Katie Rost, who's returning to
The Real Housewives of Potomac as a "friend" this upcoming fourth season is getting candid about her ongoing custody battle and her recent miscarriage. If you recall, the ball and gala girl shared a graphic photo of her lying naked on the bathroom floor with blood under her.
“I took it down, but not before the internet went wild,” she told
Page Six. Rost said her boyfriend, a man named Jacob, took the photo, and posted it online after he learned Rost had suffered a miscarriage with his child.
Sharing the disturbing image was just the latest chapter in the complicated custody battle between her and ex-husband, Dr. James Orsini.
Rost revealed she had a telephone hearing with Orsini and a New Jersey judge to discuss their current custody case when she began to miscarry.
“I began to bleed profusely while I listened to Judge Mecca deny me my request to be reunited with my children,” she said. “Distraught and afraid, I got into the shower and laid down to cleanse my body. The baby aborted and I was in intense pain.”
Rost and Orsini share three children together: a son named James Rocco and twin daughters, Renee and Kathryn.
The former couple has been in a tumultuous custody battle over the past few months. Rost lives in Maryland while Orsini is in New Jersey with the three kids and his wife, Fanny Mendoza. Rost is fighting to be the primary custodian, reports the publication.
Rost alleges in court papers that Orsini has been manipulating the court system and claims he is “politically connected.”
Meanwhile, Orsini’s attorney Alex Pastore told
Page Six, “There has never been one ounce of evidence provided in any of Ms. Rost’s pleading which would collaborate any such accusation.”
“The record in this matter is clear that upon any ruling in which Ms. Rost is not satisfied, she, in turn, files applications to have experts and judges removed from her matter claiming bias or collusion,” he continued. “To our knowledge, the administrative director did not find any merit to the complaints.”
According to allegations made by Rost in legal documents, the couple has a long history of physical and verbal abuse that dates back seven years. Orsini’s legal team claims that any allegations of abuse have been dismissed in court.
Orsini himself has denied abusing Rost, but the publication obtained text messages sent as recently as April 8, 2018, that show Orsini being verbally abusive to Rost, calling her a “nasty, evil person,” and “[too] selfish to have kids,” among other insults.
The publication also obtained an email Orsini’s mother, Marie Orsini, sent Rost, her then-daughter-in-law, on Jan. 21, 2012, in which she discusses Orsini’s alleged drinking.
“[He] certainly has a chemical imbalance to alcohol, he becomes a different person, and continues to say the same things,” Orsini’s mother said, before adding that she hopes her son “looks into himself and takes responsibility for his actions.”
Rost alleges one of the first times she saw Orsini’s temper was Oct. 28, 2011, the night before their wedding.
“The groom got s–t-faced drunk and made a series of calls to me and my mother saying he didn’t give a f–k about me, and was not going through with the marriage,” Rost alleged.
The couple went through with the wedding, but Rost claimed their issues only got worse. She said Orsini allegedly began physically abusing her before their son’s birth and she later told the police that Orsini had assaulted her.
“He’d stage it as though ‘we’ were having a fight that would involve him insulting me,” she said, adding that their arguments triggered her anxiety.
“When James became aggressive, I retreated into a shell much like that I used to support me when I had a panic attack,” Rost said. “When he was particularly nasty, I would ball up into a knot in the bed or on the sofa.”
Meanwhile, Rost's ex-husband Orsini released a statement in response to the domestic violence accusations via
Page Six, “Katie Rost has begun a one-sided smear campaign against me through social media. She has made horrendous false allegations regarding our past relationship and her accessibility to the children. I have continued to abide by court orders set in place. I would love nothing more than to have the truth revealed; yet would actually prefer the lives of my children, my wife, my stepdaughter and myself to remain private.”
Rost has shared on her social media pages that she's been a victim of abuse from her ex-husband. On December 5, Orsini’s attorneys filed a complaint stating Rost was in violation of their agreement not to disparage each other online.
Meanwhile, Rost alleges that her ex-husband is to blame for her not returning to the second season of The Real Housewives of Potomac as a full-time cast member.
In a letter Rost wrote to a New Jersey judge, Rost said another judge “sent a letter to NBC Universal attempting to get them to fire me” so that she would not “disparage” Orsini. Rost alleged that Orsini and his lawyers caused her to lose a $115,000 contract with NBCUniversal as a result, and she is currently struggling to pay her legal bills, according to
Page Six.
