RHONY husband Abe Lichy admitted he was "in the dog house for a long time" after selling the couple's Bitcoin.
Abe Lichy is explaining his side of his Bitcoin drama with wife Erin Lichy.
The attorney, who has been married to The Real Housewives of New York City cast member since 2012, caught up with Page Six's Virtual Reali-Tea podcast about the very "real" issue the couple recently faced in their marriage after he sold their shared Bitcoin without telling her. He also revealed how the two are doing today.
"So, it was representative of kind of a larger, deeper issue," Abe explained regarding the background of the Bitcoin issue. "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 continued about their former accessory business, FRAMEWORK. "So we lost all our cash, and it was a very expensive MBA. I learned a lot."
When the handbag company failed, the couple had been dealing with a lot in their family. "We had our second child, and my father was sick for three years with brain cancer and had just passed away," Abe explained. "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."
According to Abe, the aftermath was both of them starting 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," Abe said. "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."
He noted that "part of" the reason he didn't tell Erin was because he felt a responsibility to "provide" for her.
"I didn't want to take it from our joint checking account, so I took it from the Bitcoin," he continued. "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."
Though it caused some tension in his marriage, Abe said that it ended up being a "liberating" moment for the couple because they were "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," he said. "But, it was tough. It was really tough."
Erin Lichy opens up on her and Abe's struggles
Erin explained that she had mixed emotions about Abe's decision on Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen in October.
"It's confusing, this one. Yeah, I'm confused too," she said. "There were other things that Abe had just made decisions [on], and we're partners and we have to talk about things. And I think that's what really got to me."
"Was it a lot of money?" host Andy Cohen asked.
"There were a few that, yes, amounted to a good amount of money," Erin clarified. "I mean, he was trying to do the right thing and not stress me out — he knew that I was going through a lot, but, ultimately, I'd rather have the communication."
Andy then asked Erin if she was surprised when Abe said that he only kept the sale secret because he was trying to protect Erin in an interview on RHONY.
"I'm not surprised, because I know that's what he thought he was doing," Erin said.
Are Erin Lichy and Abe Lichy still married?
Though the spouses went through a low point on RHONY Season 15, they are still going strong in their relationship. As Abe put it on his recent podcast appearance, "Now, it's really at the point where we're just able to have an open, honest relationship from that."
Erin, for her part, took to her Instagram Story in October after one of her followers asked if she and Abe were "OK."
"Yes cutie," Erin wrote, along with the prayer hands emoji.
Watch new episodes of RHONY Season 15 on Tuesdays at 9/8c on Bravo. Stream episodes the next day on Peacock.
