Camille Grammer: Kelsey Abandoned Me, Told Me to 'Grow Up'

Wonderwall, Friday, October 29, 2010, 10:35am (PDT)

By Kat Giantis

We'd understand if Camille Grammer felt the urge to throw a tossed salad and scrambled eggs into the face of estranged husband Kelsey Grammer, who bailed out of their 13-year marriage over the summer.

In a sit-down with People magazine, the former dancer and newly minted "Real Housewives of Beverly Hills" star opens up about their breakup, including how she learned about his relationship with flight attendant Kayte Walsh and how their kids still believe he's coming home.

"This is a chance to tell my story and to move on," explains Camille, 42. "You become invisible when something like this happens. My husband is well-liked and has a lot of fans. He's the beloved Frasier Crane. I didn't have a voice for my pain."

Now she does, and she's eager to reveal how the split looked from her perspective. The upshot: Grammer, who had relocated from Los Angeles to New York in February to do a Broadway play, decided he was done with the marriage but didn't bother to let her know, a move that left her "completely blindsided" and "shocked."

RELATED VIDEO: Sneak peek of Camille in 'The Real Housewives'

"In June I got a phone call from a mutual friend in New York who was upset by behavior of his that she'd seen. I asked, 'Is he leaving me?' and she said, 'Yes.' I called him but couldn't get through, so I texted him and asked him to please call me. Nothing," she recalls. "An hour later, I texted him again and he wrote: 'I don't want to talk.' I wrote, 'We've been together for 14 years; I deserve an explanation.' Finally, three hours later, he called me. He basically said, 'I don't want to be married anymore.'"

Unwilling to go down without a fight, Camille offered to try couples therapy, "but his mind was already made up," she says. "I started crying and he said, 'Oh, grow up.' I said, 'What about our children [daughter Mason, 9, and son Jude, 6]?' and he said, 'They'll get over it.' It was harsh."

But the kids haven't moved on as quickly as he supposedly predicted.

"They still don't realize he's not coming back," sighs Mrs. Grammer No. 3, who is expected to make out very well in their prenup-free divorce. "They think their daddy is busy doing a play. I'm trying to work with them on the concept that he's not going to come home the way they think he is ... They've heard about his girlfriend, but the girlfriend to them is not real."

RELATED: Camille: Kelsey got me on 'Housewives' so he could cheat

Admits Camille, "I feel completely abandoned. I feel dismissed. This all happened very quickly for me. We don't even speak. He doesn't want to. For me, having two children together, it's very important that the two of us communicate. He only wants to communicate via e-mail, through our lawyers or a therapist who acts as a mediator.

Other revelations from her interview include Grammer's clear conscience after the bust-up ("I feel no guilt for what I'm doing," he allegedly said), how she felt first seeing a photo of him with Walsh ("I cried for two days straight") and her reaction to news that Walsh had suffered a miscarriage ("You feel bad for any kind of loss of life. I felt bad about it").

"I don't want to begrudge Kelsey his happiness. I want that to be clear," says Camille. "I want him to be happy."

As for her own future, "Kelsey was a very difficult man to have a relationship with. I miss him, but I don't want to look back anymore," she states. "Everything is new. I'm excited about rediscovering myself and becoming independent again. Maybe in the end I'll realize this was for the best."

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