The Real Housewives of Rhode Island‘s “Hurricane” Liz McGraw stormed out of husband Gary McGraw’s birthday bash, sparking a dramatic fourth-wall-breaking face-off with Kelsey Swanson.
In Episode 3’s final moments, Kelsey had approached Liz for a friendly mid-party check-in, as the latter sat on the ground outdoors enjoying a piece of Gary’s birthday cake. The brief conversation quickly took a left turn, however, when Kelsey referenced “ongoing” rumors that Liz was having an affair with her best friend Dino (more on that below).
At the time, Liz had shared that she wanted to go down to the sea wall with Gerry and Dino, when Kelsey began to reply, “I think because of the… ongoing… s–t…” That’s when Liz shot back, “Ongoing what? Rumors? Ongoing rumors? Bye. Bye. F–k off, Kelsey.”
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Liz swiftly went back into her home, up the stairs, and closed a bedroom door behind her. Soon afterward, a confused Kelsey could only guess that Liz had taken something she said the wrong way, and followed her upstairs, — with the camera crew in plain view — to ask why she was mad at her.
Inside Liz McGraw and Kelsey Swanson’s argument on RHORI
The ensuing argument took place off camera, but the audio was picked up by the women’s hot mics.
After firing off some more expletives, Liz explained to Kelsey, “I wanted to be at the sea wall with my husband and my best friends. And you went, ‘Oh, I think not Dino ’cause the ongoing…’ I don’t have an ongoing! It’s all lies. I have nothing to hide. Maybe you do, but I don’t. … Maybe you have the ongoing, not me. F–k off. … You got more to hide than I do. How about that?”
As the two continued to argue back and forth, Kelsey insisted that she had not intended to start any drama, to which a still-activated Liz replied, “It never is, Kelse! I don’t give a f–k anymore. … [You’re] not my friend, never have been. F–k you.”
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When Jo-Ellen Tiberi and Alicia Carmody arrived to see what was going on, Kelsey shouted for them to leave the room. Alicia, meanwhile, told a producer that she’d never seen the two fight before, declaring, “Don’t f–k with Hurricane Liz.”
In a confessional, Liz further remarked, “The way Kelsey just stood up tall and said this to me about this ongoing, it just rubbed me the wrong f–king way. She was trying to distance her own story with Dino by pointing the finger at me.”
When a producer asked how Kelsey knows Dino, Liz cryptically responded, “That’s a great question. Well, you’d actually have to ask Kelsey that.”
The Liz McGraw and Dino affair rumors, explained
Earlier in RHORI‘s April 12 episode, Liz filled Gerry in on how Alicia recently bringing up the “bulls–t” Dino affair rumors during a group activity at a local winery had “set [her] off.” By her count, Dino had been a “good friend” of theirs for roughly 20 years, at that point.
“The rumors are, about Dino and me, like, we have this torrid affair,” Liz elaborated to a producer. “It’s a mortifying accusation. You wonder everywhere you go, you know, you go shopping or you go here, and you’re like, what are they really thinking of me?”
Further unpacking the speculation, she said, “Gerry and I spent every waking — and sleeping — minute together for 14 years. And then Gerry started this passion of sport fishing. That passion took him away three weeks out of four for a few years.”
Finally, Liz concluded, “When Gerry was going to be gone, it wasn’t uncommon for him to actually call Dino and say, ‘Look after her.’ So, yes, we would be out three and four times a week sometimes. I’m sure people spotted us at clubs, sometimes just the two of us.”
Either way, she told Gerry, “I mean, I know it looks like a cool, sexy story, but really, at the end of the day, it’s nothing. Let’s move on from it.”
As she navigates the drama with Kelsey on RHORI, get more details on Liz and Gerry’s marriage and family.
