When Tamra Judge and Andy Cohen first discussed her firing from The Real Housewives of Orange County, she texted him a Dr. Seuss quote: “don’t cry because it’s over. Smile because it happened.” But she couldn’t help but let her emotions get the best of her while talking about her exit from the show again on Instagram Live. Tamra, 52, was upbeat throughout their January 27 conversation, but faltered after Andy gently noted that she had said in the past she wanted to step back from RHOC. “Yes. I’m not going to go into detail [but] I’m going through some difficult times right now,” Tamra said, tearing up. “It was best for me to step away so I can deal with it on my own, in privacy.”
Andy revealed that Tamra may make a few more appearances on RHOC, though didn’t go into detail. Tamra agreed, but stressed that she just “need[s] a little privacy in my life right now” first. The Cut Fitness and Vena CBD entrepreneur mentioned that she had been in communication with Vicki Gunvalson, 57, who announced on January 25 that she was also leaving RHOC, just hours before Tamra broke the news on Twitter. “I texted [Vicki] and said that there’s nobody I’d rather be going through this with, than you. It’s kind of like a death; I’ve been in the Bravo family for 12 years.”
Elsewhere in the 11-minute video, which you can watch above, Tamra said that the other OGs of the franchise reached out to her following her tweet — and they weren’t exactly happy. “Well of course I have [heard from other Housewives],” Tamra said during her call with Andy, laughing. “All the other OGs are shaking in their boots thinking that they’ll get fired, too! You know, Ramona [Singer, of RHONY] called me twice.” Tamra also explained why she unfollowed Andy and her RHOC co-stars on Instagram.
The short of it: she was utterly shocked when she got the phone call from production telling her she’d been fired, and didn’t want to talk to anyone from Bravo. “I knew it was going to be a sh*tstorm,” Tamra explained. “I didn’t want to read about it, I didn’t want to see it. I didn’t want to be hurt any more than I already was. So I just unfollowed everybody.