NEED TO KNOW
- Brooks Nader tells PEOPLE that she moved to New York City with no financial support when she was 19 and jokes that her dad told her to “find a boyfriend” to pay her bills
- She ultimately married Billy Haire, who was 11 years her senior, but the pair divorced in 2024
- The Sports Illustrated model explains that he was her first relationship, so being single again at 28 made her feel “childlike”
Brooks Nader is opening up about her marriage and subsequent divorce.
As her new reality series Love Thy Nader airs, the 28-year-old model spoke with PEOPLE about leaving her small hometown in Louisiana to build a life in New York City. She was just 19 when she took the plunge, and she reveals she didn’t even ask her parents before making the decision.
“When I moved to New York, my dad was like, ‘You’re living a full-ride scholarship. I have no money to support your life in New York. You better find a boyfriend,’” she explains, joking, “Which I did, thank God, for just the rent purposes.”
Nader is referring to her now-ex-husband Billy Haire, who she met around that same time and went on to marry when she was 22 and he was 33. The pair split in 2024 after nearly five years of marriage.
“I’m fresh off of a divorce, and when we started filming, I was very much so childlike in relationships,” she notes. “Because I met my ex-husband when I was 18 and I was with him until I was 27, so he was my first date. So I never dated, I had no experience, I didn’t know what love-bombing was. I was so not well-versed in relationships.”
Shortly after her divorce, Nader began dating her Dancing with the Stars partner Gleb Savchenko. While their relationship ended in a messy breakup and accusations of infidelity, she revealed on Love Thy Nader that she was excited by their strong physical connection.
“All we did was have sex, because I didn’t really talk to him that much,” she confessed, adding: “I wasn’t really addicted to sex when I was with my ex husband.”
In an earlier episode of her reality show, she said that it was a big shift being single around Savchenko, 41, after marrying her first boyfriend.
“Going from that to the hottest guy I’ve ever seen in my entire life,” Nader quipped. “We [had] the craziest, wildest sex ever.”
She later admitted that she sometimes worries about if she “wasted so much time with my ex-husband and with Gleb” as she looks toward her future goals of having children.
When Brooks and her sisters went home to visit their parents in Baton Rouge, she grew even more frustrated when she learned that several of her family members are still in contact with Haire.
“I think my parents get really attached whenever we have a partner,” she acknowledged. “Obviously, with my ex, I was with him since the time I was 18 to 27, so they grew very fond of him, which I totally understand and respect. However, I think that when things go south and it doesn’t work out, there should be no questions. It should be, ‘We’re loyal to our daughter.’”
Her dad even shared that Haire is his “golfing buddy” and her mom said she texts him. Some of her sisters revealed that they maintain contact with the businessman as well.
“Y’all should stop replying to Billy because that’s inappropriate behavior,” Nader said.
When her dad pushed back, saying, “I have a good relationship with him and you should have a good relationship, too. Life’s too short to hold grudges and all that,” she replied, “…I don’t hold a grudge, I’m just saying to y’all stop texting him.”
“In my family, there’s nothing worse than the D-word,” Nader explained in a confessional. “I got divorced. I feel like no matter what I accomplish, none of that will erase the shame my parents have around my divorce. When I told my parents I was getting divorced, you’d think I killed somebody. They were like, ‘This is the worst decision ever. Divorce is a sin. You’re breaking a promise you made to God.’ That lack of support was the hardest part for me.”
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New episodes of Love Thy Nader air weekly on Tuesdays at 9 p.m. ET on Freeform, and the entire season is available to stream on Hulu.
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