RHOC newcomer Noella Berenger reveals how she met her boyfriend

She found love again after splitting from husband James Bergener last year.

Now Noella Bergener has revealed how she met her new pal.

Speaking exclusively to DailyMail.com at the DirecTV Drag Bowl, Noella revealed she met her boyfriend three years ago at a dinner date with friends before she really hooked up with him in lockdown.

“So we met about three years ago, and he was friends with Dennis Rodman who’s at a dinner table at Maestro,” she explained.

“I saw him, he had a very interesting table, I was at a very interesting table, our friends who knew each other were kind of interconnected, and then the invite went out during COVID. Nothing was going on in Orange County, everything was closed, so we like to heat up the pool, heat up the barbecue, invite nice and interesting people, and he came with friends.

“I even said to him, ‘you’re so cool, you’re one of the most amazing people I’ve ever met, hands down in Orange County, what are you doing here? Like why are you here, you’re also cool to be here.” The COVID after parties have certainly been very helpful.

“Again, I was married at the time. It’s only when the husband is gone,” she said.

Noella joined the Housewives just a year ago, but it’s been a “difficult journey” for her with a series of heartbreaks in her personal life.

“It’s been a very wild ride,” Noella said of being a housewife. “It’s been a tough journey for me, and it’s not necessarily about housewives as much as it’s about my life falling apart. My son was diagnosed as being on the spectrum, my husband left, my father passed away, and that’s what was captured in my first experience…it was a tough four months,’ she said .

“It was a great reminder of our resilience and strength, and that old adage of God only gives what you can handle.”

Likewise, Ashley also learned a lot about herself while playing The Real Housewives of Potomac – including how to take down trolls.

‘It’s par for the course at this point and honestly I think you’re not doing your job if you’re not getting a little something because you just can’t please everyone and if you please to everyone, that means you’re probably not being true to yourself,’ she told DailyMail.com

“It took me a while, I know I say it like ‘Oh, so wise’, it took me six years…After I had my son Dean, I really felt that. I’ve always believed and I was like, but then I was like, ‘It really doesn’t affect me.’… It doesn’t affect my daily life, so why let it affect how I feel?

Ashley also has her new “purpose” in life: to “elevate and inspire” other mothers and women. “I feel it strongly,” she said.

“It becomes clearer now,” she said of her mission. “I really like people in general, even though I have disagreements and stuff with people, even people I argue with, like Candiace and I know we’ve had so many ups and downs , and it’s been really tumultuous between us , but at the end of the day, I still love him as a person. I have come a long way.

“It doesn’t mean that I’m perfect and I’m not going to crack, because the reality is that I still have feelings, I’m still not going to let someone take advantage of me, but just kind of detaching a bit and just saying, ‘Even though I don’t like you and I don’t like what you said, I still like you as a person.’