Alexia Echevarria was reportedly “blindsided” by her estranged husband Todd Nepola‘s divorce filing last week.
After the 56-year-old Real Housewives of Miami cast member took to her Instagram Story on Monday to share that she was “shocked and heartbroken,” a couple of insiders have come forward, noting that Alexia is “hurting” and suspects the reason behind Todd’s desire to dissolve their marriage has “a lot to do with” her two sons, Peter, 31, and Frankie, 26.
“Everyone is shocked. It’s very surprising,” a source told Us Weekly on April 17. “Alexia loves hard. She is all about love, she is romantic in that respect. She is hurting right now … [She] loves Todd and is devastated … It all came as a shock.”
A second insider echoed similar sentiments.
“Things were good between her and Todd days leading up [to] him filing. She had no idea and there were no signs,” the source shared. “Alexia believes he wanted to keep her in the dark about how he was feeling about ending the marriage, because he knew she would try and convince him otherwise.”
As RHOM fans well know, Alexia shares two sons with ex-husband Peter Rosello Sr., whom she was married to from 1992 to 1996, and Todd and Peter, Alexia’s oldest child, haven’t always seen eye-to-eye.
Alexia believes the breakup “has a lot to do with her sons,” the insider stated. “Peter tried to warn her about him.”
According to a second report, Alexia and Todd’s split could get messy when it comes to the dividing of their assets, despite the fact that they signed a prenuptial agreement before they wed.
“[There’s a] presumption that everything is part of the community [and] split 50/50,” attorney Neama Rahmani told Us Weekly on April 17. But that’s “not the case in Florida.”
“[The] Florida presumption is that everything’s held by a spouse individually [as] separate property that is their own,” he explained. “In the event of a divorce, they get to keep it.”
According to the attorney, what Alexia and Todd each get to keep after their split will be determined by whether or not they own their assets as individuals or as a couple. And when it comes to their current rental, which is said to be a $45,000 per month apartment, they’ll both be “on the hook” to continue making payments until their lease expires.
“When it comes to the other assets, cars, bank accounts, you [have] to do that accounting to see [who gets what],” Neama continued. “It’s really called tracing.”
Neama went on to state that a family law judge will have to determine, “What is the source of the funds? Is it my separate property that’s going through an account, in which the money comes to me in the event of a divorce? Is it my separate property but I just commingle it? Or is that gifted to a spouse such that it ends up being shared?”
Amid the swirling reports regarding Todd’s filing, Alexia returned to her Instagram Story with a second message for her fans and followers on Wednesday.
“The outpouring love and support that I have received from all of you has truly warmed my heart. Thank you,” she wrote in her April 17 post.
“Love you all,” she added.
Todd was Alexia’s third husband. Following her split from Peter Sr. in 1996, she went on to marry her second husband, Herman Echevarria, who died in 2016, in 2004.
