OC Housewives Vicki, Tamra & Alexis Speak Out On Florida Trip

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The last episode of The Real Housewives of Orange County brought us Florida-gate. Vicki Gunvalson planned a Florida trip intended to be an all girls trip, and was not happy when some of the other husbands decided to tag along.

Jim Bellino and Simon Barney both showed up on the trip after they repeatedly said their wives are not allowed to go on trips without them. Alexis Bellino and Tamra Barney both seemed to be okay with this, much to Vicki’s dismay. Vicki even refused to attend any events that the husbands, and Slade Smiley showed up to.

The ladies have now taken to their Bravo blogs to speak out on Floridagate. –

Here’s what Tamra Sue had to say:

“OK, so the guys went … get over it! The girls spent so much time together the only thing left was sleeping together and that wasn’t going to happen! The guys going all started with Simon, Jim Alexis, and I talking. As married couples with small kids it is very seldom that we take trips alone, together or apart. We thought it would be fun if the guys came and did guy things while the girls did their thing. So that is exactly what happened. The girls spent 80% of the time filming doing fabulous things; we even took a water taxi and went shopping downtown. The guys went golfing, worked out, and hung out by the pool. Everybody was happy … or so I thought. The last night we were there we went on the sunset cruise after our shopping trip. We thought it would be nice to have the guys there. I didn’t think for a second that Vicki would have a problem with it. I felt really bad when I saw how upset she was, but later found out that she had friends in town and went out to dinner with them.”

Alexis share her thoughts as well:

I’m not quite sure why Vicki was so upset about the boys coming on the trip to Florida. To be honest, she never even saw them until after hours …which was fine with me. The girls trip was never presented to me as a ‘GIRLS ONLY’ trip. I never received the memo: “NO MEN ALLOWED.” I would have laughed had she stated that to me. Nor did she pay for our trip, which would have given her more of a right to assign rules. I would not go somewhere that had certain ‘rules’ in advance, like your husband is not allowed. Not to mention the fact that Jim and Simon invited Donn to join them. So it was never a question of Vicki not mentioning to Donn to come along. What really strikes me as shocking is the fact that Vicki did not want to join us on the fabulous yacht cruise because she was going to feel like a third wheel, but yet she wound up going out that night with another couple, thus being a third wheel. It just doesn’t quite register with me … it doesn’t make sense. It may be a little hypocritical.

Vicki gives he side of the story:

When we initially planned for the trip to be a “girls” trip, it was planned during the week and I thought really nothing of it that the guys weren’t invited. I had no idea it was going to turn into such a problem with the men. I had just finished a week in West Palm Beach for an insurance conference and thought it would be great to extend it for a few days and have the girls come down to join me in Ft. Lauderdale. Due to the fact it was during the week, Donn was fine with me continuing my stay for a few more days and wasn’t planning on taking time off of work to meet me. When I found out Simon and Jim were coming I thought, ‘Well, then it’s not a girls trip if the guys are joining us’ and I wondered how it would turn out. Even though Donn wasn’t planning on going, he told me to go anyways and to have a great time. In hindsight, once I knew the dynamics were changing with Simon and Jim coming, I probably should have listened to my gut and just gone home and not stayed for the few extra days. Simon and I had already had a few conflicts this summer, and I felt very uncomfortable being around him and really didn’t want to see him.

Never thought I would see the day I side with Vicki but I actually agree with her on this. There is something very controlling and slightly creepy about the men saying their wives are not allowed to go on trips without them. It seemed to come of a place of distrust rather than a place of wanting to spend more time with their spouses. I guess this is kinda understandable considering Alexis allegedly cheated on her first husband with a wealthier older man, perhaps Jim does not want history to repeat itself.

I don’t see the problem with the women having a girls trip, and having the husbands there would of course change the dynamics of the trip. Perhaps Vicki could have handled the whole thing better and just sucked it up, but apparently she and Simon had gotten into an argument off camera, and she did not feel comfortable being around Simon.

TELL US – WHAT DID YOU THINK OF THIS EPISODE? ARE YOU TEAM VICKI OR TEAM TAMRA/ALEXIS?

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