‘The Valley: Persian Style’ Star Mercedeh “MJ” Javid Opens Up About “Volatile” Relationship With Tommy Feight Before Filing For Divorce: “It’s Very Difficult To Watch”

An icon in her own right, Mercedeh “MJ” Javid is an entertaining television personality, a successful realtor, and a doting mother — and while she may never reveal her true age, she is one of the realest people on reality TV.

Five years after Shahs of Sunset went off the air, Javid is joining her fellow OGs Reza Farahan and Golnesa “GG” Gharachedaghi in Bravo’s new spinoff, The Valley: Persian Style, which follows their lives in the suburbs as they juggle parenthood, marriage, and friendships. This season, which premiered on Thursday night (Jan. 8), Javid—who has successfully remained in the spotlight with her beloved stint on The Traitors Season 2—will be navigating her crumbling marriage with Tommy Feight, who was introduced to Shahs of Sunset in Season 5 and married Javid in Season 7.

“I felt like we were so volatile,” Javid told DECIDER when she stopped by our studio this week. “Any conversation could turn into an argument. It was really like little things.”

After seven years of marriage and one child together, Javid officially filed for divorce in October 2025. In the show, while the former couple is actively trying to spice up their marriage with the promise of 17 date nights in 2025, Javid also shares with her close confidants that she doesn’t feel safe in her relationship with Feight and that she dislikes the way he speaks to and about her. While she said she and her estranged husband “get along much better” now that they are separated, watching the show back has been “difficult,” especially since it was only filmed “six months ago.”

“I’m watching us during a time that even I didn’t think that we were going to separate,” Javid added. “I thought that we were working things out… I would probably feel really weird if we were still together with all of this butting heads, we’ll call it. It’s hard.”

When DECIDER caught up with Javid, she also shared why she likes The Valley: Persian Style more than Shahs of Sunset, why she decided to resort to the original spelling of her first name for this series, and what it was like to see her mom stick up for her during a heated conversation with Feight. Check out the full interview below.

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DECIDER: It’s been more than five years since you and the rest of the gang wrapped on Shahs. What was it like to finally step back into this crazy world of reality TV? How does this show differ from Shahs?

MERCEDEH “MJ” JAVID: Today, I am a mom, I am a business person, I am so different from who I was. I was just watching reruns in the hotel room before I got here, and I can’t believe how much growth [there has been]. It’s like a whole different person. Obviously, five years ago, my baby was a baby, and I’m with The Agency working with Mauricio [Umansky]. I just feel like being able to bring this chapter of my life in front of cameras – I love this show so much more than Shahs. No disrespect to the OG of how we got here, because the early episodes of Shahs are the coolest things with all the body confidence and the self-confidence and being independent. I got my eggs frozen before people were talking about it and I found out my fertility on camera for the first time. There were so many life passages and here we are. 

Before we get into everything, I do want to get this out of the way. We obviously have most of the original Shahs cast returning, with the exception of Mike. Have you spoken to him or Paulina at all over the last couple of years? Does anyone else in the group keep in touch with them? 

Oh, boy. No on Mike, I chose not to support Mike in his journey, but I’ve always wished him well and sent messages of love and healing. That sounds corny, but I really, really do. He checked in with me when my news of the divorce and the separation came into the media. He’s still friends and talks all the time with Reza and also with Shervin. So, Shervin and I are on the phone, he’s got me on FaceTime walking into the gym, and he sees Mike at the gym every single day. So he grabbed the phone and he was like, “Why can’t you call me back?” And I was like, “I don’t know. I mean, I didn’t feel like I owed you a call.” It’s just like that bond is there. And Paulina? No to Paulina. I have supported them for so long and then through the years, I guess when you get just disappointed – by not Paulina – we just send her well-wishes. We’re also very happy for Jessica. She just had a baby. She’s married. She’s in the UK. 

One thing I noticed was that your name is spelled differently in this series!

I’m going by what’s on my birth certificate, which is the Persian pronunciation. It’s always great to have multiple nicknames, and I do. You can call me MJ all day long. But Mercedeh is just such a pretty name even if people butcher it all day long. The producers ask you, like, “Are you MJ? Are you Mercedes?” And I was like, “You know what? Let’s go with Mercedeh.” 

I love how open you are about the cosmetic procedures you’ve had. In one of your first scenes, you share that you had a breast reduction and a neck lift – and that you’re looking forward to whatever your next procedure will be. Have you decided on that yet?

Yes. The doctor that did my neck – Dr. Sassan Alavi, shoutout – and my breast reduction. Because these are weeds and they grow and grow and grow nonstop. But this will be my last breast reduction. The procedure, the approach that he uses for a tummy tuck, you save your original navel. Your belly button doesn’t turn into one of those that looks like you drew it on with a Sharpie. He said that he can give me a flat tummy without making my navel look different. He preserves it. So, someday. I just care about where the incisions are. I don’t want that hip to hip. I don’t scar well. So it has to be really worth it. 

Since we last saw you, you’ve started working at The Agency! What’s it like working with Mauricio? And what do you think about everything going on between him and Kyle because lately we’ve been seeing they might be back together?

