RumorFix spoke exclusively to Ramona Singer, the sassy star from The Real Housewives of New York City, and she dropped a bombshell on us — she comes from a family of domestic violence.

We asked Ramona how she became such a savvy business woman, and we were surprised with her answer: “My mother was a victim of domestic violence and I always said to her ‘Why don’t you leave dad?’  And she said, ‘You know what? I can’t.’ Because at that time they didn’t have shelters they didn’t have places for people to go to and she said, ‘Just promise me, always make your own money have your own career so this way if you want to get married you can, if  you don’t you don’t.’”

Ramona’s mother was the inspiration for her to work hard and she’s definitely gone on to make her own money. Ramona’s mom gave her some other helpful advice that came in handy:

“If you have a marriage, your spouse will treat you more as an equal and if something goes wrong, God forbid, if you have money in the bank account … and that was probably the best advice I got. That’s what drove me to do well in business.  So I put myself through college I opened up my own business when I was 29 years old — it was very successful. I was probably the only Housewife that came on the show with like a million dollars in the bank by the time I was 37 years old,” she said.

Will Ramona be passing the same advice down to her only daughter?  She tells us, “My biggest goal now is finding a college  that my daughter will be really happy in. She’s a senior now and applying to colleges and she’s my number one priority right now.”