Tamra Barney: Brooks Ayers Destroyed My Friendship With Vicki Gunvalson
The finale of The Real Housewives of Orange County was all about the histrionic screeching of Vicki Gunvalson who listened to boyfriend Brooks Ayers’ concerns about the “evil eye” rather heed the concerns of her own friends and family.
In short, Ayers spent one particularly trying conversation whispering to Gunvalson about an imagined slight that no one else (at a table full of people) witnessed. Perturbed, Gunvalson and her boyfriend left the table and the event only to be coaxed back by host Heather Dubrow (and, following Dubrow’s celebratory speech, Gunvalson pulled focus and made the night about her which she defended on Twitter saying it was contrived, coached, and edited by producers).
At the close of the finale, which wrapped in December, former friend Tamra Barney was left in tears at the state of her relationship with Gunvalson because of Ayers. And Gunvalson’s relationship with everyone around her, choosing her boyfriend over her own daughter, also because of Ayers.
And now Barney, 44, explains the feud with Gunvalson, 50, in Life & Style Magazine. For what it’s worth, Gunvalson is getting attacked on Twitter about her relationship, and she’s defending her boyfriend’s character to fans who think he’s a manipulator and gold digger.
“Vicki insinuated that I had cheated on my ex-husband, Simon, with [my current fiancé] Eddie [Judge],” Tamra, reveals in the new issue of Life & Style. “That was just way out of line. Of anybody in the world, for her to say that, was just totally below the belt.”
“It all comes down to Brooks [Ayers],” Tamra tells Life & Style, blaming Vicki’s new man for brainwashing her former best friend. “He’s changed her so much that I just don’t know if she’s the same Vicki right now.”
All season long, Tamra has questioned Brooks’ motives, and now she tells Life & Style the reason. “He’s obsessed with the show; I think he’s obsessed with being famous,” says Tamra, who says Vicki is in denial. “I don’t want to see her getting taken advantage of, but she doesn’t want to hear anything anybody says, so my hands are tied.”
As for hopes of reconciliation, Tamra says she and Vicki need time to cool off. “Right now I am extremely angry with her,” Tamra tells Life & Style. “I’m broken up with her.”
The fight breaks out during Part 1 of the reunion, which airs July 10 at 9 p.m. on Bravo. – via Life & Style Magazine.