Ashley Iaconetti moved quickly to defuse concerns about marital tension after a brief, awkward scene in the premiere of The Real Housewives of Rhode Island showed her husband Jared Haibon distracted while she tried to gossip at their coffee shop. Speaking to Entertainment Weekly at the show’s March 30 premiere event at Level Ten at Starrett-Lehigh in New York City, Iaconetti said the moment should not be read as a sign of trouble in their marriage.
In Thursday’s first episode, Iaconetti attempts to bring Haibon up to speed on friction with new castmates including Rosie DiMare and Jo-Ellen Tiberi while the couple is at Audrey’s, their Rhode Island coffee shop. The conversation is repeatedly interrupted as Haibon takes and calls out coffee orders, an edit that prompted immediate reaction from viewers. “You cannot have a conversation with him at Audrey’s. He’s not ignoring me. That’s not a sign that he’s not into me. That is literally him in work mode,” she told EW, asking audiences to consider how partners behave while on the job.
Iaconetti also used the premiere press to acknowledge that Audrey’s — which becomes an ongoing storyline on the season — isn’t the financial boon fans might expect. She confirmed on the show that the shop “doesn’t make as much money as we hoped” and that running it requires a heavy lift from Haibon, which helps explain why he appears so focused during service hours. The shop’s struggles, and how they affect the couple’s home life, are threaded through the season’s early episodes.
Beyond the coffee-shop context, Iaconetti stressed that her domestic partnership with Haibon is balanced and cooperative. She defended his parenting, saying the pair split childcare “50/50 more than any other mom and dad combo I’ve ever seen,” and pointed out he had been with their children overnight “for the fourth night this week.” The couple married in Rhode Island in August 2019 after first meeting on season two of Bachelor in Paradise in 2015; they are parents to Dawson, 4, and Hayden, who turns 2 this summer.
The premiere event — attended by cast and producers — offered broader context for the new Housewives cast. Andy Cohen, at the event, said he was excited for viewers to “meet the women” and described the season as “funny” and reminiscent of an “old school season of Housewives,” praising the cast for feeling “untouched by the machine” and “uniquely themselves.” In addition to Iaconetti, the series lineup includes Rosie DiMare, Jo-Ellen Tiberi, Liz McGraw, Kelsey Swanson, Alicia Carmody and Rulla Nehme Pontarelli. Real Housewives of New Jersey star Dolores Catania appears on RHORI as a friend.
The Real Housewives of Rhode Island airs Sundays at 9 p.m. ET/PT on Bravo, with episodes available to stream on Peacock the following day. Iaconetti’s remarks at the premiere aim to recalibrate viewer expectations about that first coffee-shop moment — not as evidence of a faltering relationship, she said, but simply a glimpse of husband-in-business mode.