Tamra Judge and Vicki Gunvalson reconciled their strained friendship during The Real Housewives of Orange County season 12 reunion special at the end of last year but they haven’t exactly been thick as thieves in the months since. In fact, Tamra is admitting she’s still very cautious around Vicki and doesn’t fully trust her yet.
During a new interview, Tamra spoke out about her current relationship with Vicki and revealed that fans will soon see them attempting to work through their past issues on season 13.
“It took some time, but Vicki made the right choice to sit down with Eddie,” Tamra teased to TooFab. “If she hadn’t, it would’ve been really difficult to get close to her again.”
As fans of the RHOC will recall, Vicki regurgitated a rumor about Tamra’s husband Eddie Judge being gay on and off the show and it quickly became a hot topic for their co-stars and viewers. However, despite the rumor and the fact that Tamra’s family advised her to steer clear of Vicki in the future, Eddie agreed to sit down with her.
“I just don’t think everybody knows the situation and what went down and how deep it got,” Tamra said. “It really affected a lot of people in my family, including my children — just the things that were asked to them at school. My family was like, ‘Why? Why? Why?'”
“My mom was the hardest one [to convince] because she just loves Eddie so much,” she added. “She just kept telling me, ‘Don’t ever trust her. Ever.'”
While Tamra claims that she and her husband were deeply impacted by the rumor repeated by Vicki regarding Eddie’s sexuality, that didn’t stop her from starting a new rumor about her former co-star Lydia McLaughlin‘s husband Doug McLaughlin being gay. She even encouraged Doug, a father of three, to “come of the closet” after slamming Vicki for doing the same.
As for where she stands with Vicki now, Tamra admits she’s still cautious.
“I’m cautious. Let’s just keep it at that,” Tamra continued of her trust issues with Vicki. “Something like that — something at that level — you keep it in the back of your head, but you have to try to move on. And I told myself to try to move on.”
In addition to her transitioning relationship with Vicki, Tamra said there will be other evolving friendships amongst her co-stars, including a brief fall-out between Vicki and Kelly Dodd, seen on the show.
“Kelly and Vicki’s relationship changes a little bit, and me and Shannon have it out,” she said. “So there’s truly a fine line between love and hate.”
While Tamra and Shannon Beador have been quite close over the past couple of years, they butted heads in the trailer for season 13 as they began to discuss the failed marriage between Shannon and David Beador.
“Shannon didn’t necessarily want the divorce. She and David were married a long time, they have three girls together, and Shannon’s just not good with change. We all know that… It was just a big change for Shannon,” Tamra explained.
During season 13, Tamra will be seen going off on Shannon as she dealt her with some tough love amid her divorce.
“A lot of it has to do with her state of mind and how she was dealing with things. In the past six months, it was just… I would call it tough love. It was a whole lot of tough love. That scene was at the end of the season. As of now, she’s doing great. She’s lost weight, she looks good, she’s more positive. So the tough love worked,” Tamra revealed.
In addition to Tamra adding her two cents into Shannon’s relationship, she also inserted herself into the relationship between Vicki and Steve Lodge, who will be seen discussing their thoughts on marriage on upcoming episodes.
During one particular scene from the show, Tamra was seen telling Steve to put a ring on it.
“Vicki wants to get married, and she keeps saying that she wants to get married, so during that conversation, we were talking about them getting married, and I was just like, ‘It’s time to get married. C’mon. You’ve been together for two years. Either sh*t, or get off the pot.’ And he kind of got off the pot,” Tamra said.
The Real Housewives of Orange County season 13 premieres on Monday, July 26 at 9 p.m. on Bravo TV.
Photos Credit: Vince Flores/startraksphoto.com, Milla Cochran/startraksphoto.com
TELL US – DO YOU BELIEVE TAMRA & VICKI’S FRIENDSHIP WILL EVER GO BACK TO THE WAY IT WAS?