The Real Housewives of Potomac’s Ashley Darby revealed that her estranged father has died.
The truth star, 37, shared the news in a series of videos posted to her Instagram Stories on Sunday, October 12, explaining why she selected to not attend his funeral, which took place on Sunday.
As Ashley has documented on RHOP over the past nine seasons, she was raised solely by her mother, Sheila Matthews, and didn’t know her father, who she said abandoned her at age 1. She tried to make contact with him during a season 4 episode, but he refused to satisfy along with her.
“Last week, while I used to be in Latest York … my mom informed me my father had passed away,” Ashley said in the primary of 4 videos posted Sunday.
“Today was his funeral and I contemplated going, almost to have my very own sense of closure, but I’ve been traveling a lot and I actually desired to be with my very own kids this weekend,” said Ashley, who shares sons Dean, 6, and Dylan, 4, with ex-husband Michael Darby.
“My rationale was, why would I would like to take time away from my very own kids for somebody who never made time for me?” Ashley continued. “I came upon that I actually have siblings. All the things I had no idea about my father, I learned about in his obituary. I learned he liked to garden, he taught himself tips on how to play guitar, he was an avid fisherman — really, so lots of the things that I also like to do.”
Ashley went on, “Within the obituary, it said his best accomplishment was being a dad to his two sons. It stung a bit of bit. Whatever. It’s interesting how you may mourn and have some form of grieving — a singular type of grieving — for somebody you could have no relationship with, right? Just blood relations, but no emotional connection. That’s so interesting.”
The RHOP original said she had hoped her father might reach out before his death. She said she had learned that he was recently placed in hospice take care of cancer, which she said had spread through his whole body.
“I suppose what I ultimately surmise from this experience of my life, at 37, is absolutely learning to shut the door,” she said. “A door that was never opened, and won’t ever be opened. I believe I’ve at all times held out some form of hope that perhaps, like, when my dad was in hospice, prior to him passing, perhaps he’d have a wave conscience to be like, ‘Let me at the least make amends.’ It’s just so weird.”
“I actually can’t understand how any human being doesn’t wish to love their children, or can’t love a baby. It’s what it’s. And life will definitely go on,” Ashley said.
In a subsequent video, Ashley said that before she and her mother got the news of her father’s dead, she had a wierd incident at her house.
“You guys know I’m very superstitious. The day that I used to be leaving to go to Latest York, these black crows were circling my house, they usually were all in my yard,” she said. “I took pictures of it since it type of creeped me out.”