“A judge never sent any letter to NBC. The attorney sent a letter just making sure that our legal team knew what was in their agreement,” a source told
Page Six.
The source added that the amount of money Rost provided us for the Season 2 deal was “a bit inflated.”
Rost’s mother said Katie’s inability to share more of her personal life affected the business deal.
“The producer wanted her to provide some information, and [Katie] wasn’t willing to do it,” Rynthia said. “I believe that Gizelle [Bryant, another ‘Potomac’ cast member,] had said some things, and they wanted her to talk about them. At some point she stopped filming [for the second season], because [James] had taken the kids. They didn’t like that she wasn’t sharing enough of what was going on in her life.”
“It had absolutely nothing to do with any issues with her ex-husband,” a source close to production said. “We had decided she was just going to be a ‘friend of’ at that point, not a full Housewife. She didn’t want us to shoot anything in her personal life, including her home, anything she was doing. She was shutting everything down anyway.”
However, Rost will return as a "friend" of the Bravo hit reality series when the show returns on Sunday, May 5.
A source close to production said that Rost was added this season “organically” because of her friendships with the women on the show, but “moving forward I think we have to think about that more closely with what is going on.” Rost’s current custody issues will not be featured on Season 4.
Rost claims she has not seen her children in nearly 10 months. On June 27, Judge Jane Gallina-Mecca, who is presiding over the case, ruled that Rost would only be allowed supervised visitation, pending a mental health evaluation. According to Mecca, the order was granted because Rost missed a scheduled court date and it was “clear” she did not intend to return her children as ordered.
“Her clerk told me I wouldn’t need to come to court if we had an agreement in writing,” Rost told
Page Six. “I had just gotten to Virginia with the children. School had let out on the 21st of June. I didn’t think it was reasonable for her to require me to drive with them all the way back if it wasn’t necessary.”
Rost provided an email from the clerk sent on June 25 stating that if Rost and Orsini could not work out an arrangement, Mecca would have to make the decision at a hearing. The clerk also said, “I assume no one wants [the children] at the courthouse, but I do not know the best logistical way for the parties to approach the matter.”
Rost’s mother, Rynthia, was not allowed to supervise. A spokesperson for the Administrative Office of the Courts in New Jersey said the courts or judges are not permitted to comment on cases that are pending.
“The record is clear on this issue,” said Pastore, Orsini’s attorney. “[Rost] was only to be permitted supervised parenting time until she was evaluated by Dr. LaCouture in Ridgewood, New Jersey. Ms. Rost failed to schedule her appointment with Dr. LaCouture. Dr. LaCouture advised the court that Ms. Rost has not made herself available for the court-ordered evaluation.”
Meanwhile, the publication obtained proof indicating that Rost has made attempts to see her children on at least two separate occasions.
On Nov. 24, Rost sent Orsini a text message asking him not to ignore her requests to set up times and dates that can facilitate her parenting time. On Dec. 2, Rost sent an email to their parenting coordinator, William Dimin, in which she claimed Orsini had kept her from getting in contact with her kids.
But Orsini’s legal team argued that Rost did not attempt to see her kids through the appropriate channels, which would be the Bergen Family Center.
“Since June of 2018, Ms. Rost scheduled one parenting visit with the children,” Pastore said. “The children appeared at the Bergen Family Center for parenting time, but was told that Ms. Rost cancelled the visitation and she did not appear. Since that time, Ms. Rost has texted our client seeking to not follow the terms of the court order and permit her parenting time.”
In response to Rost contacting Dimin, Pastore said the parenting coordinator responded on Dec. 4 reminding Rost of her parenting privileges.
“He advised Ms. Rost that he may be able to arrange for a neutral third party to supervise in lieu of having to go to the court for parenting time,” Pastore said. “We understand Ms. Rost never followed up with Mr. Dimin. Instead, that very evening Ms. Rost began her social media smear campaign against our client and since that date chose not to exercise parenting time with the children.”
Rost maintains that the court is conspiring against her and uses tactics “to hide [their] corruption and frustrate the efforts of an outsider who fights for civil and parental rights.”
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