Erika Jayne addressed where she stands with costars after the reunion, her dating life, Kyle Richards’ marital struggles and drama while filming her new docuseries, Erika Jayne: Bet It All on Blonde. She also discussed Denise Richards’ lip-synching diss, and shared if she hopes Tom Girardi – her estranged husband – will watch the new show.
Though Erika and Kyle were in a good place on season 13 of the Real Housewives of Beverly Hills, Erika recently suggested that Kyle and the cast should get “eviscerated” at the reunion – like she was eviscerated in the past.
“I’m good with Kyle … I think. I’m just saying this as an ‘I think,’ okay?” shared Erika on where she stands with the cast, in an interview with Extra. “I’m good with Dorit [Kemsley], I’m good with Crystal [Kung Minkoff], I’m good with Annemarie [Wiley], I’m fine with Garcelle [Beauvais], and I’m okay with Sutton [Stracke]. I’m in the best place that I could possibly be, which is, sort of, like neutral ground. I don’t think I’ve said anything or done anything to… I don’t know. I mean, that’s today.”
“This is everything I’ve been wanting, which was just a place to take a breath, a place to step back,” she continued. “The last two [reunions] were just, they were brutal. It was questions, hard questions, things, I couldn’t answer and a lot of pressure.”
Erika was asked if she received the apology she hoped for from her costars.
“I got as much as I’m gonna get. What I was really looking for was acknowledgment of, ‘Hey, this was tough, guys.’ This was a terrible time in my life, and I would have loved a little bit more understanding or at least just a little bit, ‘Let’s see and wait and not rush to judgment,’” she said. “And I also felt very mischaracterized in many ways, on the show, in my real life, like, it all sort of bled into this almost caricature of Erika. And I just was really wanting someone to see the human part of who I am.”
Erika added that her personal life is now private. “I’ve already done this publicly and I need a break,” explained the star, who said she’s “open to dating,” but won’t introduce them to cameras in the near future.
“I think that once you bring a relationship, especially a beginning relationship onto a show like that, it’s a disaster,” she said. “You’re doomed. Even the best of marriages cannot survive reality TV shows.”
She then addressed Kyle’s separation and marriage issues with Mauricio Umansky.
“They’ve been married for a very long time and to think that there are not challenges within a marriage, which is why I said to her in her home, ‘You are a successful marriage, you didn’t let anybody down, honey.’ This is called life, and marriage is a very tough place,” said Erika. “I was so wrapped up in my own disaster that I truthfully could not see [signs of their issues].”
The star also shared what was going on in her life when she filmed the Bravo docuseries for her “Bet It All on Blonde” Vegas residency.
“The competency hearing and run-up to that, and you see the public defender coming to the door and ask me, could I help. These things were really happening at the same time. There was a lot of outside noise,” she said. “But I had these outside voices and these outside problems that were just digging at me that made it that much harder to focus and also stole a lot of the joy of being in the creative process. And cameras, you know, filming it, also, is another layer. It’s tough. From so many years of being on ‘Housewives,’ you know everything is being captured. So, if there was a moment I was getting a little flustered, you have to pull it back in.”
Erika said she wouldn’t take any of it back.
“If I had to go through all that stuff to get to kind of who I am today and where I sit and the things I’ve been able to overcome and move forward from, it was worth it,” she explained. “I have to take somewhat of a detached spiritual approach of ‘This was all designed and meant for something better.’ I’ve grown from it, painfully, but I’ve grown from the entire experience.”
Speaking with E! News, Erika addressed Denise’s lip-synching diss during her season finale performance.
“Here’s the thing, you can hear the good notes and the bad notes,” said Erika. “So, that’s how you can know, there’s good notes and there’s bad notes. I mean, that’s the way it is.”
“The mic was on,” she continued, “The mic is always on, that’s how you get in trouble too.”
Erika was asked if she hopes her estranged husband will watch the docuseries.
“I have never thought of that,” she answered. “No, and I don’t think that he will.”
“I don’t think I’m ever going to get the closure that I once wanted or the understanding that I once wanted,” said Erika of the drama concerning Tom’s lawsuits. “I have to move on from that, and I have to let that go. I have to be always in the moment and looking forward.”