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Tamra Judge and Gretchen Rossi proved that time doesn’t heal all wounds after meeting for the first time in 12 years on The Real Housewives of Orange County Season 19, Episode 2 — but, shockingly, all hope is not lost.
Prior to the July 17Â RHOCÂ episode airing, Tamra reflected on their rollercoaster reunion exclusively with The Daily Dish, first noting her disbelief that Gretchen wanted to rehash decade-plus-old drama involving Slade Smiley.
Tamra’s initial thoughts? “Oh god, this girl has not grown at all,” she spilled. “It’s really sad. Like, she’s really still stuck in 2010 or wherever it was, you know? I keep growing and thriving and building businesses and all this and she’s still stuck on, ‘You called Slade a deadbeat dad.’ I’m like, girl, listen — why are you even talking about this? Because all they’re gonna do is flash back to all this stuff, and it’s not gonna be pretty for you.”
RELATED:Â Gretchen Rossi & Tamra Judge Come Face To Face for First Time in 12 Years (VIDEO)
She continued, “So, I asked her the first time I saw her, like, ‘Can we move forward? Like, let’s move forward. I have no interest in going back 15 years.'”
Explaining her reason for wanting to bury the hatchet with Gretchen, Tamra added, “Successful people don’t look back; They move forward. And she acts like I just destroyed her life … I don’t have that much power, but these girls, they think I have so much power. I love it.”
Tamra Judge reacts to Slade Smiley calling her “evil” on RHOC
And, yes, Tamra also had something to say about Slade referring to her as “Captain Evil” while he and Gretchen hung out with Jennifer Pedranti and Katie Ginella, along with their respective partners Ryan Boyajian and Matt Ginella during Episode 2.
For starters, she said it’s “not uncommon” behavior from him.Â
What’s more, “He thinks he’s a star, he thinks he created this show,” Tamra added. “Like, it’s kind of embarrassing.”
RELATED:Â Slade Smiley Makes a Stunning Statement About Tamra Judge in RHOC Season 19 Trailer
Then comparing Slade to his “life partner” Gretchen, Tamra saod that they “are so stuck in the past that they’ve never moved forward,” and questioned why they’re not “focusing on other things.”
Inside Tamra Judge and Gretchen Rossi’s RHOC reunion
Despite their Episode 2 sitdown at Katie’s hot pot lunch starting off on a surprisingly cordial note, those are precisely the issues that caused the conversation to go left somewhere in the middle.
In addition to Tamra calling Slade a “deadbeat dad” and Gretchen commenting on a Facebook post allegedly made by Tamra’s estranged daughter, Sidney Barney, each woman accused the other of either planting negative stories or making negative comments in the press.
After going in circles amid a heated back and forth that included some more name-calling, Tamra also reiterated her stunning declaration about wanting to “just move forward” with Gretchen, as Jen, Katie, Shannon Storms Beador, Heather Dubrow, Gina Kirschenheiter, and Emily Simpson listened and occasionally chimed in.Â
“You’ve been hurt; I’ve been hurt. And I don’t want to continue to go forward like this,” Tamra conceded.Â
Gretchen responded, “It’s just about having accountability for the things that happened. … You and I need to talk ’cause I think that you and I have a disagreement about where we feel like that level is.”
Revealing that she was “very open” to having a one-on-one with Gretchen, Tamra replied, “I agree with that. But you can’t, like, hold onto that s–t. It, like, kills you.”
In an episode-ending confessional, though, Gretchen cast some doubt on the prospects of whether or not they will actually be able to mend fences.
“I don’t think that Tamra’s ever going to have true friendships until she can actually recognize what she’s done to harm people,” she stated. “And until I feel like I get that from her, I don’t really know if I wanna move on.”
As you wait to find out what happens between them, get more details on Gretchen’s RHOC Season 19 return.
—Reporting by Stephanie Gomulka
