The Valley’s Michelle, Jesse Get Hit With Cheating Rumors Before Separation

Michelle Lally and Jesse Lally‘s costars from The Valley decided to stir the pot by bringing up some surprising cheating rumors on screen.

During the newest episode of the Bravo show, which aired on Tuesday, April 16, Michelle and Jesse individually addressed the issues in their marriage. Michelle started out by telling Brittany Cartwright that she wasn’t sure whether she wanted to remain with Jesse.

“Jesse goes through his patches of trying but I don’t know if it is 100 percent sincere,” Michelle explained. “I am more unhappy than happy. [I felt like this] basically since [our daughter] Isabella was born.”

After three years of feeling unhappy, Michelle hinted that separation might be the next step.

“I see him trying and I am just holding back. I don’t know what it is in me. I just think three years is a long time,” she admitted before elaborating in a confessional. “When Isabella was born, everything was closed because of COVID, so Jesse was very hands on. And then everything opened and he just left. I do have resentment. It is hard to swallow how I felt so alone for so long. We drifted apart.”

Michelle said she could see herself moving on from Jesse, adding, “I don’t know if we can get back to the place we were before Isabella. I do think the constant fighting and bickering and not smiling, it is unhealthy for our daughter. So sometimes I think it would be better off if she sees two happy, good friends, as opposed to us together unhappy.”

Jesse, meanwhile, had a different take on the situation. While talking to his costars at a guys gathering, Jesse waved off his current issues with Michelle as “superficial.”

“About a year ago, she applied for an apartment and basically told me she was leaving,” he revealed. “I was a little blindsided by it. I didn’t see it coming at all. But after talking about it for a couple of hours and me sort of asking for a second chance, we decided to give it another try.”

Jesse remained hopeful that Michelle would want to stay married. “My best option at this point is giving her the space to find what she needs to find,” he shared.

Jax Taylor and Luke Broderick, who didn’t seem as convinced, lightly brought up the issues they picked up on. Jax, 44, started by asking Jesse about Michelle’s close bond with a mystery director who wasn’t named on screen.

“Michelle always claims she doesn’t know who famous people are. But she was going on with that director, she was going out with him for a couple days straight,” Jax told the cameras. “She goes to the Château [Marmont] every day from her house and she happened to meet him at the pool and they get along. It turned out to be another day. And then another day, Like, you don’t think this is peculiar?”

Jax continued: “I know she’s a real estate agent so this is a potential customer. Jesse doesn’t seem too bothered by it. I don’t know whether I believe it or not.”

In response to questions about Michelle’s friendship with another man, Jesse joked back, “She was with him for the entire night, they got wrecked. They had dinner the other night with a famous actor. I told her to hike up her skirt and drop her blouse down. Whatever you had to do.”

Luke also asked whether Jesse felt “comfortable” with Michelle spending “eight or nine hours alone” with someone who is “super famous and wealthy.” Jesse assured him that he wasn’t concerned about Michelle’s interactions with the director.

“I think when you are secure enough in your relationship or in yourself, you trust that Michelle is not going to do anything. If she does something then it is on her and I get to tell Isabella for the next 40 years that her mom f—ked everything up,” he told Luke. “I wouldn’t [work through it if she cheated]. That’s the one straw. I will remedy everything else but cheating [is no]. I let her do whatever she wants and trust that she can make the right decisions.”

Luke hinted in a confessional that he was sitting on some information he couldn’t publicly share. The slip-up came after his girlfriend, Kristen Doute, previously mentioned on screen that she wasn’t going to mention certain details about Michelle out of respect for her.

“I know Jesse and Michelle’s relationship isn’t the best. But I am also holding a secret that could end everything,” Luke mentioned. “I can’t say what I really want to say.”

Before joining The Valley, Jesse and Michelle got engaged in November 2017 after several years of dating. They tied the knot one year later at the Beaulieu Garden in California and subsequently expanded their family with daughter Isabella’s arrival in 2020. Us Weekly confirmed in March that Jesse and Michelle separated after nearly six years of marriage.

Jesse and Michelle discussed their issues further at the end of the episode.

“It is clear that I am not exactly happy. I told [Brittany] I don’t know what to do with our relationship and it makes me unhappy as a person,” Michelle told her husband. “Jesse and I have been in a bad place for so long and all the fighting is exhausting. I don’t know if that is what I want for the rest of my life.”

Jesse, meanwhile, wanted to continue to fight for their future together, saying, “I want to do that as a team and that is why I am here doing what I have to do. I know I want it to work and I know that you are in a place where you can’t really answer that right now.”

Michelle agreed to try but noted that she couldn’t “promise anything.” In the trailer for next week’s episode, the situation took a turn for the worst when Jax seemingly claimed that Michelle was “texting other men.” The drama came to a head during a cast outing where Jesse appeared to threaten Kristen, 41, and Luke.

“If you bring out any skeletons that I don’t already know about my wife, I will f—king bury you,” Jesse told his costars.

The Valley airs on Bravo Tuesdays at 9 p.m. ET and will be available to stream on Peacock the next day.