The Real Housewives of Orange County‘s Tamra Judge is setting the record straight on her alleged “affair” with a musician.
Gretchen Rossi’s “life partner” Slade Smiley first made the allegation about Tamra’s rumored “tryst” during a studio recording session to Emily Simpson and Heather Dubrow via video call at the latter’s Beverly Hills sleepover. Despite Gretchen pleading with the duo to not repeat the accusation to Tamra, Emily swiftly spilled the tea on Season 19, Episode 12.
In addition to what she revealed at the time (more on that below), Tamra offered even more intel on The Real Housewives of Orange County After Show.
“This ‘boy band’ [person] was a neighbor of mine,” Tamra explained, using her participation in a NOH8 Campaign, sometime around 2010, as a reference point. “The ‘boy bander’ was with his now-wife. It was [his] idea: ‘Hey, why don’t you do a song … [and] the money can be donated to NOH8 Foundation.'”
Denying the affair rumors, Tamra claimed, “If I wanted to hook up with him, I could’ve.”
She went on to clarify that a hookup was not even “being asked or anything like that,” though, adding, “We didn’t have that relationship. Our kids went to school together. … I am, to this day, friends [with him].”
How Tamra Judge initially reacted to the affair allegations on RHOC
Before Emily even mentioned any alleged infidelity on RHOC‘s Sept. 25 episode, she debriefed Tamra on how Gretchen had claimed that she and Slade possessed audio of her singing.
“I think it was a recording studio, like, within a house,” Tamra replied. “We were hanging out at this house, drinking. … We were joking around. We were messing around, just singing songs on the thing. But I don’t know who would’ve gotten it, how they would’ve gotten it. I don’t even have it.”
She also pinpointed the timeline as being “right after” she separated from ex Simon Barney and when she had “just started dating” husband Eddie Judge, adding, “Oh my god, so that was, like, 15 years ago.”
“I was confronted with somebody from a boy band, that lived in my neighborhood,” Tamra elaborated in an Episode 12 confessional. “And I thought, ‘I’ll give it my all.’ … Well, my all wasn’t good at all. So, I’m like, ‘Nope, I am not embarrassing myself. Maybe you should just do it alone.”
RELATED: Tamra Judge Admits the Real Reason She Brings Jo De La Rosa Around (EXCLUSIVE)
That’s when Emily filled her in on Slade’s claim that she “had an affair” with the unnamed man — and that he’d heard a supposedly accidental recording of their alleged “extracurricular activities” in the studio.
“What the f–k?” Tamra responded. “Oh, bring it! I’d love to hear it!”
After Emily shared even more details from Heather’s sleepover, Tamra continued, “Wow. I got nothin’ to hide, so I don’t really care. But it just proves my point and the reason why I never wanted to be around [Gretchen] for the past 12 years.”
When Tamra confronted Gretchen soon afterward, the latter professed her innocence in the affair rumor spreading, telling her, “If Slade said something stupid, that’s on him.”
Gretchen Rossi defends herself and Slade Smiley amid Tamra Judge drama
Though she was quick to shift blame to Slade in the episode, Gretchen defended him on the RHOC After Show.
“Slade gets involved when he’s asked to get involved,” Gretchen reasoned. “So, when the girls are begging and saying, ‘Call Slade, call Slade, call Slade,’ and then, finally, they call Slade, he’s involved. I mean, it’s not brain surgery.”
While she had only wanted him to talk about Tamra’s song itself, their wires somehow got crossed, she explained. “I feel bad for him,” Gretchen continued. “Like, I was mad at him, and he was like, ‘Babe, I was just trying to say, like, ‘Are you referencing this time…?'”
As the drama continues on RHOC, get more details on Tamra’s feud with Gretchen and Slade.
