Cool story in this morning's Tulsa World about a former Spiro resident who is living large now in Beverly Hills. She will be on the series "Second Wives Club" on E!
Veronica Clayborne as she was known then, grew up baling hay, riding horses and helping family members repair fences when cows escaped.
Now her name is Veronika Obeng and she’s among the stars of the unscripted series “Second Wives Club,” which is premiering at the aforementioned date and time.
Obeng talked about her background and “Second Wives Club” in a recent phone interview. Asked if her hay baling past involved round bales or square bales (more labor-intensive), she said, “Both. It just depended on which combine was still working around my grandpa’s place.”
Then she added this: “I just got screamed at a lot because I would definitely be thinking about boys instead of being out in the pasture.”
The man in Obeng’s life now is Dr. Michael Obeng, a Beverly Hills plastic surgeon. She is his third wife, according to her cast bio. The series delves into the lives of women in relationships with wealthy men who, per the show’s title, were previously married to someone else.
Veronika said she’s excited about “Second Wives Club.” Citing the United States’ high divorce rate, she said it makes sense that there are so many people out there who are married “and it’s not their first rodeo.” She said some people in the show have been married three, four or five times.
“But everyone deserves to take a shot at it again and that’s the situation that all the women in the show find themselves in,” she said.
“We are either married or engaged to men in the Beverly Hills-Los Angeles area who are successful and powerful. It’s from our side, our story, what it means to be married to someone who has done this before.”
Asked about the path from Spiro to Beverly Hills, Veronika said, “Such is life. Life is a journey and it doesn’t matter where you start. It’s all about having a good time and going where your heart takes you. I was raised in Spiro. I went to college at OU. After college, I modeled and moved around. I fell in love with a guy, had some kids and moved to Beverly Hills.”
Veronika was a track athlete at Spiro, She said it's a dream of hers to someday give back to Spiro and update facilities there in her parents’ memory. She didn’t say this, but a check of archived results indicated that she helped account for every Spiro point at the state track meet her senior year, placing third in two events and teaming with relay partners for fifth in the 1,600 relay. She also ran track at Oklahoma.
“I wasn’t good at team sports,” she said. “If I’m going to lose, I would rather do it on my own, so I just ran track and field.”
“Second Wives Club,” will be on E! tomorrow night at 8 on E!