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Update: White House Gatecrasher Michaele Salahi Is With 'Journey' Guitarist

The husband of "Real Housewives of D.C." cast member Michaele Salahi reported to police that he believed his wife had been abducted, but investigators said Wednesday Sept. 14, 2011 she assured them she was with a friend and "where she wanted to be."
Donald Traill
/
AP
The husband of "Real Housewives of D.C." cast member Michaele Salahi reported to police that he believed his wife had been abducted, but investigators said Wednesday Sept. 14, 2011 she assured them she was with a friend and "where she wanted to be."

You'd be excused if you didn't lose sleep over the news that made its way across the blogosphere overnight: Tareq Salahi, who is better known as the husband in the duo who snuck into a White House state dinner in 2009, called the police and the news media to say his wife Michaele was kidnapped.

CNN ran a story, as well as ABC and Fox News.

Well, the Warren County (Va.) Sheriff's Office said today they spoke to Michaele and she said she's fine and she didn't want her husband to know where she was. Here's their release via the Washington City Paper:

The Warren County Sheriff's Office received a call from Mr. Tareq Salahi on Tuesday evening September 13, 2011 at 11:55 p.m. Mr. Salahi advised us that he last heard from his wife about 6 hours ago. He was concerned because she had contacted him from an Oregon area code and she was supposed to be back in Northern Virginia today.

Deputy Mike Glavis subsequently spoke with Mrs. Salahi by telephone a few moments later. Deputy Glavis was able to identify Mrs. Salahi by having previous conversations with her in the past. 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. Mrs. Salahi advised that she did not want Mr. Salahi to know where she was.

Mrs. Salahi advised Deputy Glavis that she was very sorry that the Sheriff's Office had to be involved, but she did not want to be home right now.

Update at 7:05 a.m. ET, Sept. 15. She's With Journey Guitarist Neal Schon.

The Washington Post's Reliable Source column reports this morning that:

Late [Wednesday], 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.)

Update at 7:35 a.m. ET, Sept. 15.Faithfully:

Yes, one of Journey's hits — composed by Schon — was called Faithfully.

Correction at 7:45 a.m. ET, Sept. 15. The Gate-Crashing Was In 2009:

Earlier, we mistakenly said the Salahis crashed a State Dinner "last year." In fact, it was a November 2009 dinner. We've corrected the post.

Copyright 2020 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

Eyder Peralta
Eyder Peralta is NPR's East Africa correspondent based in Nairobi, Kenya.