Real Housewives of Orange County wasn’t always a hot mess. In fact, RHOC had an amazing run from Season 3 to Season 11. That’s nine seasons of good TV, which is a difficult feat for any show, scripted or otherwise. We can attribute a lot of this success to stellar casting decisions. For instance, Tamra Judge’s arrival in Season 3 changed everything about the OC. Heather Dubrow’s debut in Season 7 had the same positive effect on the show. After Season 11 however things went south – or at least THAT’S MY OPINION. I attribute the descent into awfulness to two things. The first is the casting of Kelly Dodd and Heather’s subsequent termination. Now, after five years, Bravo finally saw the light and reversed their terrible mistake.
The second catalyst of this downward trajectory was Vicki Gunvalson and Brooks Ayers’ cancer scam in Season 10. Brooks was rightfully questioned by the women on the show for all of his past shady behavior. To rehab his image, Brooks faked having cancer for sympathy. This phony story was initially brought to light by Tamra’s psychic, and then vehemently unraveled thanks to the serious detective work of Meghan King. Vicki has always claimed she “wasn’t in on a cancer scam!” She just wanted casseroles. Most people agree with Shannon Beador’s assessment that Vicki is “too smart” to not know. Bottom line, this cancer scam put a dark spot on RHOC and showed the lengths desperate people will go to on reality TV. Regardless of Vicki’s involvement, this dark spot will always be over her head.
In an exclusive interview with Access, Vicki doubled down on her innocence. Towards the end of the interview Vicki is asked if she has any regrets, to which she responds, “the whole cancer thing.” She didn’t hold back either, in fact she started in on the cast, saying, “those ladies, Meghan went sideways on me. You know I always have to say what would I benefit from faking cancer for Brooks? What would I benefit? Nobody can answer that.”
Vicki then went in on production, saying, “so, the Producers went away with [the fake cancer story]. They had fun with it, they got all time ratings, and I looked like an asshole because I believed him.” That you did, Vick. She continued saying, “I believe everybody. There’s no reason not to believe someone.” This is true – unless you’re dealing with a known liar.
RELATED: Brooks Ayers Continues To Fight Vicki Gunvalson In Ongoing Legal Battle; Vicki Says, “I’m Going To Get Him”!
Vicki then shared that she never got a straight answer from Brooks about why he did any of this, saying, “I never got a conversation with him. When he left in the middle of the night he knew the cards were falling down on him hard and I never could ask him because he blocked me on his phone, he blocked me on his email, blocked me on everything.” Vicki even offered her own theory, saying, “my only analysis could be the women hated him so bad – for whatever reason – maybe they saw something I didn’t see and he probably – he had cancer before – he probably thought this is a way for me to get sympathy and we’ll move on.”
Vicki could have left it there, but instead shared, “but who would have thought – they started asking him for medical records. I’m like I’m not even asking him for medical records, I would never ask Steve[Lodge] for medical records if something happened to him. It’s private. So, it got weird and awkward. I was like, ‘yeah, he’s got cancer, why would he not?’” Just curious, is this, “but who have thought [they’d want proof]” a sort of Freudian slip?
RELATED: Vicki Gunvalson Suing Ex-Boyfriend Brooks Ayers For Unpaid Loans & Fraud
Vicki concluded this talk about Brooks saying, “That was a really ugly time and the producers really did not do me well. And I still don’t forgive them.” I bet she doesn’t! She also added that she thinks they went hard on Brooks because “they had a boring cast and they saw – they hooked into brooks.” The shade. And she was part of that cast!
TELL US- WHAT DO YOU THINK OF VICKI’S COMMENTS? WAS SHE IN ON A CANCER SCAM? WHERE DO YOU THINK BROOKS IS NOW? ARE YOU EXCITED FOR THE RETURN OF HEATHER DUBROW? WILL YOU BE WATCHING SEASON 16 OF RHOC?
[Photo Credit: Charles Sykes/Bravo]
