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Gina Neely says she hasn’t spoken to ex-husband Pat since she divorced him in 2014, and the reason is because at this point, they have no reason to be in touch.
In the newest issue of PEOPLE, the former Down Home with the Neelys star said they haven’t been in touch at all since 2014.
“I remember leaving with my purse and my duffle bag, and I was out of there,” she said of the day she decided she was done with her marriage. “I haven’t spoken to Pat in four years.”
The two daughters the couple raised together, including her 29-year-old daughter from a previous marriage and their 23-year-old, are adults, so Neely made it clear that their lack of communication isn’t personal.
“I don’t wish him any harm, but he’s never reached out to me… I guess he’s well?” she said. “Our girls are older so we’re not really co-parenting or anything.”
But it also makes sense that she wouldn’t feel the need to be in touch at this point. The obvious reason is that they’re divorced, so there is nothing to talk about. On top of that, Gina and Pat were not only married for 20 years, but they also worked together on the show, wrote a book together and owned businesses as a pair. They were nearly joined at the hip, which was a big issue for Gina.
“There was no balance, no boundaries,” said the 52-year-old. “We should have been allowed space so we could have a stronger feeling of love for that [other] person. But when you’re with a person all the time and then that person tells you, ‘I feel like we don’t spend enough time together,’ what do you do then? I remember specifically saying to him, ‘What more do you want from me? I don’t know what else I can do? I give you all my time, everything.’ I was done.”
Despite their best efforts to make it work, Gina did what she needed to and after six failed attempts at leaving Pat, finally walked out of the door.
“I didn’t want to relinquish my marriage, but I couldn’t let [anyone else] dictate my path or limit my future,” she said. “We weren’t in alignment. I needed self-care.”
And now she’s back out there again, looking for her match on the Bravo dating series, To Rome for Love. As she told us in a recent interview, she’s looking to have more fun and is hoping to find a man, maybe an Italian one, who wants the same.
“I think now for me, I’m looking for a gentleman much more comfortable in their own skin,” she said. “They know what they want and are not afraid to speak on it. Be able to compromise. Because I don’t mind compromising and working with people, but I don’t like controlling people. But just kind of fun. I say now, if I’m not laughing a whole lot on the first date, you’re pretty much not going to get a second one, I can tell you that. It’s all about the laughter and a good time for me. I don’t want to get into too many deep conversations and get all combative and disagree. I don’t want to get into politics. I just want to have fun.”
