Erin Lichy’s husband, Abe, revealed the “larger, deeper issue” behind their drama surrounding Abe’s sale of an expensive Bitcoin – without telling her. He also shared an update on their relationship.
On the current season of the Real Housewives of New York, Erin explained that she and Abe were having trust issues after she discovered that the Bitcoin was missing. The couple’s onscreen interactions have seemed tense throughout the season, leading some fans to think their marriage is on the rocks.
On Page Six’s “Virtual Reali-Tea” podcast, Abe addressed the Bitcoin situation with Erin.
“So, it was representative of kind of a larger, deeper issue,” said Abe, via Bravo TV. “I’ll tell you guys what it was because it’s not that nefarious. But, it was real.”
“We had a handbag business, which I think they show a clip of on the show. This was something that I left my white shoe law firm to start with Erin, and we put all our money into it, self-funded it, and it got to the point where we weren’t really making any money from it,” he explained. “So we lost all our cash, and it was a very expensive MBA. I learned a lot.”
On top of that, Erin and Abe were dealing with family circumstances.
“We had our second child [at the time], and my father was sick for three years with brain cancer and had just passed away,” he said. “We had no cash, and so we had all the debt from this business, and it was our business, not hers. I want to clear that up, because it’s not like I’m paying for her business, it was our business. And, so, it was just the aftermath of that.”
Abe said they had to start over “from scratch.”
“I started my own law firm, but it took several years to start making real money again, so we had more kids, more bills, and still the debt,” he continued. “And it was just a bunch of small things that, at a certain point, I just stopped telling her about it because I didn’t want to add pressure to her.”
According to Abe, a “part of” why he didn’t disclose the Bitcoin situation was that he felt responsible to “provide” for his wife.
“I didn’t want to take it from our joint checking account, so I took it from the Bitcoin,” he said. “And I sent it and paid for the debt, and we ended up talking about it because she found out about the Bitcoin, and I then told her about all the other stuff.”
He said the issue was actually a “liberating” moment because the couple was “able to have that really honest conversation even though [he] was in the dog house for a long time.”
“When we were filming, it was probably two or three months after it all happened, so it was still pretty fresh,” Abe shared. “But, it was tough. It was really tough.”