Mary was "Completely Blindsided" By Salahis

Article from People.


Mary Schmidt Amons wasn’t trying to provoke Tareq Salahi at the awkward dinner party depicted on Thursday’s Real Housewives of D.C.. She just sensed he had something to say to her.

“It was clear that Tareq [Salahi] was overserved and he had something that he was uncomfortable with that he wanted to address with me,” Amons tells PEOPLE on Friday, on the phone from airport in Los Angeles. “I just kept feeling this awkward conversation — this mumbling under his breath.”

So, when he did finally come out with it — accusing her daughter Lolly and her friends of stealing his car and polo gear, then trumpeting their crime on Facebook — the reality star says she was “completely blindsided.”

“I had no clue about what he was accusing her of — and no clue of what actually transpired,” she says now. “He was very unclear about what actually happened. Car theft? Gear? It was just mind-boggling for me, and I was completely dumbfounded.”

But she and her husband Rich started investigating and quickly found that there was no police investigation, no FBI investigation nor any truth to Tareq and Michaele Salahi‘s accusations. So, what did Amons daughter do?
“Lolly has a friend that was [photographed] at a club that had a polo helmet on,” she says. “And she made a comment [on Facebook] that said, ‘How are you having so much fun without me?’”

After determining that her daughter had nothing to do with the alleged crime, Amons said they decided as a family to forget about it — and not to confront the Salahis.

“I think they like to create drama so they can deflect their own drama,” she says, explaining that any confrontation would have just escalated things further. “They create scenarios that will cause attention to other people.”

In light of the drama, does the newly-minted reality star have any regrets about putting her family on television?

“Lolly has moved on from this,” Amons says. “It’s been upsetting and we’ve moved past it … so we’re all having a rough couple of days here. But the truth is out there now. This is the most disturbing thing [to happen to us] … Overall, I think we look great. We’re relatable. I think we’re funny.”