Erin Lichy's husband Abe opens up about her 'deeper issues'

Abe Lichy explains his side of his Bitcoin drama with his wife Erin Lichy.

The lawyer who was married to The Real Housewives of New York City Performer since 2012, caught up The virtual Reali-Tea from Page Six Podcast about the very “real” problem the couple recently faced in their marriage after he sold their shared Bitcoins without telling her. He also revealed how the two are doing today.

“So it was representative of kind of a bigger, deeper problem,” Abe explained of the background to the Bitcoin problem. “I'll tell you what it was because it's not that shameful. But it was real.”

“We had a handbag store that I think they show a segment of on the show. That was something that made me leave my white-shoe law firm to start with Erin, and we put all our money into it, funded it ourselves and…” “It got to the point where we weren’t really making any money at it anymore.” , he continued about their former accessories business, FRAMEWORK. “So we lost all our money and it was a very expensive MBA. I learned a lot.”

When the handbag company failed, the couple faced many problems in their family. “We had our second child and my father had brain cancer for three years and had just died,” Abe explained. “We had no cash, so we had all the debts from that business, and it was our business, not theirs. I want to make that clear because it's not like I'm paying for their business, it was our business.” And so it was just the consequences of that.

According to Abe, both started “from scratch.”

“I started my own law firm, but it took several years to make any real money again, so we had more kids, more bills and still debt,” Abe said. “And it was just a few little things that at some point I just stopped telling her because I didn't want to put pressure on her.”

He noted that he didn't tell Erin about this “partly” because he felt an obligation to “take care” of her.

“I didn’t want to withdraw it from our joint checking account, so I withdrew it from the Bitcoin,” he continued. “And I sent it and paid off the debt, and we ended up talking about it because she found out about Bitcoin, and then I told her about all the other things.”

Even though it caused some tension in his marriage, Abe said that in the end it was a “liberating” moment for the couple because they “were still able to have this really honest conversation.” [he] was in the doghouse for a long time.

“When we shot it, it was probably only two or three months ago, so it was still pretty fresh,” he said. “But it was hard. It was really hard.”

Erin Lichy talks about her and Abe's problems

Erin explained that she had mixed feelings about Abe's decision Watch what happens live with Andy Cohen in October.

“This is confusing. Yes, I’m confused too,” she said. “There were other things that Abe had just made decisions about [on]and we are partners and need to talk about things. And I think that's what really impressed me.

“Was it a lot of money?” asked host Andy Cohen.

“There were a few that, yes, amounted to a lot of money,” Erin clarified. “I mean, he was trying to do the right thing and not stress me out – he knew I was going through a lot, but ultimately I would rather have the communication.”

Andy then asked Erin if she was surprised when Abe said in an interview that he only kept the sale a secret because he was trying to protect Erin RHONY.

“I’m not surprised because I know that’s exactly what he was thinking,” Erin said.

Watch new episodes of RHONY Season 15 Tuesdays at 9/8c on Bravo. Stream next-day episodes on Peacock.