The Real Housewives of New York star Erin Lichy hints at marital problems with her husband Abe Lichy at first season 15 episodes – but Bitcoin wasn’t the only reason for their tension.

“It was representative of a larger, deeper problem,” Abe said on a recent episode of Page sixIt is Podcast “Virtual Reali-Tea”. “It’s not that bad, but it’s real.”

Abe gave a brief backstory, explaining that he left his job at a law firm to start a handbag business with Erin, 37. “We lost all our money. It was a very expensive MBA,” he joked about the failure. Abe noted that it was, in part, a matter of “pride” because he wanted to provide for their family despite the debts associated with their business. (Erin and Abe share three children: Levi, 9, Layla, 7, and Elijah, 4.)

“I didn’t want to take it out of our joint checking account, so I took the Bitcoin. I sold it. I paid the debt,” Abe explained. “We ended up talking about it because she discovered Bitcoin, obviously.”

Having an “honest conversation” with Erin was “liberating” for Abe.

“I was in the doghouse for a long time,” he said. “When we were filming, I was probably two or three months after she found out – when everything happened. So it was still pretty fresh. It was hard. »

Things with the couple have since become good.

“Through this we can have an open and honest relationship,” he added.

Fans picked up on the tension between Erin and Abe during the RHONY season 15 premiere in October, when the couple got into a fight during a family outing with their children. He made a joke about eating mushrooms, which caused a breakup in the couple.

“I don’t think Erin will be irritated by my mushroom joke.” There are other things underneath it,” Abe said in his confessional. Erin, however, wasn’t ready to divulge her issues on camera just yet.

“I’m not going,” she says in her confessional. “I don’t know if I’m ready to talk about all this between Abe and I.”

The truth was revealed in the second episode of the season.

“Abe made certain decisions without discussing them with me,” Erin said in her confessional. “But the problem was that the truth showed up right in the middle of me dealing with my (ill) mother and everything we were going through, so I couldn’t lean on him because he betrayed me , and I was furious with him, and that just added more stress.

Erin wanted to pay off “a large portion” of their mortgage with Bitcoin, but it had already been sold without her knowledge.

“The worst part is that you had sold it years ago and that’s what was so upsetting,” Erin told Abe during their on-camera dinner. “You screwed up and then it escalated into learning about all the other things you’ve been hiding from me.”

He apologized, explaining that it was not a malicious gesture.

“I didn’t feel like my wife didn’t deserve to know anything, I just didn’t want to add to the stress she’s facing in her life,” he said during his confessional. “If you’re with someone, you tend to protect them, but in the long run, that’s not the right thing to do.”

The Real Housewives of New York airs on Bravo Tuesdays at 9 p.m. ET.