Real Housewives Star Mary Cosby Is Married To Her Step-Grandfather

The women of Bravo's The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City have had a lot to say about Mary Cosby's husband, Bishop Robert C. Cosby Sr.. But as the "Pentecostal First Lady" fired back in the Season 1 premiere, she believes everyone will "get over it" eventually.

The reason for all of the gossip? Robert used to be Mary's step-grandfather. As Mary explained, she and Robert Sr. were part of a sort of "arranged marriage," as her late grandmother's will stated that they were to marry upon her death. "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," Robert Sr. shared in the episode, referencing his late wife, evangelist Rosemary "Mama" Cosby, who died of a heart attack in 1997. Robert, whom Rosemary wed in 1975, was 20 years her junior.

According to Mary's Bravo bio, she and Robert have now been married for more than 20 years and are parents to a teen son. Through the union, she was able to inherit her family's "empire of churches, restaurants and more," and Mary said she believes they're "blessed to this day because of it."

There has been some legal drama over the inheritance, however. The Salt Lake Tribune reported in 2007 that Mary's aunt, Rosalind Cazares, filed a lawsuit in 1997 and another one 10 years later accusing Robert of mishandling the estate's assets and conspiring to deprive her of her share of her mother's fortune. "This includes the failure to identify and account for the articles of personal property that were given away, sold, destroyed or otherwise not preserved by defendant Cosby while he was acting as personal representative of the estate," her lawyer, Edward McBride Jr., said in the suit, per the newspaper.

A jury awarded the estate $1.2 million in damages and ordered Robert, as well as a business manager at Rosemary's Faith Temple Pentecostal Church, to pay the money to Cazares, The Salt Lake City Tribune reported.

More than two decades of marriage later, Mary and Robert Sr. said they have no regrets. "You're dealt with the cards that you're given, and it's up to you and make it happy," Mary said in a recent Bravo video interview. "I love my life, I do. I have a blessed life. And I love Robert Sr."