Dr. Simone Whitmore may still be married to medicine, but the same can’t be said about her husband.
In an interview with People, the “Married to Medicine“ star announced that she has filed for divorce after 21 years of marriage to Cecil Whitmore.
“There is no if here, there are no games. I am not pretending, I am done,” said the reality star. “I have reached a place where I am in a marriage where I do not feel loved and no sacrifices are being made for me to make me feel loved. I must move on.”
Dr. Simone shared the shocking news with her co-stars while taping the Season 5 reunion show, which airs in March on Bravo TV.
‘We had a disagreement’
The OBGYN doctor says a “disagreement” she and Cecil had while dropping their son, Miles, off to college was the breaking point.
“We were trying to talk through it — with sometimes tense, sometimes normal negotiations in process — and he woke up on Saturday morning, we had a blow-up. I knew that day that my marriage was over,” she told the magazine.
“My marriage had ended. I could no longer deal with the stuff he was dishing.”
While it appeared that things were working out in their marriage thanks to therapy, Dr. Simone says their decision to stop counseling drove their relationship in a downward spiral.
“It looked like we were improving. The problem is we should have continued counseling, and we did not,” she said. “We let life take over. We were busy over the summer with basketball tournaments, traveling and getting Miles ready for college. We should have kept marital counseling as a priority, but we let the ball drop.”
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Moving on as a single woman
Since filing for divorce, Dr. Simone says she and her soon-to-be ex-husband are on “very friendly terms.” And while their divorce may be seem as a surprise to fans of the show, things aren’t always as they seem, she adds.
“I know Cecil and I look like a fun couple to everyone on the outside, but it takes more to make a marriage work,” Simone said. “One of the things I was most proud about on our show was the realistic portrayal of black love, with all of the married couples showing America the real ups and downs of raising families. And sadly … divorce is 50 percent in this country.”
The pair, who have two sons together, originally met when they were college students on the campuses of Morehouse and Spelman colleges in Atlanta, Georgia.
Though that chapter in her life is now over, Dr. Simone says she is empowered by her decision to move forward with her life as a single woman.
“As a successful woman who truly loves herself, I will continue to make sure that I am empowering myself,” she said. “Divorce is nothing that anyone should be feeling sorry for me, because I am looking forward to a new chapter, a new life, a new beginning. Life has so much to offer me. I have always been a go-getter and I am going to continue to be a go-getter and to strive for the very best that life has to offer.”