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Erika Jayne appeared on Teddi Mellencamp and Tamra Judge‘s podcast on Monday, where she addressed the shady comment she made about Dorit Kemsley, 47, and Paul “PK” Kemsley‘s marriage at BravoCon.
As she also opened up about a number of moments that took place amid filming on the upcoming 13th season of The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills, Erika, 52, teased drama between newbie Annemarie Wiley and Crystal Kung-Minkoff, 40, and shared why her castmates weren’t present on the opening night of her residency in Las Vegas.
“[Kyle Richards] is in Europe. Lisa Rinna’s coming. [Lisa and Dorit] are coming next weekend. Everyone has been invited,” Erika confirmed on the August 28 episode of Two Ts in a Pod. “[Sutton Stracke] texted me back. She was in Charleston. It’s summertime, people are doing their thing. I’m here until December. [Garcelle Beauvais] went on an interview and said ‘I’m definitely going to support Erika.’ I texted her. I said, ‘Thank you.’ At the end of the day, when the dust settles, we all want each other to win … Even though you clash, you have differences, at the end of the day, I know for me, I want to surround myself with successful women.”
“I know Kyle roots for me. I know [Teddi] roots for me. [And] I know Dorit roots for me,” she added.
As RHOBH fans will recall, Erika previously starred as Roxie Hart in Chicago on Broadway. And when comparing the show to her residency, Erika admitted her role as Roxie was more difficult “because of the schedule,” which consisted of eight shows each week and just one day off.
“I did 77 out of my 86 shows because COVID cut two weeks off. Broadway is the real deal. Chicago was [rough]. You and an orchestra. Good luck, honey,” she joked.
While Teddi was the only RHOBH alum present on opening night, Erika said she didn’t want anyone to come.
“I never want anyone to come to opening night because you’re wracked with nerves,” she shared. “Yes, you have rehearsed, but it’s never gone off in front of an audience because you don’t know what lands. So that’s what I’m really looking for. Also, those opening night nerves can f*ck you up but it went off beautifully. After you get that one show under your belt, then you start to settle in … I felt good about it.”
And so did her friends.
“There were so many tears opening night, everyone cried but me. Everyone cried for me,” she revealed. “I watched a lot of people like, ‘I’m so proud of you. This is wonderful,’ And tears were coming out of their eyes. I had to take it all in … It was about ‘Hold your head up, moving on.’”
Looking ahead to the new season, Erika described it as “somber” before giving a nod to Kyle’s marital drama.
“I feel bad for our girl Kyle because she needs to stay out of it. To me, having gone through what I went through, let her tell me what she wants to tell me,” Erika noted. “The reality is, nobody knows what goes on behind closed doors. She’s gonna tell me what I need to know. I’ve known this woman for a long time. She’s been good to me at very rough times in my life. If you think I’m going to butt in, it’s not who I am. [But] she did [share some things with me on the show].”
As for her own storyline, Erika said fans will see a calmer side of her.
“I just didn’t want to engage in the fighting,” she explained. “Everybody needs to step up. I don’t like the spotlight being on one person… Where are the rest of you stepping up and showing where you’re struggling or you have compassion? I don’t like it when people try to read the audience.”
Erika was particularly impressed by the way Lisa, 60, kept it real with her amid her legal drama.
“She said to me, ‘Look, Erika, I’m sticking by you but if it turns out another way…’ I respect that. She said, ‘You know what, I’m gonna walk alongside you,’” Erika recalled. “I don’t need anybody to hold my hand but what I do need is for when I say, ‘Please listen,’ that’s all I’m really looking for.”
While Erika and Crystal have had their issues in past seasons, Erika said she’s “finding her way.”
“I think she’s shown that more this year… but I think that Crystal… She hesitates in the moment [but] I think she’s found her voice more and more,” she reasoned.
One person Crystal did not mesh well with amid season 13 is Annemarie.
