Lisa Hochstein was just as shocked by her estranged husband Lenny Hochstein's hot mic moment as Real Housewives of Miami viewers were.
In an interview for this week's issue of PEOPLE, the reality star recalls the moment she first heard the audio, in which Lenny confessed to a friend that "in a couple of months, I might be single" and that he was no longer sleeping with Lisa "because then I would be cheating on who I really care about."
"Nobody knows," Lenny — who shares son Logan, 7, and daughter Elle, 3, with Lisa — was heard saying. "Nobody."
Peacock viewers saw the scene play out at the tail end of season 5's fourth episode, which dropped on Thursday. At the time Lenny's words were caught, the pair were throwing a "Good Vibes" party in their Miami mansion for Lisa's friends and costars.
"That was the hardest thing to watch," says Lisa, 40. "I was in disbelief. He almost said like there was a smirk on his face. There was no remorse for those words that came out of his mouth. Almost like he was gloating to his friend — like it was a joke; like our whole marriage was a joke."
Just days after the party, Lenny, 56, told Lisa off camera that he was leaving her. Not long after, he and new girlfriend Katharina Mazepa, 27, went public with their romance.
Lenny has insisted he never cheated on Lisa, telling PEOPLE this week that he remained faithful to her in their marriage.
"I'm not going to deny there was someone I was interested in pursuing. But I did pursue her after, not before," Lenny says. "I had a friendship relationship with someone I thought was very special. But nothing became physical under after I told Lisa I wanted a divorce."
"At the time I was speaking to my friend [during the hot mic moment], I wasn't even sleeping in the same bedroom with Lisa," Lenny adds. "The truth is, Lisa and I haven't had a traditional husband-and-wife relationship since 2021. Things had gotten so bad between us, we knew our marriage was over."
Lisa doesn't deny that the two had problems in their marriage, but says to PEOPLE that she was working to repair it and never anticipated the two wouldn't work it out.
"Of course our marriage wasn't perfect. There were ups and downs, but we always prided ourselves for being that couple that would stick through it," she says, adding that she was caught off guard when he told her he wanted out. "We were sleeping in the same bed for the last 15 years up until that day he told dropped the bomb on me. I was blindsided."
So how did she feel when she learned Lenny was dating Mazepa?
"It was like a punch in the face," says Lisa, admitting she broke down in tears. "I found it incredibly hurtful. Like, how could you tell me one day we're getting a divorce and then in the blink of an eye, you're out there, gallivanting with this other woman? It was heartless."
The mother of two says she had questioned Lenny about his relationship with Mazepa well before they separated. "Someone randomly messaged me once and said, 'I'm so sorry, I just saw your husband with this woman' — who fit her description — 'outside of her building,'" Lisa recounts. "And I immediately called him and asked him what was going on, but he denied it and said they were just friends."
"Still, I always thought that something was going on with her; it always made me feel very uncomfortable, the way their interactions were," she continues. "She was just always around, always private messaging, always with the comments back and forth on Instagram, always with the flirting. But every time I would confront him, he would play it off like it was nothing. And I just kept on giving him the benefit of the doubt."
She looked the other way, too, when Lenny took up fitness. "I'd never seen him work our or take care of himself like that. I'd been trying to get him to do that for 15 years; be healthy, eat better, work out — but he never really cared. So when he started doing it, that raised the antenna," Lisa says. "But again, I saw the red flag and looked the other way. I just kept telling him how proud of him I was. Turns out, it wasn't for me."
Watching the hot mic moment "confirmed my suspicions," she tells PEOPLE.
"It just all makes sense now," Lisa notes. "All the clues were there. And I still don't know the complete truth, and may never know it, but obviously had this on his mind for a long time."
"He could have handled this in such a different manner," she says. "He could have done it with some respect towards me, the mother of his kids, but there was none of that."
Season 5 of The Real Housewives of Miami is streaming now on Peacock. For more about Lisa Hochstein, pick up this week's issue of PEOPLE — on newsstands Friday.
