The Valley’s Jesse Lally is setting the record straight on his fiances with estranged wife Michelle Saniei.
“This idea that I was spending all of our money on wine — that’s a lot of wine for very little storage in my little cellar, my wine fridges,” Jesse, 44, exclusively told Us Weekly on Tuesday, May 13. “We lived a really great life, and we continue to live that life.”
During Tuesday’s episode of The Valley, Michelle, 36, and Jesse got into an explosive argument during the cast trip to Santa Barbara, California.
After Jesse accused his ex of being a hooker — a claim he later clarified was a lie and one he regrets sharing on TV — Michelle fought back.
“You’re a loser. You f***ing spent all of our money. You are the one,” she said. “Why is a gay guy sending you money on your birthday?”
In a confessional interview, Michelle added, “If anyone should be an escort, it’s him because he’s the one who’s broke.”
Jesse seemingly acknowledged that recent changes in the housing market affected their finances. At the same time, he denied being flat-out broke.
“The real estate market slowed down in 2023 and 2024, and we’re both really at fault,” Jesse explained to Us. “But it’s a perfect way for her to deflect.”
Before season 1 of The Valley kicked off in March 2024, Us exclusively confirmed that Michelle and Jesse had separated after nearly six years of marriage.
Since then, cameras have captured the couple — who are both real estate agents — struggle to get along as they attempt to amicably coparent their 4-year-old daughter, Isabella.
In his latest interview, Jesse said both he and Michelle sat down together with a mutual friend to discuss boundaries, including what they would and wouldn’t talk about on the show ahead of season 2.
According to Jesse, Michelle isn’t following through with her promises.
“We came in with a list of five things,” he said. “No. 1 on my list was finances, so we need to figure out a financial situation. You cannot talk about it. It was more to get these things figured out going into the start of filming, and it just didn’t work out the way that we had hoped.”
Jesse continued, “There were certain things that if I said something, she needed to fire back with something else, and those things that she fired back with were things that were on the list.”
The Valley airs on Bravo Tuesdays at 9 p.m. ET. Stream old episodes anytime via Peacock.
