“Tamra didn’t have the balls to call me or Shannon to tell us that she didn’t want to be part of the show anymore,” Vicki stated.
This season of The Real Housewives of Orange County marked Vicki Gunvalson’s return, and she is not happy with her former friend.
On the August 1 episode of the Bravo reality show, Vicki, 62, and Shannon Beador discussed the future of their live performance, Tres Amigas, after Tamra Judge, 56, decided to pull out of the project.
Tamra was unhappy with Shannon’s ongoing alcohol use after a DUI arrest in September and chose to step away from the remaining shows.
“I’ve only had a very short convo with Tamra,” Shannon, 60, told Vicki, adding that Tamra didn’t want to sit down and work things out.
“She has vinegar running through her veins and a black heart,” Vicki replied.
Tamra mentioned that the high alcohol content at their events was one reason for her departure. However, Vicki and Shannon insisted that they had already perfected their show with their skits and trio performances.
“I think we can still do it,” Vicki insisted, but Shannon seemed hesitant.
“Tamra didn’t have the balls to call me or Shannon to tell us that she didn’t want to be part of the show anymore,” Vicki then said in her confessional. “It’ll be like Thelma and Louise and Ethel and Lucy and Laverne and Shirley. There were only two all the time anyway.”
After deciding to move forward with their new concept, which they called The Shannon and Vicki Show, Vicki and Shannon contacted the show manager to discuss how Tamra’s absence might impact viewership. Meanwhile, Shannon Beador’s ex-husband, David Beador, has filed for divorce from his current wife, Lesley Beador.
“I definitely think there’s some fall out,” the manager replied. Vicki then admitted that she still thought Tamra “owes it to us,” to rejoin the trio.
“I’m very upset with her,” she said. “You don’t do this in business.”
Shannon agreed: “It’s a way to make additional income. I’ve got three kids in college, I’m still single.”
“Just the two of us, we’re the dos amigas,” Shannon and Vicki then sang in unison before the scene came to an end.
Tamra informed her husband Eddie earlier in the season that her departure from Tres Amigas was due to the stress of working with Shannon, rather than dissatisfaction with the program itself.
“I thought she was gonna get help, and it’s frustrating to me because she’s lying to everybody,” she noted of Shannon’s drinking habits following her DUI arrest.
“She says, ‘I’m just gonna have a drink, I’m just gonna have two drinks, I don’t have a drinking problem.’ I will be there in a heartbeat if she reaches out to me, but I’m going to choose me and my happiness,” she added.
She concluded, “I cannot deal with the day to day with her anymore.”
Vicki and Tamra’s relationship has been troubled in the past, with Tamra criticizing Vicki’s romantic relationships. Tamra revealed that in 2022, Vicki had a heated encounter with her former partner Steve Lodge.
“She ran into him with the girlfriend and she chased him out of the restaurant,” Tamra said. “She told me too, ‘I chased him out of the restaurant and he got into his car and took off.’ I said, ‘Vicki, oh my god, did someone take video of it?’ She said, ‘I don’t think so.’ “