Ashley Darby Reflects On ‘Heartbreaking’ Moment Her Father Shut The Door In Her Face!

During Sunday night's episode of The Real Housewives of Potomac, Ashley Darby headed to Georgia to finally meet her father, who left her mother when she was a baby. The Bravo reality star was hoping to speak to him for the first time in over thirty years.

Ashley had her mother, aunt and uncle on her side. After knocking the door, he was informed that his daughter was there to see him. Ashley said hello to him, but he shut the door in her face and declined to come out of his house to speak with her.

While appearing on Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen, Ashley explained her reasons as to why it was important for her to come face-to-face with her father. "I have been waiting to see my dad's face for over 30 years. I mean, I can't even tell you the scenarios that have played out in my head. The way that I envisioned it would ever happen that I would meet my dad, I always thought that he would come and surprise me and one day knock on the door and I'd open it and there he was," she said. "So I had all these hopes and all these really strong desires to meet my dad."

Ashley then opens up about facing her father for the first time in over thirty years. "So when it actually happened where I really saw my dad for the first time, it was almost like an out-of-body experience because it felt like it was almost too good to be true. The fact that we were actually looking at each other and we had locked eyes and I saw that he was a real person in the flesh, every question and every fantasy I had ever had about having any sort of relationship with my dad almost played out right then and there," she explained. "And then when he closed the door on me, it hurt quite a bit. Sorry, I don't want to cry, but it really did hurt me. It really affirmed to myself that I'm a strong woman because I really didn't know how I was gonna react if he didn't reciprocate in wanting to have a relationship with me. And I surprised myself. I came out much stronger. So it sucked, it hurt, but I grew a little bit more."

Despite not having a relationship with father, the Bravo reality star believes he does have paternal instincts. "He's not a monster, I don't think. He does have two young kids, so he obviously has a paternal instinct to some degree; he just didn't have it with me," she shared. "Now that rejection that he doesn't want it with me really hurts, but at the same time, maybe there really is just something about him. If he's able to give it to these two young, beautiful young boys, if he can give it to them, he has the ability. It's just something about us. At least they're getting the love from him that I didn't get to have."

Ashley revealed that the incident with her father brought her and her mother much closer. "The fact that my mom was able to take that trip with me and put her own issues aside that she had had with my dad really meant a lot to me because I can only imagine how my mom feels," she said. "She was married to him. He left her with a baby, and yet my mom was strong enough and mature enough to still take that journey with me and to be supportive and to really put me first. She put all of her own feelings aside and was able to just be present and with me for that moment."

Darby revealed that she has not had any communication with her father since her visit. "That's the most challenging thing I had done ever in a long time. For my dad to look me in the eye and then just close the door in my face was so heartbreaking for me," she told Andy Cohen. "30 years just culminated in five seconds, essentially. So it was really rough. It's really hard for me to watch it back, too."

Source/Photo Credit: Bravo