Real Housewives of Salt Lake City star Lisa Barlow opened up about an intense, emotionally and potentially devastating moment she shared with husband John Barlow while filming season 7.
“I’ve never hidden anything since I’ve been on the show. I have zero control over what’s shown and what’s not,” Lisa, 51, exclusively tells Us ahead of the Wednesday, September 16 premiere of the hit Bravo series. “I have a really great marriage, and I’m very lucky for that. But I put in the work on it.”
Lisa and John, 50, said “I do” back in 2003, going on to welcome Jack, now 21, and Henry, now 14. Lisa recalled having a “tough time” in the “early” years of her and John’s marriage.
“I’m his second wife, and so I think, like I went into our marriage, really independent, as did he,” she recalled. “So I think the first three years of our marriage were the hardest for me, and then to circle back to that last year devastated me … There’s times where you have two very strong, driven people married together where it’s been hard.”
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Lisa recounted what it was like to film that tough lunch scene and — what was perhaps an even more challenging endeavour — watch it back months later.
“When we filmed the lunch last year, it felt like nothing. Two best friends that are also parents that own businesses together that live, breathe and work together,” she said. “When we left that, I didn’t feel any different. It’s when I watched it that I sobbed, and I’m like, ‘Do you even love me?’”
Lisa shared that while she and John have grown accustomed to being apart for an extended period of time due to their various obligations, she didn’t realize how complacent they both became in their marriage until recently.
“My first year of marriage, he was gone [for] 36 weeks … for building businesses like our brands. We weren’t as codependent back then as we are now. But I started traveling again [and] more. I don’t just work with Bravo. We own businesses, so we’re gone a lot. And I started to realize that,” she recalled. “I’m like, ‘Wait a minute? Who is he hanging out with? What is he doing? Who is he going to lunch with?’ And it’s like businesspeople that I didn’t know or friends from high school.”
Lisa confessed that being out of the loop on what was going on in John’s life “really started to bother” her.
“Seeing the way he reacted to me and how he would normally react, I literally was like, ‘Do you even love me anymore?’ Like that was a genuine feeling. I’m like, ‘Do you love me?’ I would never want someone to be with me if they didn’t love me, and I wouldn’t want to be with someone who didn’t love me,” she reflected. “And then he’s like, ‘Why would you even think that? How does your mind even go there? Yes, I love you.’ But he didn’t understand why I was so [bothered] by watching that conversation.”
Lisa admitted that the situation between her and John “felt different,” adding that at one point she even asked her father to impart some safe advice.
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“I called my dad, and you only go to your dad if it’s important,” she recalled. “So I called my dad and cried to my dad, and I’m like, ‘I think, John and I might be done .. I don’t think he loves me anymore.’ My dad’s kind of like, ‘Everybody loves you.’ It’s good to have your dad’s support. My family loves John, but you know we were able to, like, have hard-hitting conversations, so that we could stay a strong, united married couple.”
Lisa shared her love for John and their children keeps her going strong.
“Our kids love us together. We love being parents. We love our family. And I would give up everything before I’d give up my family,” she told Us. “I’d have nothing before I’d give up my family.”
Season 7 of The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City premieres on Bravo Wednesday, September 16, at 8:00 p.m. ET. Episodes stream the next day on Peacock.
