Credit: Charles Sykes/Bravo, Instagram, MEGA
Vicki Gunvalson is opening up about her biggest regret with former boyfriend Brooks Ayers.
While also dishing on the “grossest” thing about ex-fiance Steve Lodge, sharing what she wished was included in her season one contract for The Real Housewives of Orange County, and looking back on her best moments on the show, Vicki, 61, shared why Emily Simpson, 47, is blocked on Instagram and gushed over boyfriend Michael Smith.
“It will be two years in January. We’re zero drama. We love each other immensely and he just moved into Coto so he moved into my house. And we’re looking at, what are we doing now?” Vicki shared on the October 12 episode of Access Hollywood‘s Housewives Nightcap. “He’s got some new friends and it’s easy. We’re a really cool couple because we have fun together and he loves me immensely and I just keep saying, ‘Don’t lie to me. Don’t cheat on me. Don’t hurt me.’”
As their relationship continues, Vicki has welcomed Michael’s daughter to her insurance firm.
“[Michael]’s daughter works for me now. I brought her in as an operations specialist so she got licensed. She’s doing well. She’s 29 and it’s kinda nice to have someone I can trust,” she admitted.
And marriage isn’t off the table for Vicki and Michael.
“We have [spoken about marriage]. And then also it’s like, do we need to be married to be committed? I always feel like the ring helps but it didn’t help with Steve. He was cheating on me while I had a ring in. But we would always do, I’m a prenup postnup girl. He’s got his money and I got my money and I don’t feel like we have to ever co-mingle because he’s good. He’s financially secure,” Vicki explained. “I wouldn’t get married for any money reason. I would get married for the commitment.”
According to Vicki, she’s “not a flipper of men,” preferring to “stay” in her relationships — for the most part.
“With [Donn Gunvalson] and I, unfortunately, I did leave him and that was maybe a bad choice at the time but I was in it and we weren’t having fun anymore,” she explained. “But the last two, I really was committed to them.”
While Vicki and Emily exchanged a few jabs in the press in recent years, the ladies had a good time together in Mexico when Vicki returned to RHOC. And while there, they attempted to unblock one another on Instagram.
“We couldn’t figure it out. Her and I tried together. I’m gonna try to get some person that knows it better than me because we tried to search each other. We couldn’t do it,” she revealed. “I love Emily. I have no reason to block her. I like Emily. There’s no conflict there.”
Throughout her 14 years on RHOC, which included 13 full-time seasons and one season as a “friend,” Vicki had plenty of memorable moments. But it was her time with her family that she described as the best moments.
“When I look back on my best moments, it was being a mom, taking them to cheerleading, sending Michael off to college. Life was so different then. My whole life was revolved around my kids,” she shared. “Those are my best times. There was no drama. Just being a family. Being a mother is my greatest joy, now being a grandmother.”
“When we didn’t have to create drama to create a good show,” she added.
Looking back at the start of the franchise, Vicki said that if she had demanded an executive producer credit, she would be in a much different place today.
“I wouldn’t be selling insurance today if I would’ve known that now. I would’ve franchised it and made my little mark in there. If I was an E.P., then I could get residuals on everything,” she noted.
As for the worst part about Steve, Vicki said he stole her Instagram followers.
“This is the grossest part of him: He went through all of my Instagram followers and asked them to follow him and now his followers are going up and he puts himself as a public figure,” she revealed. “What is he a public figure of? Dating me? It’s a classic narcissist. He got married. She’s gonna learn the hard way. She’s the fifth one so let her enjoy her 14 seconds of fame with him. She thinks he’s rich and famous. He’s neither one.”
Vicki also looked back on her time with Brooks, who infamously lied about cancer on RHOC.
“I loved that man. I was all in. He treated me like gold. He was such a Southern gentleman. My regret is ever introducing him to the cast,” she stated. “They were horribly… Whether he had cancer [or] didn’t have cancer, people wanted to say I was in on the scam. Well, scammers win something. What did I win? I lost my integrity, almost my insurance business, I lost hundreds of thousands of dollars on him because I was supporting him, so that was a horrible time in my life.”
In addition to nearly losing her practice and having to meet with the Department of Insurance, Vicki said her time supporting Brooks was a “bad time in my life.”
“I left my husband for him .. and it ended up being the worst decision of my life,” she revealed. “And I never talked to him since. I know he got married right away.”