Tareq Salahi and his wife Michaele Salahi, reality TV stars
who gained infamy as the so-called White House gate crashers,
grabbed headlines on Wednesday when he reported his wife was
abducted, and she later contacted law enforcement officials to
say she was fine and didn't want him to know her whereabouts.
A spokeswoman for the rock band Journey said Michaele and
the group's guitarist Neal Schon were together in Memphis for a
concert. "Nobody kidnapped her," said the spokeswoman.
The FBI and law enforcement officials are investigating.
The mixup, if that is what it was, began late Tuesday when
Tareq Salahi contacted local authorities claiming Michaele was
missing and had left their house without taking any belongings.
He believed she was abducted, according to media reports.
But in a news conference outside the Salahi residence on
Wednesday afternoon, a sheriff's official from Warren County,
Virginia said Michaele Salahi told their department she left
with a good friend, was where she wanted to be and did not want
Michaele Salahi was NEVER abducted ... so say police in Virginia ... who claim Michaele has contacted law enforcement and told them she DID NOT want her husband to know where she was.
The Warren County Sheriff's Dept. just released a statement saying one of their deputies spoke with Michaele .... and "She seemed calm, was engaged in conversation, and assured the deputy that she had left the residence with a good friend and was where she wanted to be."
The WCSD adds, "Mrs. Salahi advised that she did not want Mr. Salahi to know where she was."
Cops say Michaele expressed she was "very sorry" that the Sheriff’s Office had to be involved, but "she did not want to be home right now."
The WCSD says officers have made contact with Tareq and "advised him that he had spoken with Mrs. Salahi and told him that she was fine."
Still, the Warren County Sheriff’s Office says it is working with the FBI "in an attempt to make additional contact with Mrs. Salahi to assure her well being."
s this the end of the Tareq and Michaele love story? Or just another darn publicity stunt?
Whatever it is, the Virginia horse-country characters, who caused a scandal with their uninvited appearance at a 2009 White House state dinner, seized our attention once again Wednesday when Tareq Salahi reported that his willowy blonde wife had been abducted.
In fact, Michaele Salahi had run away, it seems — into the open arms of a grizzled rock star.
Tareq, the polo-playing scion of the feuding Oasis Winery family, lit up the Internet early Wednesday when he told TMZ his wife of eight years had gone missing — and that he believed she’d been “kidnapped.”
Hours later, though, came a calmer statement from the Warren County (Va.) Sheriff’s department:
They had talked to Michaele Salahi. She seemed fine. She had left home willingly. And she told them she didn’t want her husband to know where she was. Sad. Or was it? The spotlight had dimmed for the couple since Bravo’s “The Real Housewives of D.C.” — which turned their state dinner scandal into a juicy reality-TV plot point last year — failed to get renewed for a second season. Still, there’s been a mild buzz of activity in Salahiworld: They’ve continued to float oddball stories about themselves (i.e., a recent report that they’re trying to have a baby) to the online gossip rags. They’ve recently tried to hype a gala reopening at Oasis — though it remains mired in an ownership dispute, and its assets are scheduled to be sold at a bankruptcy auction Saturday. (Investigations of alleged charity and business fraud by the couple are said to still be in play.) Meanwhile, talk-show star Montel Williams has issued cease-and-desist notices against the duo for falsely linking his name to their gala, which the couple has claimed will be the subject of a future TV show.
But now she’s gone.
Despite Michaele’s assurances to police, Tareq (who did not return The Post’s phone calls) gave tearful interviews maintaining she must have been coerced; Warren County authorities dutifully announced they were working with the FBI “to assure her well- being.”
Oh, she’s fine. Late in the day, a publicist for Journey — yes, the ’80s arena rockers — confirmed to us (following another TMZ report) that Michaele, 45, is shacking up with guitarist Neal Schon, 57, and is currently with him at a concert tour stop in Memphis. (Journey, before their recent career resurgence, had played at Salahi-run polo matches. Read more about the Salahi-Journey connection.)
“She’s not been kidnapped,” the rep told us. “Nobody kidnapped her.”
Sigh. And hmmm. Schon’s not looking to get into reality TV, is he? “Absolutely not,” she said.
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