Erika Jayne is letting it all hang out.
For the very first time since her split from embattled ex Tom Girardi was announced in November, the Real Housewives of Beverly Hills star is opening up about what went into their family’s fracture, and where she stands now.
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On Wednesday night’s brand-new episode of the hit Bravo reality TV show, the 49-year-old spoke to RHOBH co-stars Lisa Rinna, Kyle Richards, Dorit Kemsley, Garcelle Beauvais, Sutton Stracke, Crystal Minkoff, and Kathy Hilton about how her life “drastically” changed after letting go of her marriage to the highly controversial and influential Los Angeles-based lawyer.
“Let’s discuss the elephant in the room,” Jayne told the women, before diving in (below):
“My life drastically changed this week. I let go of my Lamborghini, I let go of my 16,000 square foot home, I let go of my marriage, I let go of everything. I literally made a decision that I had to. I left because he pushed me further and further out. The conversations that I used to have were now reduced down to a sentence or two. I just kept walking around that house and knowing that this marriage was headed down a really s**tty path. I had to make a choice to do what was right for me. I couldn’t live that way anymore.”
Whoa!
After admitting she actually filed for divorce on Election Day last November to “try to bury the story” — not a bad idea, TBH — Erika went on to admit to her cast mates that she purposely kept them in the dark for a long time, too.
Not wanting to share too much with the Bravo cameras or anyone else, she explained to the rest of the RHOBH stars:
“It would put you in a bad position to give you information that you had to hold. It also doesn’t serve me to talk a lot about what is happening legally — or will happen legally — because I am married to somebody who is very good in that area. … I thought about this and tried and tried and tried to talk and tried to work it out and I was met with such resistance. Such resistance. I can’t do this by myself. I can’t convince someone of anything and so I said, ‘OK, well I have to take this step on my own.’”
Interesting.
Sounds stressful as f**k, TBH.
Speaking of stress, Erika later admitted in a confessional that she packed and moved “out within a day” after the pair decided to split, immediately walking away from what had been her home of 21 years just like that. No love lost there… Jeez…
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The big news, of course, are the legal problems Tom and his law firm Girardi Keese now face. They’ve been accused of embezzling millions of dollars in settlement money from the families of plane crash victims. Earlier this week, we reported how investigators now allege Tom gave at least $20 million to Erika’s company over the years, too.
The embattled Housewives star did her best to steer clear of the legal details, though, choosing only to say :
“He left me no room, and that’s the only way I can say it right now. We’re not playing games over here. And he’s not going to be playing games with me. … He’s got some real challenges ahead of him.”
If our earlier report about that $20 million is true like court investigators claim, Tom isn’t the only one with “real challenges ahead of him,” either. Just saying!!!
And while leaving in a single day ended up being the plan, it sounds like Erika really struggled over the decision for a long time.
She explained her emotions in a confessional, alluding to even going so far as to sell a considerable amount of her clothing to lighten the physical load:
“I struggled for a long time knowing that I had to leave. But once I made my decision, I spent a good 30 days closing out certain parts of my life. I cried every day. This was the end to a massive part of my life and stepping into basically a void. I did not see it ending this way, I was going to hold this man’s hand until he died, but you know, life.”
Oof.
Still, it doesn’t sound like things were that good during the marriage, either.
Erika recalled several disturbing stories from earlier in her time married to Tom, including an allegation that he would routinely dismiss her feelings:
“My marriage was always unconventional. He was successful, 33 years older. You’re the cocktail waitress that made good with a young son. In my marriage, if I wanted to open up and say, ‘Tom, you hurt my feelings,’ there was none of that. It was always dismissed. In my marriage, everything was great, everything was perfect and ‘I don’t know what you’re f**king complaining about, Erika.’”
And an ugly incident at a dinner with some of his friends:
“I’ll never forget one time I was joining Tom and five other guys for dinner and I said, ‘I’m sorry I’m late, I was in traffic.’ And one of them said, ‘Well, if you were married to a better man, traffic wouldn’t be no problem.’ And Tom straight looked at him across the table and said, ‘Well if you think you can afford her, you can have her.’ And it flew right out of his mouth.”
Goodness gracious. That definitely doesn’t sit well with us!
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What do U make of Erika’s big bombshell divorce reveals, Perezcious readers?! Quite a lot to digest from Wednesday night’s ep, that’s for sure. Sound OFF with your take down in the comments (below) as we all eagerly await whatever may come next week as a follow-up…
[Image via Adriana M. Barraza/WENN/YouTube]
The post Erika Jayne FINALLY Speaks About Her Controversial Split From Tom Girardi: 'I Couldn’t Live That Way Anymore' appeared first on Perez Hilton.
