The early days of the Real Housewives of Orange County were filled with drama. One would say that the OJ was overflowing behind the gilded gates. Two of the biggest heavy hitters on the franchise were Gretchen Rossi and Tamra Judge. You would have thought that a friendship could have been born out of the pairing, but instead, the duo decided to have a years-long rift that still is going on to this day.
The RHOC trailer highlights tension between Tamra Judge and Gretchen Rossi
The trailer for Season 19 showed Gretchen alleging that Tamra had an affair. The two women are right back at one another’s throats. During filming, sources noted that Tamra actually quit for a few days after having an all-out shouting match with her foe. Needless to say, the new season won’t show the two moms being best friends. But their attitudes make sense since RHOC fans have watched the frienemies fight for years. In 2012, it appeared the blonde bombshells had buried the hatchet. Tamra has been newly baptised and extended an olive branch to Gretchen.
But the truce was short-lived. A lot went down between the two, including Tamra trying to get Gretchen wasted as her son hit on her. But their issues all seemed to start after Gretchen wrote an unhinged blog. Back in the early days, the women were expected to write commentary on the other women. Naturally, it didn’t go well. After the RHOC Season 4 reunion in 2009, Gretchen posted a deranged blog about Tamra. It was first posted to the Bravo site with the cast blogs, but was removed due to the content and accusations. Gretchen then reposted it on her personal blog in 2010. The mother of one didn’t play nicely. The blog was so important to Real Housewives of Orange County history that it has been referenced in Season 6 too.
Tamra Judge has been accused of being jealous of Gretchen Rossi
In 2017, things got worse between Gretchen and Tamra. At this time, Tamra was at the height of her issues with her daughter, Sidney. After Gretchen commented on the lack of relationship with her daughter, Tamra freaked out. She took to Instagram via People to write a scathing post. It read, “I usually don’t give this troll any attention because it’s exactly what she wants. But after years of her bashing me and now reaching out to my daughter I must say. Gretchen you are the biggest piece of sh*t I’ve ever met. Move on with your sad empty childless life and stay out of mine you thirsty wannabe.”
Tamra wrote, “You are obsessed with my life and I haven’t even seen or spoke to you in 5 years. #MoveOn. You have NO IDEA What my family is going through or what the truth is, Nor do you care. It’s just an opportunity for you to get your name in the press. #obsessedfreak. Funny you of all people should be talking about morals. You have none!” Many found Tamra’s reaction to be over the top and felt she was jealous of Gretchen. She always saw Gretchen as competition.
Gretchen Rossi overreacted and wrote her own RHOC exit before Season 19
Season 8 showed Tamra really getting under Gretchen’s skin as she revived old rumors about her being unfaithful to her late fiancé. The arguments were petty and included Tamra accusing Gretchen of lying about her part in Malibu Country. The main takeaway was that Gretchen felt Tammy Sue had a problem with accountability. During the reunion she noted, “Seems as if when she believes she is going to be held accountable for her lies, she quickly wants to delete them. If there was any truth to what she said why delete the posts?”
It didn’t take a lot to see that Gretchen had alienated herself from the cast in Season 8. She was choosing to hold onto grudges instead of trying to move forward. During the reunion, many were hoping that she’d make up with the cast, but she chose to remain guarded. If she had dropped the ego, she might have lasted longer. Gretchen’s cringeworthy proposal to Slade Smiley was the straw that broke the camel’s back for Bravo. The move felt overproduced, and it was the perfect time to wrap up Gretchen’s time on the show. It also didn’t help that the series was going through a cast shake-up. You can tell that Gretch is still a bit bitter about how she allowed herself to be played by Tamra during her last season.
