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Will Vicki Gunvalson and Tamra Judge Ever Be Friends Again?
The OG of the #RHOC reveals where things stand with her onetime bestie now.
Last season of The Real Housewives of Orange County was certainly not the first time Vicki Gunvalson and Tamra Judge had a difference of opinion. However, their friendship seemed past the point of no return more than ever before in the aftermath of the controversy surrounding Vicki's ex Brooks Ayers and his cancer diagnosis.
So when Season 11 of RHOC premiered last Monday, it wasn't surprising to see that Tamra still had hard feelings about everything that went down last year. But Vicki thinks that the bond they have developed over the past nine seasons of RHOC is too strong to not survive. "Tamra and I have a really interesting relationship. I care for Tamra, I know she cares for me. We're both very opinionated. And Tamra's Tamra. We all know Tamra likes to stir the pot, so to speak. She even admits it," Vicki told The Daily Dish. "She's gone through some tough times in her life, and I hope she knows that I really want to be there for her. That's what happens when you film for nine years together, you grow a strong friendship and bond together."
Coming into the new season, Vicki said it was "really important" for her, Tamra, and the rest of their castmates to all put what happened last season behind them. "I wanted to come on this season asking for forgiveness of really getting them involved in my personal life. I learned a lesson from that. I'm going to try to keep my new relationships off-camera and out of their lives," she explained. "So it was important for me to ask for forgiveness of them because I wanted them to realize that, you know what, I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I never lied, but I'm sorry. And can we move on? And some of them are still stuck."
When The Daily Dish spoke to Tamra earlier this month, she wasn't very optimistic about the future of their relationship, saying that "too many things have happened" for them to ever be friends again. "My relationship with Vicki right now is non-existent because of something she did," she said. "I’m re-evaluating and realizing I don’t really need toxic people in my life that talk badly about me and my family and then call themselves my friends, so I am at a crossroads with her."
But overall, Vicki is still hopeful they'll be able to work things out. "I probably agree with Tamra that we probably will never be the friends that we once were, but that doesn't mean we can't be friends," she said.
Vicki said that Tamra will always have a special place in her heart in spite of their differences and how their lives have evolved over the past few years. "So what were we before when I was married to Donn [Gunvalson], and she was married to Simon [Barney]? Yeah, we both were in miserable marriages, and we had that common relationship," she told The Daily Dish. "She's now really happy. She's remarried. She's got a different life than I do. But I still love her. I still care for her. I don't want anything bad for her. Do I like everything she does? No, but I'm sure she doesn't like everything I do. So it's OK. We can have strong opinions about that. That doesn't mean we don't care for each other."
Relive the ups and downs of Vicki and Tamra's friendship, below.
Watch The Real Housewives of Orange County Season 11 premiere here or on the BravoNow app, available on iOS, Roku, and Apple TV.
