally appreciated that from the very beginning. I am the kind of person that believes if you are going to invest in a friendship, get real from the get go. She was explaining to me her own philosophy and opinions about whatever I was struggling with with Lolly and I was listening. I was not offended at all in the least bit by Cat or her opinions.

Q. Chandra, Reality Wanted: The next show seems to revolve around Lolly and her relations with the Salahi’s, her involvement in a car theft, the lock on your closet and who she knows on Facebook. (Tareq and Michaele Salahi, according to gossip sights and trailers, accuse Lolly of being involved in a car theft of theirs due to who she is linked to on Facebook and her history of stealing Mary’s clothes) Can you tell me how this all happened and how much credibility do you think the Salahi’s have?

A. Mary Amons: None. I will say briefly that if you watch on Thursday night, the whole thing unfolds and we figure out what is going on and what this accusation is and it is completely false and erroneous. It was still very upsetting and tough to go through as a parent.

Q. Chandra, Reality Wanted: Did you know Tareq and Michaele Salahi before the show?

A. Mary Amons: No. The only way I knew Michaele was from back in the 90’s when I bought makeup from her makeup counter. We did not have a personal relationship; she was just the bubbly fun makeup artist in our mall, so no I did not know them.

Q. Chandra, Reality Wanted: Kona the Burmese Mountain Dog seems to bring some stress to the Amons Household. Why would you let Lolly move back in with this giant dog?

A. Mary Amons: Well, it was kind of a package deal and it was supposed to be temporary. There was this level of stress that I was dealing with that I think that as a mother, and the way that I approach motherhood, that I have tried to set boundaries and expectations and I think you sort of have to, especially in my case since I have so many kids, I am so busy, and the older they get the more things you have to deal with, I have to pick my battles. I just sort of let it go, like “I am not going to be screaming about the fur and the dog poop anymore.” And it actually shifted the whole thing, it’s not happening as badly anymore, she is taking more responsibility for Furminating the dog and picking up after the dog, so I feel like that is another philosophy about parenting, that when you make your statement and you let it go, and let them realize the impact of the stress they are imposing on you, they’ll get it. And that has definitely happened. Plus, Kona is a precious dog and I have fallen in love with Kona.

Video Of Mary At An Event For Labels of Love: