Vicki Gunvalson has witnessed twenty years of Housewives chaos. Still, she stayed away from the Rhode Island cast. In an interview with Page Six’s Virtual Reali-Tea, the RHOC star shared her first meeting with Bravo’s new stars during The Real Housewives Ultimate Girls Trip: Roaring 20th.
“I didn’t even know who they were,” Gunvalson, 64, admitted. “I was like, ‘Hi, bye. You’re all fighting. I’m staying away from that.’”
Her verdict on the group: “They’re very aggressive.”
When the woman who invented “whoop it up” backs away from a fight, the fight has reached a certain temperature.
Fighting Off Camera At Bluestone Manor
The encounter took place in February at Dorinda Medley’s Bluestone Manor. This was where the milestone Girls Trip season filmed its cross-country stop. It celebrated 20 years of Housewives and featured 82 different cast members.
Gunvalson says the RHORI women never paused the drama, even off-camera.
“It’s like, ‘The cameras aren’t here. What’re you guys doing? Shut up. This is my show. We are here for Season 20, Ultimate Girls Trip,’” she recalled. “It was just awkward.”
Fighting off camera can be seen as the most genuine act by a Housewife or the least professional. It all depends on your perspective. Gunvalson filed it under the second category. It’s amusing how the franchise’s original wildcard now plays the hall monitor for the new generation.
The Feud Likely Behind It
The Ultimate Girls Trip trailer offers a strong hint about who Gunvalson walked in on. RHORI stars Kelsey Swanson, 32, and Rosie DiMare, 35, seem to have a heated tiff. This rivalry goes back to their first season.
That feud produced one of Bravo’s most memorable recent insults. Amid a disagreement about the square footage of DiMare’s house, the former news anchor called Swanson a “slam pig,” an instant classic in the lineage of James Kennedy’s “worm with a mustache.”
Vicki’s Advice To The Newcomers
For all her criticism, Gunvalson acknowledged the new franchise’s success. RHORI had strong numbers in April. It set the record for Bravo’s biggest multiplatform series premiere since 2024, according to Deadline. Season 2 is already confirmed and filming.
Gunvalson herself has only watched “a little bit” of the show, joking that it “scares” her. Her advice for keeping the momentum: “settle down.”
From someone who spent two decades not settling down to build this franchise, the advice is either wise or hilariously ironic. Probably both. Tamra Judge already picked RHORI as her favorite franchise to recap. This has split the OC veterans.
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