Sadly, there is more than one cringey Real Housewives moment that could have gotten a cast member canceled. Some of the housewives have always had a knack for insulting people. Between lacking self-awareness and not caring about others’ feelings, these moments below live in infamy. In the early days, moments like these were often overlooked as reality TV was such a new niche. But today, footage like this would have each of these characters axed.
Luann de Lesseps gives out advice – Real Housewives of New York
You couldn’t write this stuff. Luann de Lesseps showed her motherly side as she sat down with a little girl who dreamed of being a model. Luann never suffers fools and decided to give out some tough love in the form of a backhanded compliment. The mentor meeting was meant to inspire and build confidence. But Luann goes off script as she starts telling the children how great she is and that she never personally struggled with confidence. The children all had this look on their faces: “Who let this white lady in here?”
Luann had no presence of mind as she babbled on about her aristocratic title. She dared to say that she was an “American Indian” and “worked” her tail off to get where she was, saying, “Imagine what can happen when YOU work really hard!” Luann came across as ignorant of the group’s life issues. Lastly, Lu asked the girls what they wanted to be when they grew up. One brave soul revealed she wanted to be a model. She told the aspiring child model, “You’re still young. Losing weight is the easy part. You’ve got the basics.” It was insane to watch her telling an at-risk kid that she needed to lose weight to make it in this world.
Brooks Ayers faked cancer – Real Housewives of Orange County
Vicki Gunvalson and Brooks Ayers took part in perhaps the worst lie ever to hit reality TV. Even though fans of the Real Housewives of Orange County all understood that the OG wanted her love tank full, her picker seemed to be broken. When Brooks first announced he had cancer, fans felt empathy, but the feeling quickly dissipated as red flag after red flag kept popping up. One thing that constantly nagged at me as a viewer was Brooks’ refusal to provide any documents to Bravo regarding his cancer battle. The man was a toxic sponge.
The Mississippi native claimed to have non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma and went as far as to fake hospital bills. But when that same hospital issued their own statement, he was forced to admit that the documents were fugazi. Brooks tricked the Bravosphere into thinking he was dying. Vicki was no better. She claimed she had picked Brooks up from his City of Hope Hospital treatments and seen the hefty bills. Brooks alleged that he had asked Vicki never to talk about his diagnosis on the series, but when she shared an email with her friends, the cat was out of the bag. He said he had forged a few documents to protect his personal records. But all viewers ever saw was a big liar.
Kim Zolciak ignores the elephant in the room – Real Housewives of Atlanta
Fans loved Kim Zolciak’s ability to be genuine even in front of the camera. But the Real Housewives of Atlanta star didn’t help herself during the Season 10 reunion, where she noted that racism “wasn’t real.” The mother of six went as far as to blame production for her bad edit. Kim called Andy Cohen into the bathroom at the time to complain about how he and the rest of the housewives treated her. During the tell-all, NeNe Leakes and the rest of the women banded together as they explained that the way Kim had acted all season was not okay. Producers cut back to Kim, saying Nene was “sick and disgusting” for living in a “roach nest.”
Many found the term offensive. The ladies explained that they felt the term was racially charged due to its cultural implications regarding poor women of color living in the projects. Kim denied it all, telling them, “You’re reaching. Reaching. Don’t try it. It has nothing to do with the projects or none of that sh*t. A roach is a roach.” As the reunion concluded, Kim broke down, telling Andy, “You know why you have not found another white woman to join the cast? Because nobody is dumb enough to do that! Put yourself in my shoes — five African-American women — just hammered! I couldn’t even speak, my mind’s a f*cking whirlwind! This whole racism thing in this day and age is b*llsh*t.”
Welp, we know where Kim is today – not on Bravo.
