Vicki Gunvalson of The Real Housewives of Orange County, better known as The O.G. of The O.C., recently appeared on an episode of Vice’s “The Dark Side of Reality TV” docuseries, in which she reflected on learning of her mother’s death on camera while filming season 10 of RHOC.
During the episode, Vicki was participating in a game night at Shannon Beador’s house while her daughter, Briana, was trying to reach her.
“So, they called production [and my daughter] Briana had been calling, calling, calling, and they kept telling her, ‘Well, she’s filming right now, blah, blah, blah,” Vicki explained. But Briana insisted. “She’s like, ‘I need to talk to my mom right now.’” (Page Six)
She remembered feeling strange that production “set up” a separate room in Shannon’s house with “lights and cameramen” apart from the other ladies, telling her Briana was on the phone. In the scene, Vicki picks up the phone and appears immediately shocked, then starts screaming and crying in distress and falls to the floor, pleading with her daughter on the other end of the line for it to not be true. It is, unfortunately, one of the most famous scenes in all of Real Housewives history.
“I was really upset that production knew for an hour, and they didn’t tell me,” Vicki said. “They were out of line, and I think they should have taken me aside and said, ‘Your mom has passed. Talk to your daughter off camera.’ If I was a producer, that’s what I would’ve done.” She says she wished they’d let her “scream and cry” and “be mad” by herself, adding, “It was very, very traumatic. I will never forgive Bravo for that.”
This is a different stance than the one she took on an episode of Watch What Happens Live in 2015, back when she was still starring on RHOC.
“Mom wasn’t in the scene. It was just me getting the news of it,” she said at the time. “It’s not like I approached my mother and she was laying on her bed dead.” Well…sure.
She added that she wasn’t “upset” by the scene, explaining, “It’s part of my reality. I lost my mother. I signed up for all areas of my life to be exposed—the good and the bad…This is not a moment that I feel as of right now, that I regret,”
Well, perhaps losing that Bravo paycheck has changed her tune. Vicki is the most infamous Bravolebrity of all time, and she hasn’t been taking her demotion well.