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Gretchen Rossi explained where she suspected her issues with Tamra Judge stem from while appearing on Heather McDonald‘s podcast on Tuesday with fiancé Slade Smiley.
As she also shaded Jo De La Rosa, 44, over her recent cameo on The Real Housewives of Orange County, accused Tamra Judge, 57, of leaking her engagement story years ago, and shared why she and Slade, 51, have yet to wed, Gretchen, 46, took aim at Tamra’s jealousy and clapped back at claims of being stuck in the past.
“I wish I knew [what Tamra’s problem with me was] because back then I didn’t understand it,” Gretchen admitted on the August 26 episode of Juicy Scoop.
While fans used to always tell her that Tamra was jealous, she never wanted to say that because she felt it would be “conceited.”
“But looking back, I feel like she was always like, ‘I’m the hottest housewife.’ And then I come in and it’s like somebody’s stealing a little bit of that limelight from her … And I just think that she didn’t like that. She didn’t like anybody coming in and taking over any of that reign for her. And then the audience really started liking me, so then it was like, she was just determined to be like, ‘She’s this horrible human being,’” Gretchen reasoned.
Although she’s been accused of always talking about Tamra publicly, Gretchen pointed out that people always ask her about all the stuff Tamra has “done to [her] over the years.”
“I’m going to respond to the questions I’m getting asked,” she stated.
As for Jo’s recent appearance on RHOC, which saw her showing up to a event with Tamra, Gretchen said it wasn’t Jo’s presence that bothered her. Instead, it was the fact that Tamra had used her to “cause issues.”
“Tamra’s out in the press saying, ‘Oh, Gretchen’s so stuck in the past. She’s just all about the past. She can’t let anything go,’ but yet she walks through the door with the past,” Gretchen laughed. “I’m like, ‘Who is holding on to the past here?’”
“You are literally in therapy talking about your past and talking about all the things that caused you trauma. So I’m not allowed to talk about the things that caused me trauma? You just happen to be one of the people that caused me a lot of trauma. So why are you allowed to talk about your past but I’m not?” she continued.
According to Gretchen, Jo had been “trying to get on the show” ahead of season 19. So, when she showed up with Tamra, Gretchen was immediately put off.
“It was like, ‘Come on, Jo, really? You’re gonna walk in with my arch nemesis, of all people?’” Gretchen recalled thinking. “[And] I’m not mad about [her wanting to be back on the show], but it’s like, and her and I actually kind of got in a fight about that because she was like ‘ You called me desperate on a podcast.’ And I go, ‘Well, I feel like you are desperate. You’re literally calling production. I didn’t have to call production. They called me. I said ‘no’ three times. You’re calling, trying to get on the show, and I’m not. You’re calling all the housewives, trying to hang out with them when you’re not even friends with them. You’re walking in the door with Tamra. Like, why are you trying so hard?’”
While Gretchen called out Jo on lens about the issue, it wasn’t ultimately shown.
“But it was funny,” she noted.
Looking back on the controversy surrounding her engagement to Slade, Gretchen revealed she was told by the West Coast bureau chief, allegedly of Life & Style, that Tamra was behind a leaked story suggesting her on-lens proposal to Slade was fake.
“They’re like, ‘Tamra is the one who came to us and leaked the story that it was a fake engagement.’ So it’s just so frustrating to me that I was accused of all of the stuff, and she’s the one who was out doing it,” Gretchen explained.
Then, speaking of why she hadn’t yet married Slade (at least not officially), Gretchen admitted to carrying issues from her past marriage.
“I just had a lot of anxiety around being back in a situation that had financial issues. And we talked about it openly on the show. At that time, he was going through some financial issues, so I was like, ‘I don’t know if I’m ready to be married yet until you get these things worked out,’” she explained.
Gretchen also signaled to the money they spent on conceiving their daughter, Skylar.
“IVF is very expensive and we went through five rounds of it. So I decided rather than putting all this money into a big wedding, I wanted to put it into IVF. My time was ticking, and so we put it in the IVF, and then after we had Skylar, obviously, you’re in mommy mode,” she noted.
The Real Housewives of Orange County season 19 airs Thursdays at 8/7c on Bravo.
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