Monique Samuels Swears She Wasn’t Drunk When She Crashed Her Car

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After Real Housewives of Potomac star Monique Samuels fell asleep at the wheel and crashed her car, she found herself defending herself from accusations of alcoholism from both costars and friends.

Samuels recounted the accident in a recent episode of RHOP, explaining how she had fallen asleep behind the wheel and woke up just in time to swerve her car into a ditch to avoid colliding head-first into a tree. But what was more dramatic was when, days later, Samuels’s costar Ashley Darby claimed Samuels had drank four martinis at lunch before she got behind the wheel.

But Samuels vehemently denied these claims to People: “I do not have a drinking problem, was not drunk that day, and would never get behind the wheel if I was intoxicated.”

Samuels went on to defend herself:

“If I had been drunk, and I really did have a problem with drinking, I would say, ‘Yeah, I have a problem, I made a mistake.’ But people are wanting me to own something that really isn’t my issue. It takes away from people who are actually fighting for their lives, dealing with alcohol addiction.”

She explained that she’d had to wake up at 4 a.m. to prepare for the busy day. In fact, Samuels did have a lot on her plate: along with shooting for Real Housewives, she was starting a business, working on the board of a charity, managing five rental properties, moving into a new house, and taking care of her two young children. And while she had had something to drink for lunch, she’d had two martinis during lunch (““I’m a very slow drinker,” she told People) and had spent the next hour or so shopping and drinking water before she finally got behind the wheel.

Samuels ended up racking up $40,000 in damages for her car, but luckily walked away from the accident with only a mild concussion and whiplash.