Credit: Instagram, Bravo
The Real Housewives of Orange County is gearing up for its landmark 20th season. The new season will include the long-awaited return of the OG of the OC, Vicki Gunvalson.
Ahead of its premiere, Vicki reflected on one of her most controversial moments on the show: her relationship with Brooks Ayers.
As fans will recall, Brooks was accused of faking cancer, and some of Vicki’s castmates tried to pin it on her, insisting she was involved.
“When I love, I love hard, and I trust,” Vicki told Us Weekly. “Now people say trust and verify. I don’t want to be a detective in a relationship. You tell me something, I’m gonna believe that. And obviously we know what happened with that.”
“Who knows what the real story is because I never got to talk to him,” she continued. “He left me in the middle of the night, and that was it. I never got closure on that guy, never. And then he got married real quick. … When you give your life to somebody and financially give money to those people, and then all of a sudden they lie to you. It’s hard.”
Luckily for Vicki, she’s now “all good,” and she’s been in a long-term relationship with Michael Smith.
“As I get older, it’s not just about the love tank. It’s about having peace and having quality relationships,” she stated. “Back in my 40s and 50s, it was my love tank. Now it’s like, I love him. I want the best for him. I want him to never be embarrassed by me. He’s a developer. He’s very private, but this is my gig. Just respect it, and he does.”
Vicki also spoke to Real Housewives of Beverly Hills star Bozoma Saint John on the red carpet for the premiere party for RHOC.
“I wanted to bring peace and fun back to the franchise,” she said of her intention when returning. “It had gone dark for so many years and I was… I didn’t want to come back in that model.”
“I think that it’s a broken model,” she continued. “I think we need to be, as women… we have a lot of people watching us, girl, so we have to be an inspiration to young girls, and teenage girls, and newly married girls. We want to get them inspired by us.”
Vicki also claimed she attempted to fix the broken friendship between Tamra Judge and Shannon Beador.
“We had a lot of conflict with Tamra and Shannon, and my goal this season coming back on was: put the swords down,” she shared. “Let’s just… you’re both hurt, let’s just try to be friends again. And I – I think we did a really good job.”
