“The Real Housewives Of Salt Lake City” Cast Member Mary Cosby Talks About Marrying Her Step-Grandfather
Tonight is a very special night in my household. Cut to my cat going, “What, you buy me more Temptations?” Nope! Tonight is the series premiere of The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City! This is the first new Real Housewives franchise in four long years. And it stars a woman who married her step-grandfather. Thank you,ย Andy Cohen and Satan (hmmm, weird that those two are never in the same room at the same time)! Mary Cosby has been married to her late grandmother’s widower, Robert Cosby Sr., for the last 21 years. Together they have one teenage son.
Mary’s grandmother, Dr. Rosemary Redmon Cosby, was the founder of Faith Temple Pentecostal Church in Salt Lake City. She was married to Robert for 22 years (ooh, her granddaughter’s marriage is gaining!) before passing away in 1997 at age 65. She left her fortune, restaurants, churches, and other businesses unclaimed. Robert, who was twenty years his wife’s junior, married 24-year-old Mary soon after, which made her the legal inheritor of Rosemary’s assets. Currently, Mary is “the first lady” of the family’s church. She says, “I don’t like to be called a Pastor, because that’s like, an old lady.” Her official Housewives tagline is “I love God, but I will read you like a scripture.” 10/10, A+, new trash TV icon.
In a sneak peek of the premiere, Mary explains how their “unique” situationย came to be, via People:
“We were kind of a, I would say, an arranged marriage,” she says. “It was kind of in my grandma’s will for us to marry.”
Robert says the idea for the union was sparked after his late wife said she wanted to make sure he would be taken care of after she died.
“She said, ‘If anything ever happens to me, Bobby, I want you to marry one of my girls because they’ll look out for you,'” he says.
“Marry one of my girls”... wouldn’t that mean one of Rosemary’s daughters? Why did this guy feel the need to skip an entire generation? Unless he mistook her words for “Mary, one of my girls!” But the real reason is probably because the family is embroiled in a legal shitshow. According to CheatSheet, one of Rosemary’s daughters (Mary’s aunt), Rosalind Cazares, accused her stepfather of forging documents to gain control of her mother’s assets. She filed two lawsuits against him (winning $1.2 million in the second one), and split from the family church, with half the congregation following her in a show of solidarity. Oh, and there’s also the fact that she suspected he had something to do with Rosemary’s untimely death (allegedly a heart attack). She actually got her mom’s body exhumed! Consensus: natural causes.
Mary says she and her husband are “blessed to this day”, and her haters will “get over it. Just digest it.” Oh, I will, Mary. Every Wednesday evening with a joint in one hand and a glass of wine in the other. Finally, a famous Cosby I can get behind!
Pic: YouTube