Erika Jayne wasn’t in the best state of mind during filming on the 12th season of The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills. In fact, as she attempted to navigate through her ongoing legal drama, as well as the tension between her and her castmates, Erika found herself mixing alcohol and antidepressants.
During a couple of new interviews, Erika is opening up about medicating herself amid production and admitting that when it comes to her November 2020 divorce filing against Thomas Girardi, she’s still “mourning” the split.
“I’ve been very open and honest. I mixed alcohol and antidepressants, which I didn’t know that it would make you this drunk and it did,” Erika told Us Weekly on May 10. “I do not have a problem and lesson learned and we go on. I mean, are you gonna see a moment that, you know, you will probably be like, ‘Is that Erika?’ And the answer is yeah. I mean, that was me.”
According to Erika, she went through a very dark time amid filming.
“It was really difficult because there were moments that I didn’t wanna get out of bed — more than moments, there were days and you have to do that,” she explained. “And let’s be honest, you know, you’re sitting at these parties and some of these women are kind of boring. So you have a drink [and then] you have another drink. And then you’re like, ‘Where am I?’”
“It’s not that I was drinking a lot. It’s just that I was drinking while being medicated,” she continued, confirming she does not feel “embarrassed” by her behavior because it was “very real.”
Going into the 12th season, Erika said she has a mindset of survival, just as she did during season 11.
“The season before was a real fallout [and] this season is really trying to pull yourself together and go on and, you know, it was tough, but ultimately I’ll get there,” Erika further detailed. “It’s part of the human experience. I mean, you can’t go through what I have gone through the previous season and not feel something and not feel great and not want to have a good time. I wanted to have some fun. I wanted to not feel so heavy, and that’s what I did.”
Looking back, Erika confirmed she has no regrets.
In a second interview, Erika offered an update on her divorce from Thomas.
“I still am mourning that marriage,” Erika admitted to Us Weekly. “I think that gets lost in the sensationalized version of it all. This was someone I was married to for over 20 years and was with, like, 23 [years]. It’s difficult. There are real moments of sadness, real moments of — like when the holidays came around, you know, for Christmas, I would just remember how much fun we would have. … But what are you going to do with that? These things happen in life. They happen to everyone; everyone’s mourning something.”
In addition to mourning her divorce, Erika is continuing to deal with the many allegations of embezzlement she’s faced in regard to her alleged role in Thomas’ reported money schemes against his former clients.
“I am front and center. I am the face of this instead of the lawyers that worked at the firm and referring attorneys and, you know, law funding people — instead they point to me,” Erika expressed. “For my mental health, it’s been hard. No doubt. But again, I couldn’t lose and I was just going to fight it out every way possible and still am.”
While Erika is confident in her defense as she moves forward with a number of cases, including a $25 million lawsuit filed against her last summer, she admitted it’s been hard to defend herself against people who seem to already have their minds made up.
“No one’s really listening,” she explained. “So yes, I get really frustrated and very explosive just, like, trying so hard to, you know, I wish that that would’ve been over, but it wasn’t because what would we be talking about?”
Following her season 11 revelation that Thomas was calling her “every day,” Erika said she now hears from Tom from “time to time.”
“Of course [I take his calls],” she revealed. “He’s not well, and so he’s in a state of decline and sometimes it’s good and sometimes [he thinks] I’m someone else. So it’s fine.”
RHOBH Premiere Live Viewing – This is also the live viewing thread for tonight’s Real Housewives of Beverly Hills season 12 premiere episode, which airs at 8/7c on Bravo. As the episode airs, please feel free to share your thoughts below.
