Preloading

What Happened to the Mom Who Shopped Her Family Broke?

Season 5 Episode 512
Aired on 10/03/2015 | CC
From the outside, Felice seemed to be living the American dream, but in reality, she was living a financial lie. When Oprah first met this stay-at-home mother of six in 2007, she admitted to spending $300 to $400 a month at Starbucks and nearly $60 a week on tanning and manicures. "When I do shop, I do kind of get a rush. It makes me feel good," she said. "Afterwards, though, I get depressed."

While on the Oprah Show, Felice also admitted she was ashamed that she'd hidden her spending from her husband, Phil, and opted not to pay for her children to have health insurance. Financial expert Suze Orman said Felice was on the verge of bankrupting her family. "I have never seen such disrespect for money as in this family here," Suze said. "So how bad is it? On a scale of one to 10? Maybe a thousand."

Now, eight years later, Felice opens up how her life has changed. After appearing on the Oprah Show, Felice says she went into a downward spiral. "I was drinking, taking pills," she says. "It was quite bad. I was not in a good place at the time."

Felice now recognizes that she was spending exorbitant amounts of money because she wasn't happy with her life. "My intentions were never to hurt my children or hurt Phil. It was just because I was unhappy," she says.

Phil and Felice are now divorced, and she's happily married to Darren, with whom she has an infant son, Caleb. Between Felice and her new husband, they have a total of 12 children and five grandchildren. "Darren and I do not have financial issues whatsoever," she says. "We don't live beyond our means. We have mismatched furniture, and everything we've bought, most everything has been used. Before, I had to have everything new."

Watch as Felice invites cameras into her home and shares more about her life today.