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Amid speculation about how Gretchen Rossi ended up back on The Real Housewives of Orange County for Season 19, host Andy Cohen set the record straight in an unseen moment from the Season 19 reunion.
In Peacock’s extended and uncensored version of RHOC‘s Reunion Part 2, the discussion turned to rumors that Katie Ginella had heard about Vanderpump Rules alum Scheana Shay “somehow plotting to get Gretchen back on the show,” as Andy put it.
The rumor had first surfaced during Katie’s September 2025 appearance on Tamra Judge and Teddi Mellencamp’s Two Ts in a Pod podcast. At the time, Katie referenced clip she’d seen of Scheana calling longtime friend Gretchen on the air during her own podcast and supposedly asking, ‘How do we get you back on the show?'”
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As Katie explained on the Season 19 reunion, she had simply “confirmed that I heard this rumor” during her interview with Teddi, rather than stating it as fact.
“Well, can I just point out that the reason Gretchen is on the show is that she was on [The Real Housewives Ultimate Girls Trip]?” Andy chimed in. “We were all like, ‘Wow, it’s great to see Gretchen again. It would be fun if she [were] back on the show. I wonder if she would do it.’ That’s how it happened. It had nothing to do with Scheana.”
Inside Gretchen Rossi’s connection to Scheana Shay amid RHOC drama
The previously unaired RHOC reunion moment also included a larger discussion about the Season 19 drama involving Katie, Tamra, Gretchen, and the allegations that came to light in New Orleans.
During the cast sitdown, the ladies continued to clash over claims that Katie had told Radio Andy podcaster Kiki Monique about an off-camera accusation that Gretchen allegedly made about Tamra from roughly 15 years ago. According to Katie, Gretchen had made the allegation during a dinner they had with Matt Ginella, Slade Smiley, Jennifer Pedranti, and Ryan Boyajian, months before Season 19 began filming.
While Gretchen denied ever making the comment at dinner, Katie also insisted that she never divulged the info to Kiki.
RELATED: Andy Cohen Makes Shocking Statement on Gretchen Rossi & Slade Smiley: “I Always Thought…”
During the aforementioned Two Ts in a Pod episode, Teddi had also brought up unsubstantiated speculation that it was Scheana, not Katie, who had actually given Kiki behind-the-scenes details on Gretchen’s claim. After all, not only had Scheana been friends with Gretchen for many years, but Kiki is also Scheana’s “go-to co-host” on Scheananigans with Scheana Shay, per her podcast’s description.
On the reunion stage, Tamra questioned why Kiki didn’t go “straight to Scheana, who’s good friends with Gretchen” to verify the info, while Katie also wondered, “Why didn’t she fact-check the story with me?”
However, Kiki met with Grechen and Gina Kirschenheiter on camera during RHOC Season 19 and claimed that, despite her denials, Katie had told her the story directly.
Gretchen Rossi took responsibility for her “miscommunication” on RHOC
Regardless of who had apparently debriefed Kiki, Andy, meanwhile, called out the fact that Gretchen gave conflicting explanations about the past situation with Tamra on camera during Season 19.
As the WWHL host informed Gretchen, his team had received several questions from viewers who were skeptical of her “claim to have misspoken” when she confirmed Katie’s version of events during a New Orleans car ride.
“I completely understand why people feel that way,” Gretchen responded. “I take full responsibility for that miscommunication. I think that sometimes what happens when people are reliving a traumatic experience or getting a lot of new information, sometimes you say words that you don’t intend to say. So, I misspoke in that.”Â
Gretchen further defended herself later by saying that she “would have been making a big deal of it” years ago, if the allegations were true, adding, “I would have never come back on a show with somebody that I actually thought did that.”
Tamra, along with Katie and Matt, all actually agreed with her, because, as they contended, the issue was that Gretchen “lied” about what allegedly happened in the first place.
Still, Gretchen maintained that she “never said” what Katie and Matt insisted she told the group at dinner, and Jenn backed her up that the conversation had played out differently from the Ginellas’ characterization.
In the meantime, find out how Andy reacted to Slade skipping the RHOC Season 19 reunion.
