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Tamra Judge admitted to getting a heads-up about the Real Housewives of Orange County season 19 finale call, during which she was accused of leaking stories to blogs, on Vicki Gunvalson‘s podcast on Tuesday.
As she also addressed the way Gretchen Rossi‘s controversial “liked” posts were brushed over amid a cast gang-up against her, cited the support of Katie Ginella, 41, and confirmed whether she’d spoken to Andy Cohen, 57, since the reunion, Tamra, 58, admitted to having post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) from the show and explained how she handles her haters.
“You think I know? Why would I be behind it? That’s nasty. That’s dirty. Nobody will give me an answer on it. I don’t know who it is and there’s nothing I can do about it,” Tamra said of who made the finale phone call on the December 23 episode of My Friend, My Soulmate, My Podcast.
According to Tamra, executive producer Alex Baskin called her before the episode aired and said, “Hey, listen, I don’t want to ambush you, but something’s going to come up.”
“So the entire time I’m there, I’m like, ‘What’s coming?’ It’s like the worst feeling in the entire world, and then it came … the way it all went down was very disgusting to me. It was very much brushed over, these posts that had been liked by Gretchen, this hatred, and all this stuff,” Tamra noted.
Because there was more focus on Tamra defending herself against supposedly leaked stories than Gretchen’s posts, she felt even more ganged up on by her castmates.
“We’re just going to ignore this? We’re gonna act like this didn’t happen?” she wondered. “And then you’re gonna go after me for 30 or 40 minutes on this stuff? … It was painful. Katie was the only one that came to my dressing room afterwards and sat there … and talked to me, and I was crying … [The others] all went to dinner with Gretchen.”
“But at the end of the day, I know what contract I signed. They can do whatever they want to me,” she added.
While it has been suggested that Gretchen’s “liked” posts were modified in some way, Tamra insisted they were real.
“For years [they’d been floating around]. It was all over Reddit. It was all over Twitter. It was all over Instagram. It was all over the place, and some of them were pretty freaking gross. Really gross,” she fumed.
After Vicki, 63, pointed out that Gretchen had defended herself, saying she scrolls and “likes” everything, Tamra asked, “What is your algorithm? That’s what you have to ask. I don’t have things like that in my algorithm.”
Looking back on RHOC season 19, Tamra said she was a victim of a gang-up from Shannon Beador, 61, Emily Simpson, 49, Jennifer Pedranti, 48, and, at one time, Gina Kirschenheiter, 41.
“It was like, ‘What did I do to you, Emily? What did I do to you, Gina? What are you guys doing?’” she recalled. “There was such a huge division in the cast this last year and I think that is not good, when there’s people trying to [sabotage] or ice somebody out … It’s like, ‘Just do your job and don’t worry about anybody else.’”
As for whether she’d seen Andy since the reunion, Tamra confirmed she saw him at BravoCon.
“[And] he did call me the day after the reunion to check on me. He’s always been very nice to me,” she added.
Still, Tamra revealed she experienced PTSD.
“There was a huge hate train last year, and it was devastating to me. But I feel like I wasn’t shown in the best light,” she explained. “I was getting death threats and hate. I had PTSD coming back to the show, and coming back to the show, I was still very scared and nervous about saying anything because I’m like, ‘I said so many great things and nice things,’ but it wasn’t shown.”
Also on the podcast, Tamra said that when it comes to her haters, she doesn’t let them affect her.
“I’ve had talks with production and people at Bravo and they’re not very influenced by what people are saying on social media because the hardcore fans that are out there that are loud, very loud, they will hate you one minute and then love you the next. They will want you fired and then when you’re fired, they want you back,” she reasoned.
“I don’t read the comments … it’s a time waste, and then it’s also not good for your mental health … I don’t want to,” she added.
The Real Housewives of Orange County season 20 is expected to begin filming sometime early next year.