Noella Bergener wanted to gain peace at the Real Housewives of Orange County season 16 reunion. Unfortunately, in going into the taping with that mindset, she was ultimately left with a major regret.
Before opening up about her rookie mistake and the biggest recent splurge she’s made, Noella, who was added to the Bravo reality series in 2021, admitted that when it came to the reunion, she had something to say to one of her castmates that she held back on.
“There was a moment on the reunion,” Noella admitted on the May 23 episode of Housewife to Housewife. “I was on such good behavior because I really wanted to leave there with a spirit of healing and us being friends at the end of it so I let a lot of things slide that haunt me still.”
According to Noella, she wishes she had “called out” a particular moment from the special, although she didn’t reveal what that moment was. That said, she did tease a future reveal.
“So [I have] regrets in the sense that I just wished I was in a stronger position that I could speak my mind a little bit more. [But] I might pull a [Margaret Josephs] and just hold onto it. The receipts are there. Timing is everything,” she shared, giving a nod to Margaret’s revealing of Bill Aydin‘s past affair on the premiere episode of The Real Housewives of New Jersey season 12.
In addition to having some reunion regrets, Noella also believes she made one big rookie mistake amid her first year.
“I really went into my season wanting friendships and I think that was a little naive,” she explained. “I was going into a very strong friend group that had been doing this a long time and where I was getting my feelings too involved in things, in relationships. So that was something that I feel like I’m stronger and smarter on.”
When Noella was then asked about her biggest recent splurge, she revealed a somewhat odd buy.
“I’m crazy on fresh plants… They’re so high maintenance. It’s probably a little too much of upkeep but I just love it. It makes me so happy,” she said of her love for botanicals.
Also during the Bravo special, Noella looked back on her early moments of the show, saying that while she started off bragging about her life and since-ended relationship with estranged husband James Bergener, her efforts to portray the “most perfect image” of herself didn’t quite work out.
“When I first went in, I was boasting about a husband who just days later disappeared so you do get in your headspace where you just want to put out the most perfect image of yourself and you want to be well-received and you want this new friend group to adore you and look at you with all this admiration and respect,” Noella explained.
“But it is reality and you do at some point need to deal with those deeper things,” she added.
The Real Housewives of Orange County season 17 is expected to go into production sometime later this year.