I hope so. When I started real estate years ago, I was with the best and I was with the boutique firm. Now I’m back with the best in a beautiful what started as a boutique firm  and now we have 180 offices worldwide, which is insane. Mauricio is just so darn smart. He’s so polished and such an incredible businessman. To have the company of people like him and Emil, who is my manager, that you can knock on their doors and talk shop, it’s everything. I’m in awe of all of them.

I think it’s really amazing that you can be this big star and still have a regular job, too.

You have to. Sense of purpose is so extremely crucial for me. First of all, obviously you’re not going to rely on reality TV because it’s not really something that you decide. It’s something that someone else decides for you. I’m thinking about my podcast and then I started thinking about me and Tommy and our podcast. But anyway, I love to work and I will always work and I will always be a hands-on mom. All of my friends are stay at home moms, most of them, so you’re always trying to keep up with what a full-time mom will do while you’re also full time working a couple of other businesses. 

When we last saw Shams, he was still a baby, and now he’s a full-grown child. How did he feel about all the cameras?

I’m not going to let him watch it. So I don’t know. He knows that there are cameras but he hasn’t asked when the show is coming out. So I think we’re just going to keep it out of his oeuvre. 

I want to talk a little about you and Tommy. In the first couple of episodes, we see you talk about how you don’t really feel safe with Tommy and that you don’t like the way he speaks to you. Would you say those were the main reasons behind your decision to file? And what’s it like for you to watch back these final months leading up to your split? 

Yes. The million dollar question. I felt like we were so volatile. Any conversation could turn into an argument. It was really like little things. Now I feel like we get along much better. It’s very difficult to watch that because it was only six months ago. We went on the air very quickly after. Sometimes you have to wait a year for something to come out. But this is still very much like real time. So I’m watching us during a time that even I didn’t think that we were going to separate. I thought that we were working things out, but then it’s a lot of moments that were captured that are showing me … I would probably feel really weird if we were still together with all of this butting heads, we’ll call it. It’s hard. 

In a 2023 episode of WWHL, Reza said that he and Tommy were good – but then in the premiere, Tommy basically said he doesn’t go to group events because he doesn’t hang out with people he doesn’t like. You spent years navigating your friendship with Reza, while also trying to respect your husband’s wishes. How did that affect you and your relationship with Tommy?

I think everyone was being really tolerant and compassionate. Reza, Tommy and I were all showing compassion and support to understanding that you may be mending fences [and] Tommy might be taking a little longer. He doesn’t interact with the group. I do. I’m building new bonds every day and building a lot of trust over a long time with Reza. I feel like we were all really cool with each other about allowing us to all have our feelings. 

How has co-parenting been going since you guys split up? Is that something we’ll see this season?

Tommy and I see each other every day, and we’re with our son every day, so it’s just really smooth. Thank God. It’s been really amicable.

Your mom, Vida, has really become a star of her own over the years. What was your reaction to her lunch with Tommy in Episode 2? 

Oh, gosh. She stuck up for me. She held it together. At the same time, Tommy’s really loud. He has really big emotions. And that’s really difficult. I called her as soon as I saw it. I was like, “Hey, mom, just wanted to say hi. Love you. Thank you.”

It really is nice to see because, as I was telling you earlier, I’ve been rewatching Shahs of Sunset, and to see where you were with her in Season 1, to now she’s defending you, is really sweet.

That’s what I told Andy last night. It’s really nice to see her stick up for me and be really nurturing. It’s always really sweet to see that since we don’t see it very often. So I was like, “Yes, thank you, mommy, I appreciate that.”

We have some newbies coming in this season. Who do you think will be a breakout star?

Oh, my gosh, there’s no way I could just put one. I really have such a great relationship with almost all of them. I can’t. It’s Sophie’s choice. I can do it. Although, I will say what I love about our friend group is that we’ve known Tanin for as long as we’ve known Shervin. So at least 15 years. Greg as well. We’ve had like a real organic mom friend group with Natasha and Amir and I. He is amazing. She’s amazing. I don’t know if you caught it, but on the first episode, I say, “Natasha’s the girl that I’m most likely to be on the phone with, and we’ll bump into her.” Because we’re both in Calabasas and we go to the gym and then we run [into each other] at our smoothie spot. It’s really, really nice to have such a nice, close knit group of friends with the OGs. We’re all genuinely connected. It’s amazing. 

It looks like Golnesa and Sky are going to have some beef this season. How do you think GG did with handling conflict this season? Has she tamed out since becoming a mom?

We’ve all grown up so much, but I think that Golnesa is just the right amount of spicy that you want to see. Just the right amount of spicy that you want to see without, like, catching a case. 

The Traitors Season 4 is premiering this week! Your season really put the show on the map and it’s been a hit ever since. What do you think of what it’s become? And who are you rooting for this season? 

I love Traitors. The experience was incredible. It was like going to some kind of summer camp experience that you never had. It was such an incredible cast and I do think we were the best season. But I’m excited to watch [Lisa] Rinna and Michael Rapaport and so many of our Bravo fam. Who am I rooting for? I mean, it depends on what they do. They have to earn it. Who am I going to be rooting for Rapaport if he’s a Traitor? Or if Dorinda is a Traitor? You never know! 

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

The Valley: Persian Style airs Thursday nights at 9 p.m. ET/PT on Bravo. New episodes are available to stream the next day on Peacock.