“Annamarie laid it on Crystal and… She came in mid- to three-quarters through She’s a cool chick. I didn’t think she had it tough at all. I thought she laid the smackdown on Crystal,” Erika disclosed. “She said something in Spain, I was like, ‘Oh,’ she said, ‘I made you relevant.’”
When Erika was then asked about Bethenny’s recent allegations against Bravo, which include exploitation of its talent and calls for unionization amongst reality stars, she denied having been coaxed into doing anything she didn’t want to do by the network or her producers.
“I’m an adult woman. I make choices. I’ve never had a producer say to me, ‘You need to go chew somebody up,’ or, ‘You need to drink some more,’” she stated. “I’ve always done whatever I needed to do. I remember when [Camille Grammer] was on the reunion and she blamed production and [Andy Cohen] said, ‘Hold on a second. You have free will.’ And that is true. I have in many instances said ‘You know what, I don’t see it like that. I’m not gonna do that.’ Nobody ever says to me, ‘Hey, you need this shot.’”
That said, Erika does feel that reality stars should get residuals and agrees with some of the things Bethenny, 52, has said.
“And then on other things, I’m like, ‘If you hated TV and it was so bad, why would we continue to conversation?’ She’s made enough money to do her own thing. You did really well and you have reality TV to thank for that. I cannot sh*t on [RHOBH]. I have a Vegas residency because of [RHOBH]. I’m a New York Times Bestseller because of [RHOBH],” Erika reasoned.
Earlier this year, the RHOBH cast traveled to Las Vegas to attend a “Magic Mike” show. And while they appeared to have had a great time at the event, Erika said Sutton, 51, was “offended,” or at least acted that way, by the performance.
“It felt very inauthentic if you know what I mean… It felt very forced and produced,” Erika stated of her co-star’s behavior. “We’re talking about someone who had a stack of bills and wanted to have a good time.”
According to Erika, her longtime creative director Mikey’s partner, who stars in “Magic Mike,” arranged for her and her castmates to go to the show, and they were excited to take a cast photo. However, Sutton’s antics put a wrench in their plans.
“Sutton showed out and showed her a** and threw a tantrum and I think the thing I was most disappointed in, not Sutton throwing a tantrum, which is pretty much par for the course, but the way the other girls ran to her and like, ‘Oh my god, oh my god,’ except Dorit,” Erika recalled. “The last two people having fun at Magic Mike were Dorit and myself. You know what you’re walking into. She was the one that wanted to go live her best Vegas life, and we had arranged it with the producer to make sure every girl got a chance on stage with a Mike. Kyle did Candy Shop and Crystal and I did something together. I know them and they’re my friends. They’ve worked for me.”
Continuing on, Erika confirmed Sutton was not inappropriately touched.
“Absolutely not, less than zero, negative,” she clarified. “We were there to have a good time and so they were very upset. The PR for Magic Mike got in my a**. I was disappointed in that.”
Also speaking of Sutton, Erika said she hopes she and Garcelle, 56, will allow themselves to shine more as individuals in the new season.
“I do feel like yes, I would like to see them have their own individual voices,” she said after Teddi asked if she felt Sutton and Garcelle are the ones who pander most on Twitter.
Moving on to Dorit and PK, Erika said that when she named them as the next RHOBH couple who would divorce, she was completely unaware of their marital turmoil.
“It bothers me very much because I didn’t know they were having problems,” she admitted. “I was being in the moment, and if you look back, you hear me say, ‘I don’t want to answer this question.’ And Andy says, ‘You got to do it.’”
Erika said she knew Dorit took it badly when she texted her and got no response.
“Dorit also reveals some other things that happened to her post-home invasion that were pretty heavy, and had I known that, I would’ve never f*cking said it,” she added. “It comes out that Kyle and Mauricio were struggling, Dorit and PK were struggling in their marriages. I didn’t know.”
The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills season 13 is expected to premiere on Bravo sometime this fall.