As much as Sutton Stracke did not want to discuss what really happened between her and former longtime assistant Avi Gabay that led to his firing, newbie Amanda Frances forced her hand on The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills.
During the cast trip to Sedona on Season 15, Episode 5, Amanda revealed to Kyle Richards that a good friend had randomly met Avi while out on the town, and he allegedly told her he was eager to “spill all the real dirt on Sutton.” The friend also claimed that Avi wanted Amanda to hire him as her assistant to “really piss Sutton off.”Â
At Kyle’s suggestion, Amanda eventually brought the story about Avi to Sutton’s attention. Upon hearing what Amanda had to say, Sutton initially appeared unfazed, however. In fact, she actually urged Amanda to hire Avi, insisting, “That wouldn’t piss me off at all.”Â
RELATED: Sutton Stracke Reveals the Real Reason She Fired Avi: “Things Get Complicated…”
Though she said she was “glad” that Amanda debriefed her, Sutton outwardly brushed the whole thing off, adding, “It doesn’t bother me … and I don’t care.”
When the subject arose again at dinner the next evening, however, she did not exhibit the same nonchalant composure.
“I don’t know the facts, and I am not interested in learning the facts,” Sutton stated, before striking a sterner tone as her RHOBH castmates’ questions persisted. “Y’all, I’m not talking about it. That’s it. And I’m not talking about it again. You may talk about it amongst yourselves. Do not include me in conversations about him. Is that clear?”
As Erika Jayne, meanwhile, pointed out, Sutton’s resistance to talking about Avi might make the situation feel “like it’s bigger than it really is,” and so she offered them one last tidbit.
“We had a falling out, and it’s painful for me,” Sutton tearfully explained. “It’s a person that was in my life for a very long time. What do you want? We’ve already done this so many times, and I don’t know what you want from me. Avi is one of many people that I’ve lost, and I just, I need to focus on [the future].”
Why Sutton Stracke doubted Amanda Frances’ story about Avi
Earlier, Bozoma Saint John had questioned why Avi would even want to throw her under the bus, to which Sutton replied, “I don’t think he would.”
When Boz asked if she didn’t “believe that he said that” to Amanda’s friend, Sutton hesitated before explaining to the ladies, “I gotta tell y’all, I don’t like talking about this. I’m uncomfortable talking about this. I think that Avi and I, we had a friendship. But at the end of the day, it was a professional relationship.”
During their airport dinner later on, however, Sutton further shared, “It just doesn’t sound like him.”
RELATED:Â Sutton Stracke Makes a Surprising Statement on Avi Gabay and Garcelle Beauvais
On The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills After Show, Sutton doubled down on her skepticism about Amanda’s “weird” bombshell.
“I don’t even know if Avi said that,” Sutton remarked. “It doesn’t sound like Avi. I know everything about Avi; Avi knows everything about me. …Â It doesn’t make sense. It was weird.”
A RHOBH After Show producer asked if she thought that “Amanda could be making it up,” prompting Sutton to respond, “Or the friend made it up. I don’t know. I don’t care enough to actually put a lot of thought into it.”
Why did Sutton Stracke fire her assistant Avi Gabay?
On an earlier episode of the RHOBH After Show, Sutton insisted that Avi’s firing “was just a business decision” for her.
“I was coming to a point in my life where no children were going to be in my house; I didn’t have a storefront that needed tending to. So, it was just time,” she reasoned. “And you know, we had run our course… I just didn’t need anybody in my house all the time.”
Either way, Sutton and Avi are no longer friends today.
“I don’t talk to Avi,” she further revealed to a producer, “I was, um, surprised that, in letting him go, that it was going to terminate the friendship as well. That was a surprise for me.”
Don’t miss more of the RHOBH cast’s reactions to Sutton and Avi’s professional breakup.
