Tamra Judge is back! The Real Housewives of Orange County veteran returned to the show on June 7 after getting fired two years prior. And while fans are super excited to her back on their TV screens, Tamra’s co-stars aren’t so thrilled — in fact, in the first few seconds of the season 17 premiere, they said she’s “dangerous” because she “talks a lot of s*** about her friends.” But before we get to Tamra’s relationships with her co-stars, we should note what’s different about her.
During COVID, Tamra and husband Eddie Judge sold their Coto de Caza house and moved back into the one they were living in before that. Apparently, they got an offer they “couldn’t refuse”, so they remodeled the old house and moved back in. Tamra’s mom, Sandy, is also living with them — it’s supposed to be temporary, but Tamra doesn’t think her mom will be leaving anytime soon. Tamra and Eddie also shut down CUT Fitness because the business struggled during the pandemic. Oh, and their dog, Bronx, died.
As Tamra once said, the best thing about starting over is never looking back 👏 Don't miss the all-new season of #RHOC on June 7th! pic.twitter.com/7qS0MrjgjS
— Bravo (@BravoTV) May 30, 2023
Because of all the personal changes and hardships going in her life at the moment, Tamra said she’s hoping to keep things peaceful between her and her co-stars. But she has some unresolved issues with Shannon Beador so that might be easier said than done. According to Tamra, Shannon basically ghosted her after she got fired from the show. Tamra claims she tried reaching out to Shannon dozens of times and never got any responses. And considering Tamra was struggling with her ex Simon Barney‘s cancer diagnosis, she felt as though Shannon should have been there for her.
Shannon, on the other hand, told Emily Simpson that that’s not what happened. Shannon said there were times where they “didn’t connect”, but she insists “an attempt was made”. Shannon said it was “devastating” to have her six-year friendship with Tamra completely “cut off” from her. When Emily asked for more clarification about who texted who and who ignored the message, Shannon said they actually called each other after Tamra was fired, and they both “missed” the other’s call. And after that, Tamra took any opportunity to bash her in the press. Shannon said she was “crushed” and would like to know what she did to “hurt” Tamra.
Tamra stood by her claims that Shannon didn’t reach out to her, following her firing, but Shannon said Tamra was making it all up so she could stay “relevant” during her time away from the show.
But their friendship isn’t the only one struggling this season. Heather Dubrow and Gina Kirschenheiter became extremely close last season, but after the cameras went down, Heather stopped hearing from Gina. So when they reunited this week, Heather demanded answers. First, Gina said she was busy because she’s working on getting her real estate license. Heather was excited for her and said she could talk to her son, Nicky Dubrow, because he’s doing the same, but in her private confessional, Gina basically said she’d never seek career advice from a “kid”. Gina also said the summer caught her “by surprise”, and she went to New York for three weeks, but Heather told her she could have at least sent a text or tried calling her to say hi. However, Gina kept insister her summer was just too crazy to do any of that. She said Travis’ kids weren’t with them during the summer, and her kids were “sad” because of it, so she was busy comforting them. Oh, and Gina said she was feeling “social anxiety” lately, but Heather was quick to point out that Gina hosted a charity event with Emily recently, so she would have loved to have gotten an invite to that. It would have been the perfect opportunity for them to spend time together, but Gina said it wasn’t a “fabulous” event, so she feared Heather wouldn’t even want to go. In the end, Gina said she’d work on being a better friend.
#RHOC Season 17 Premiere Sneak Peek! It airs Wednesday at 8/7c on @BravoTV! 🍊 pic.twitter.com/gEKOppVS0T
— jay (@JaysRealityBlog) June 2, 2023
Later in the episode, Heather, Gina and Tamra met up for some pickleball. And it was during this scene, that Gina threw a little more shade at Heather in her confessional. Gina said she missed Tamra and Tamra doesn’t make her feel like she’s “doing something wrong” if she doesn’t text back. It was clearly a dig at Heather, but Gina doesn’t seem to have a grasp on what’s going on within the group because Tamra is actually mad at Shannon for doing that exact thing, so does she even know Tamra all that well?
Anyway, after the game of pickleball, the ladies sat down for a chat, and they all mentioned how they’d be going to an upcoming yoga retreat hosted by Tamra’s friend Jennifer Pedranti. And that’s when Heather asked if she could bring Shannon with her. Tamra said she was fine with it, but she made it clear that she’s upset with Shannon for “ghosting” her. We couldn’t see Gina’s face when Tamra said that, but we can only imagine she immediately thought about how she also ghosted Heather and is facing consequences for it. Perhaps she also, in that moment, realized she didn’t miss Tamra as much as she thought she did.
Tamra went on to tell Heather that Shannon ignored her texts after she got fired from the show, and she’s “self-centered”. However, because Heather and Shannon went through their own rough patch and now get along with each other, Heather urged Tamra to give Shannon another chance.
Tamra was a bit reluctant but she had no choice, as they finally came face-to-face at Jenn’s yoga event. In the beginning, they only had a chance to say hi to each other, but after the yoga portion of the day was over, they ran into each other near the snack bar. Shannon overheard Tamra talking to Gina and Emily about their ongoing issues, so they were kind of forced to address it right then and there.
After Gina and Emily walked away so Tamra and Shannon could have some alone time together, they kept things simple. They both said hello again, said they wished each other well, and then, they agreed to meet up in the near future, so they can start to work through their issues. It felt like a good first step, but in a preview for next week’s episode, it doesn’t seem that they’ll make their way back to each other easily.
Want more? New episodes of The Real Housewives of Orange County air Wednesdays at 8pm on Bravo.