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Credit: Joey Andrew/startraksphoto.com
Tamra Judge has been featured on 14 seasons of The Real Housewives of Orange County, and one moment in particular, which featured Vicki Gunvalson and Gretchen Rossi, stands out as one of the worst.
As she addressed the recent absence of Eddie Judge, 52, on season 19, spoke of an off-limits topic, and applauded her performance as a housewife, Tamra, 57, detailed her recent drama with Katie Ginella, 41, explained her claim about being on the autism spectrum, revealed when she’ll walk away from the show for good, and more.
“When Vicki and Gretchen and all of them brought out that lie about my husband being gay and all this stuff … At the moment, that hurt me,” Tamra revealed of the RHOC moment that still bothers her on the August 6 episode of The Viall Files.
“Talk about me. You want to make up rumors about my husband? That pisses me off, and I want to protect him,” she continued.
As fans may know, Eddie isn’t the biggest fan of the show and doesn’t film as often as other husbands. In fact, he’s hardly been seen at all on season 19.
“[But] He filmed. I’m like, ‘Where’s Eddie?’ We filmed a lot,” Tamra clarified.
Known for being the cast member who stirs the pot, Tamra revealed there is one topic that’s off-limits for her, and most of her castmates.
“I think kids. Kids are just off-limits. You just don’t … it never sits well,” she explained.
While Tamra has been accused of amping up the drama for the cameras throughout her many years on the show, she defended her behavior, saying that “all of [the ladies of the show]” feel like they are “clocking in” at times.
“Anybody that says that they don’t feel that way is lying. It’s not like I’m acting to be on the show. I mean, we know what the show’s about. Do I think attitudes are heightened? Yeah, for sure,” she reasoned. “But what would the show be without me? I mean, [we’re only on] episode four and every scene is about me — in scenes I’m not even in I’m being talked about.”
During recent episodes of the show, Katie has been seen blaming her for the drama surrounding the voice recording she took of Shannon Beador, 61, amid an apparent meltdown.
“I get blamed for everything, even if I’m not involved, I get blamed for everything. I’ll take ownership for anything that I’m involved in or anything I do. But in a situation like this, especially with housewives, you don’t blame the messenger. That’s what we’re all — we’re all messengers on this show,” she noted. “I’m not the one that recorded. You’re the one that recorded and now it’s my problem cuz I brought it out? Well, what if I didn’t bring it out? What are we gonna talk about?”
When asked for her thoughts on Katie, who found herself on the outs with the majority of her co-stars after filming season 19, Tamra admitted she “[doesn’t] know that much about Katie.”
“She came in hot. Some of her stories don’t add up, and I never know what’s gonna air, but I did sit down with her midseason with concern,” she shared.
Moving on to her autism revelation, Tamra insisted her comments came from the “most innocent situation” as she reflected on a therapy session.
“I have lots of sensory issues, I have intrusive thoughts, so I’m explaining all these things to her, and my doctor goes, ‘You know, I wouldn’t be shocked if you were somewhere on the spectrum,’” Tamra revealed. “Then we get into this deep conversation about my daughter and things that went down … I was crying.”
Following the session, Tamra had to tape an episode of her podcast with Teddi Mellencamp, 44.
“So when I got on the podcast, Teddi’s like, ‘What’s wrong,’ and I’m like, ‘I just did this therapy session,’ and I said, ‘Diagnosed,’ when I shouldn’t have said diagnosed. I should’ve said nothing,” she admitted. “So I put that out there and of course I already was in the worst place ever with social media and I was getting all this hate. .. so then everybody went crazy with it, ‘Oh she’s making up excuses.’”
Outside of her role on RHOC, Tamra runs a successful CBD company, Vena, with Eddie. And, due to how well it’s doing, she’s considering leaving Bravo in the coming years.
“It’s a multi-million dollar company. We’ll probably sell it eventually, probably in the next year or so, and you won’t see me anymore,” she declared.
Then, reflecting on her temporary exit from the show earlier this year, Tamra explained that the drama of the show, teamed with Teddi’s cancer crisis, “became too much.”
“It was my breaking point. I was barely hanging on by a string,” she shared. “I thought I was losing my best friend and I didn’t want to film … And you’ll see, I think it’s coming up in the next couple of episodes, you’ll see what happened … It was really, really hard.”
The Real Housewives of Orange County season 19 airs Thursdays at 9/8c on Bravo.
