The Real Housewives of Orange County star Heather Dubrow was hurt by her costar and friend Tamra Judge talking about her behind her back during the Thursday, August 1, episode of the Bravo series.
“It devastated me. I shed some tears that night,” Heather, 55, exclusively told Us Weekly on Thursday.
The drama began when Tamra, 56, went out for a girls night with costars Katie Ginella, Emily Simpson, Jennifer Pedranti and Gina Kirschenheiter. As the women sat sipping espresso martinis, Emily, 48, prompted Katie, 40, to share some dirt she had on Heather.
Katie then claimed to have proof that Heather once hired paparazzi to take photos of her and husband Terry Dubrow at Disneyland amid rumors that Terry, 65, had cheated on her. According to Katie, a friend of hers who oversees several paparazzi photographers confirmed the rumor to her via text.
“I have a screenshot of it,” Katie claimed. Tamra then raised her arms in triumph.
Tamra was interested in the development because Heather vehemently denied the rumor last season and got frustrated with Tamra for her suspicions.
“Last year she was dead set on, ‘It’s a lie,’” Tamra said in a confessional. “It makes me feel a little vindicated, I’m not gonna lie.”
Tamra also made a joke about Heather’s alleged decision to hire photographers when Katie said that the friend who’d given her the information “is on speed dial for Kim Kardashian.”
“And Heather Dubrow too?” Tamra quipped.
Heather is willing to give her costars some grace after learning they had a laugh at her expense.
“I understood when the girls were all at the bar that at first they were laughing and carrying on about it because they were told this information in a very salacious way,” Heather told Us. However, she still wishes they’d handled it differently.
“I kept thinking, ‘Why is no one asking to see proof? Why is no one vetting this information and why is everyone so gleefully enjoying this?’” she said.
Heather noted that Tamra has since apologized to her.
“She texted me and was very apologetic. Tamra and I have been friends for a long time,” she said. “I am very upset about all of that. But that’s something we’re going to just have to figure out. And that doesn’t mean we’re not friends anymore. It doesn’t mean I’m mad. It means I’m upset.”
Emily, however, hasn’t reached out to clear the air, Heather claims, and she thinks Emily’s intentions were less than pure.
“Who wants to hang out with people that want your demise? It’s like schadenfreude on steroids,” Heather said of Emily. “I’m not that person. I want my friends to succeed. I want everyone to be happy and move forward in their life. It didn’t feel good, and I didn’t think it was funny.”
Heather added it was “disappointing” that her costars took Katie’s word over hers, considering that Katie is new to the group. (The RHOC season 18 premiere last month marked Katie’s debut on the show.) However, she’s not going to tell anyone what to think about the newcomer.
“Even after this situation with Katie, I never said anything to the girls. [I never said] ‘How could you be friends with her?’ I very much went, ‘You all do your thing. You make your own decisions. That’s just not a friendship that I am choosing to pursue,’” Heather said. “I’ll always be polite. I’ll always be appropriate. But she taught me who she is.”
Even Gina, 40, who is Katie’s longtime friend, exclusively told Us on Tuesday, July 30, that she doesn’t “have 100 percent trust” with Katie after filming season 18. She admitted that it was “hard to watch” Katie stoking the flames of Heather’s paparazzi rumors.
“I’m like, ‘You’re really barking up a redwood here.’ It was ambitious of her [and I] give her credit for that. But, it also was hard because they were both my friends, so I kind of got caught in it,” Gina said. “There are [also] certain decisions that Katie made that were very surprising to me, and it didn’t bode well with me. So, I don’t really know what all of that was about.”
The Real Housewives of Orange County airs on Bravo Thursdays at 9 p.m. ET.
With reporting by Christina Garibaldi
