‘RHOP’ star Karen Huger—the ‘Grande Dame of Potomac’—gets new, earlier release date from jail

After a DUI conviction in December 2024, Karen Huger has been serving time at the Montgomery County Detention Center in Maryland.

The Grande Dame of Potomac will be home soon. 

Multiple outlets, including The Jasmine Brand and People magazine, have reported that Karen Huger will be released from jail on Tuesday, September 2, marking the end of what has been a headline-making chapter for the 62-year-old “Real Housewives of Potomac” star. 

Huger has spent the past several months serving time at the Montgomery County Detention Center in Rockville, Maryland, after her conviction on a series of charges tied to a March 2024 DUI arrest.

The reality TV fixture, affectionately dubbed the “Grande Dame” by “RHOP” fans, has been a central figure on the Bravo reality franchise since its 2016 debut. For a decade, she’s been known for her glamorous lifestyle, witty clapbacks, and her entrepreneurial endeavors, like her infamous fragrance line. But her off-camera life unraveled in March 2024 when she crashed her white Maserati into a median and several street signs just a few miles from her Potomac home in a single-car collision.

Bodycam footage from the arrest, later released publicly, showed Huger visibly disoriented, staggering, slurring her words, and becoming belligerent with officers as they attempted field sobriety tests.

Days after her arrest, Huger, who lost both of her parents close together in 2017, released a statement through TMZ explaining she had been emotional at the time of the accident.

“I would like to stress it’s important to understand your emotional state when driving and may this be a reminder to all to use their seatbelts,” she said at the time. “My mother may be my Guardian Angel, but the seatbelt saved my life.”

In December 2024, Huger was convicted of driving under the influence, driving while impaired, negligent driving, and multiple traffic violations, including speeding. Prosecutors had offered her a plea deal that would have allowed her to avoid jail in exchange for probation and treatment programs, but Huger rejected it. In February 2025, a Montgomery County judge sentenced her to two years in prison with one year suspended, meaning she would serve roughly 12 months. 

During her sentencing, she reportedly turned to her husband, Ray Huger, and told him, “You will be alright,” and that “God’s got you.”

Though she later sought work release to serve her time in a dormitory-style facility, that request was denied in April, extending her stay in county jail. What has inspired the early release has yet to be shared, but it leaves Huger poised to return to civilian life by fall.  

What this means for her future on “The Real Housewives of Potomac” remains to be seen. In January, after she skipped the filming for the season 9 reunion, a statement claiming she was leaving the franchise began circulating, but it turned out to be a hoax. While Bravo has not commented, Huger’s larger-than-life presence has long anchored the series, and her return could make for one of the franchise’s most dramatic comebacks yet.