Vicki Gunvalson slams Bravo for ‘traumatic’ moment of learning mother’s death on camera
Vicki Gunvalson put Bravo on blast for filming her the moment she found out about her mom’s death on “The Real Housewives of Orange County.”
The “RHOC” alum recalled the ordeal in a preview clip from Vice’s new series, “The Dark Side of Reality TV,” obtained by People on Monday.
While filming Season 10 of the hit reality series, Gunvalson was playing games with her co-stars at Shannon Beador’s home when her family members were trying to reach her to tell her the tragic news.
“So, they called production [and my daughter] Brianna had been calling, calling, calling, and they kept telling her, ‘Well, she’s filming right now, blah, blah, blah,’” Gunvalson claimed. “She’s like, ‘I need to talk to my mom right now.’”
Gunvalson, 62, recalled feeling uneasy after production decided to “set up” a room in Beador’s house with “lights and cameramen” for her to use the landline and call her daughter.
“I was really upset that production knew for an hour, and they didn’t tell me,” Gunvalson said. “They were out of line, and I think they should have taken me aside and said, ‘Your mom has passed. Talk to your daughter off camera.’ If I was a producer, that’s what I would’ve done.”
Gunvalson argued that producers should have let her “scream and cry” on her own and “be mad.”
“It was very, very traumatic,” she added. “I will never forgive Bravo for that.”
Reps for Bravo did not return Page Six’s requests for comment.
The Coto Insurance founder answered the call and immediately appeared shocked while falling to the floor and screaming.
“Oh, my God. I don’t want to believe this,” she cried at the time. “I just talked to her this morning.”
Gunvalson continued reacting to the news, saying, “I want to be with my mom. I need her every day. I need her so bad. Who’s going to worry about me? I don’t have parents now. I need my parents. I need my mom.”
The Bravolebrity –– who began starring on the show in 2006 –– previously had a different stance on the ordeal.
“Mom wasn’t in the scene. It was just me getting the news of it,” she said on a 2015 episode of “Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen.” “It’s not like I approached my mother and she was laying on her bed dead.”
When asked if Gunvalson was “upset” that the scene aired, she said she hadn’t seen it yet, but she is “not going to be upset about it.”
“It’s part of my reality,” she said. “I lost my mother. I signed up for all areas of my life to be exposed –– the good and the bad … This is not a moment that I feel as of right now, that I regret.”
Gunvalson doubled down on that statement, adding, “I don’t blame Bravo. I don’t blame Evolution [Media]. I don’t blame anybody, it’s my life.”
