Woohoo! Team Stephanie Hollman for the WINNNNNN! I don’t know about you, but I was practically doing an inappropriate Brandi Redmond Dallas Cheerleaders dance when Stephanie shut LeeAnne Locken down at dinner. A dinner which came on the heels of LeeAnne’s total mental breakdown (number 1,001), that is. In her blog this week, The Real Housewives of Dallas star describes what being in that house of horrors was really like, and why she is calling bullsh*t on Tiffany Hendra and Marie Reyes defending LeeAnne’s disgusting and abusive behavior.
Stephanie begins, “I found the events surrounding this episode shocking and life changing. I grew profoundly aware of the necessity to push beyond my discomfort with conflict and speak up in the group for what is right and challenge unhealthy bullying behaviors. I remember the events of this episode just like it was yesterday. I was left with a very clear picture of what I believe to be a triangulated destructive, abusive relationship often referred to as 15-20 year ‘friendship(s).'”
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Despite the “pooping in a bag” story (am I really typing that!?) that came up on the way to Austin, Stephanie had high hopes for the trip. Plus, Brandi‘s drunken somersaults seemed to lighten the mood! But as darkness fell, the quiet trip to the country turned into more of a Cabin In the Woods situation!
Stephanie describes the scene in her blog: “After going to bed, Brandi fell asleep immediately. I was almost asleep when startled out of my daze by ranting and blood curdling screaming. Next, I heard glass breaking and Marie hysterically crying and apologizing. It took me a few seconds to fully awaken and grasp what was happening. LeeAnne was yelling at her and I clearly heard her threatened Marie with, ‘Do you know what happens when people mess with me? I kill them! I slaughter them! I destroy them!’ ‘I will gut you carnie style!'”
“I was terrified and didn’t know what to do. Brandi woke up to the screams and was hysterically crying. I prayed for the madness to stop and for Marie‘s safety. We wondered why Tiffany wasn’t going in to try to calm LeeAnne down. I had my phone in hand ready to dial 9-1-1 for help when the yelling stopped.” (According to Stephanie’s twitter last night, they were all texting production as well! H-E-L-P!!!)
Stephanie explains, “The room LeeAnne and Tiffany shared was located directly outside the kitchen where the threats took place. It is located next to the room Brandi and I shared. I heard LeeAnne and Tiffany talking quietly for a while. I could hear Marie sobbing as she walked up the stairs. Cary [Deuber] came downstairs to make sure Brandi and I were ok. She and Courtney were awakened and startled by the screaming. They heard everything too. It was a terrifying experience for all of us and we could not imagine how Marie must have felt. This is the first time I have ever felt unsafe and terrified in my own home.”
Yet, the next morning Marie seemed too shell shocked to process the event for what it was: Batsh*t Crazy! Stephanie says she “was stunned as Tiffany and LeeAnne nonchalantly talked about the event as though this was normal and there was something wrong with rest of us for being upset. In the special land of LeeAnneville, ‘I am going to kill you, slaughter you, gut you carnie style’ actually meant ‘I am disappointed in you and am washing my hands clean of you.’ Yeah, right.”
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Tiffany claims she didn’t hear a peep, though, Suspicious? Oh hell yes! Stephanie explains, “It was also interesting to all of us that while everyone in the house was awakened to this outrageous episode, Tiffany claimed to be sleeping soundly the entire time. Really? Brandi was intoxicated beyond belief and it woke her. Cary and Courtney were upstairs on the other side of the house, it woke them and they talked about what they heard LeeAnne ‘say’. I have no doubt that we ALL heard it. It was a glass throwing, a gut wrenching, screaming, vehement threatening, outrageous outburst at someone responding with tearful, wailing, pleading apologies. It was like living through a horror movie scene. It was terrifying!”
Then why did Marie and Tiffany kowtow to LeeAnne the next day, despite her outrageous attack? Perhaps they’re used to it. Perhaps they’re scared sh*tless of her. (Probably, it’s a combo of the two!) In any case, Stephanie says she had to speak up, “I believe Marie was too scared to defend herself and LeeAnne and Tiffany were trying to make light of abusive behavior. The truth is that Marie’s life was threatened! She was trembling, shaking and scared.”
She continues, “Regardless of what happened during the course of the friendship, no one deserves the abuse Marie endured at our house that night. LeeAnne blaming her past and trying to sweep it under the rug the following day was exactly what I expected. Tiffany minimizing her actions and trying to prove her friendship to LeeAnne was typical, as well.”
Anything but typical was just how firmly Stephanie laid down the LAW with Tiffany and LeeAnne at dinner! She describes how she was feeling, and how everything changed for her in that single moment. “I looked around the table at dinner and realized that not one person was untouched by LeeAnne’s behavior. Yet she sat there silently while we bickered. How very sad. That night changed me.”
“I remember hearing that people only have the power we give them. I realized that we had all given her too much power because she demanded it. LeeAnne will bully to get her way. This has worked for her for a very long time but, it’s unfortunate that the one who brags about all the good she does, has a legacy of tearing down those who do not agree with her or that she cannot control along the way. I do not believe her to be an evil person. This is her perceived survival mode.”
Because she’s the bigger person, Stephanie does express compassion for this crazed lunatic LeeAnne. She closes with empathy, yet wisely maintains her boundaries: “My heart aches for her. While she was a victim of the circumstances of her childhood, it cannot be the excuse for victimizing others. I pray she seeks help. She has many strengths that she can use to help others as she heals.”
Agreed. LeeAnne needs help. Desperately. But these chicks need to protect themselves in the mean time. Girlfriend is getting scarier than Kelly Bensimon, circa Scary Island, vintage RHONY!
TELL US: WHAT DO YOU THINK OF STEPHANIE’S TAKE ON LEEANNE’S MELTDOWN? DID STEPHANIE GROW A BACKBONE LAST NIGHT?
Photo Credit: Bravo
