Tamra Judge Explains Her Falling Out With Shannon Beador
Gettyimages | Raymond Hall
THAT'S HER OPINION!
During the majority of Tamra Judge's run on The Real Housewives of Orange County, she and Shannon Beador were best friends, however, when the CUT Fitness owner left the show at the beginning of the year their friendship fell apart.
It's always complicated to keep a friendship intact when one Housewife leaves and the other stays on the show and I guess this is just a prime example of that.
In a recent interview with Entertainment Tonight, Tamra was asked about her recent social media drama with her former BFF. In case you've been living under a COVID-19 sized rock, let me catch you up to speed.
Shannon posted a photo with Kelly Dodd and their new boyfriends on Instagram which caused both Tamra and Vicki Gunvalson to unfollow their fellow Tres Amiga on Instagram. All three blonde cast members spent season 14 of the show in an intense feud with Kelly, however, once Tamra and Vicki were out of the picture and filming began on season 15 Shannon and Kelly made up.
After the unfollowing saga, Tamra added insult to injury and posted a cryptic message which read "Fake friends are like shadows. They follow you in the sun, but leave you in the dark," which she now confirms was directed at Shannon.
In the ET interview, Tamra explained her fallout with Shannon wasn't due to her reconciliation with Kelly but that Shannon stopped returning her calls and texts once she was off the show. The OC veteran revealed:
"As soon as we're not on the show anymore, she just doesn't have any time for us anymore and it really just kind of hurts my feelings. I felt like on the show, off the show, whatever, she was my friend, you know? I helped her through this divorce, I spent hours in the middle of the night answering phone calls and then, it came to a point where me and Vicki really went through some hard times, when neither one of us were gonna go back to the show, we really went through, what is our identity? Who are we? You know, what is happening? We just lost a seven-figure income and there was a lot of stuff going on including [my ex-husband Simon Barney] fighting cancer, and my kids and what they're going through and I just kind of felt like I never got that, like, ‘How are you doing? How are you feeling?’ kind of thing."
This isn't the first time we've heard of Shannon being selfish in this friendship. Back in season 13, the two blondes feuded after Tamra was constantly helping Shannon through her dramatic divorce while the Feng shui enthusiast didn't return the favor while Tamra's husband was going through health issues.
Although the two had grown apart following Tamra's exit from the show due to Shannon no longer returning her calls, the final nail in the coffin was Shannon posting the photo with Kelly. Tamra explained:
"It just hurt my feelings. She was always the one telling me last year, 'Don't hang out with Kelly, don't hang out with Kelly, don't hang out with Kelly,’ you know? And then, all of a sudden, it's like, she's not returning my phone call. And I'm not -- when I'm saying not returning, we talk once in a while. Once every few weeks. But, before we talked every single day, multiple times a day. So now, it's just, you know… I had text her, I called her. Nothing, no response. And it just hurt my feelings, that's it."
Before the unfollowing drama, Tamra revealed she and Shannon did have an emotional hour-long conversation but maintained she hasn't heard from her since the photo was posted, stating:
"She finally called me and we talked for an hour and it really broke my heart, 'cause I told her, I said, I feel like I've not only lost my job, but I lost my best friend. I'm just, I'm hurt. I'm just hurt, ‘cause I really didn't expect it, you know? And it was always like, ‘I'm too busy…’ and, ‘Oh, I'm this, I'm that,’ and I just feel like I've always been there for you, why? Right now, I need you the most and you won't even answer my calls. So, it just got to a point, when she posted that picture with Kelly, I just thought, I can't watch this. There's no hard feelings. I just can't watch this, and I haven't heard from her since."
Tamra and Shannon really did have one of the most genuine sister-like friendships in any of the Housewives cities, so it is sad to see this happen to them, but I'm still holding out hope for them to hash things out and come back together. If Vicki can come back from a cancer scam, then anything is possible.
However, Tamra does admit Shannon's distance from her could be due to Shannon needing to adjust to her new normal of no longer filming the show by her side, but she doesn't know for sure.
Thoughts? Sound off in the comments!
