Tamra Barney

Simon Barney To Bravo: “Don’t Exploit My Family”

by Reality Tea on January 14th, 2010

Tamra Barney of the Real Housewives of Orange County will be making a special appearance on Bravo’s talkshow – Watch What Happens - tonight to discuss her split and impending divorce from hubby of 11 years, Simon Barney.

Simon, who took to his blog last week to shed some light on the couple’s marital issues, however has a stern warning for the network. “This is a private matter and should be discussed in a court of law, not on a reality show,” said Simon. “My entire family and especially my children have paid a very dear price for the success of Bravo’s Real Housewives of Orange County. If they choose to exploit my family at this difficult time, it would be disgusting.”

Tamra moved out of the couple’s house and into a two-bedroom apartment, leading Simon to file for divorce days later much to Tamra’s surprise according to sources. Simon has accused Tamra of being “verbally abusive and committed acts of disloyalty and infidelity.” Tamra has denied the accusations.

Tamra’s “arch nemesis” & costar Gretchen Rossi claims she was surprised to hear about the couple’s split. Here’s what Gretchen had to say about the Barney’s split on her blog -

“Well, the next subject is very interesting to me because I have a lot of questions when it comes to Tamra and Simon’s talk outside. Not because I care to talk about them, but because they care to talk about me. First, if what is being written in the press today is true about Simon filing for divorce then I am so very sad that Tamra and Simon could not work out their differences for their children’s sake. There were some pretty harsh accusations being made on Simon’s part about Tamra in those papers. I bring this up because I think in tonight’s episode when Simon is talking about how happy they are, it is obvious that Tamra does not feel the same way. I thought “poor guy he has no idea.” Then to hear Tamra say she “would leave him if it was just the two of them,” WOW! That was a reprehensible remark if you ask me, I would be so devastated if I heard my spouse say that about me on national TV. We never truly know what goes on behind closed doors now do we though. For a very long time now I have heard lots of things about their marriage and I have chosen to stay out of it and not comment because it was none of my business. The only thing I knew for sure was that things were a little off because I was CC’d on an e-mail last January from Simon to Tamra titled “Your BS and Lies.” It definitely made me question if their marriage was truly as solid as they tried to portray at times. No marriage is perfect but those were some pretty tough words to e-mail a spouse. I do believe that Simon loved Tamra almost to a fault and he tried to protect her, even from herself at times. From what I could see she would open her mouth about things without having all the facts and he would have to be behind her picking up the pieces. That to me is a man who stands by his woman, even when he knew she was wrong. Good on him for taking loyalty seriously.

CLICK THE READ MORE BUTTON TO READ MORE OF WHAT GRETCHEN HAD TO SAY.

Real Housewives of Orange County

Simon Barney Opens Up About Marital Troubles With Tamra

by Reality Tea on January 10th, 2010

While Tamra Barney has to wait a couple of more days to tell her side of the story on Bravo’s talk show – Watch What Happens this Thursday, her husband Simon Barney has taken to his Bravo blog to open up about the couple’s marital issues, which ultimately led to his filing for a divorce.

In his latest blog for Bravo, you get the feeling Simon was quite taken back by some of his wife’s comments on the Real Housewives of Orange County. It seems this week’s episode might have been the straw that broke the camel’s back. By the way, the stars of the show get to watch the episodes before it premiers on TV. Bravo sends them a tape ahead of time, so there’s no telling when Simon actually saw the last episode.

While divorce might be extreme, it’s quite easy to see where Simon’s coming from. A comment that Tamra made during this last episode shocked even me. She told her mother during their dinner together that she would have left Simon if not for the kids. I personally cringed hearing that and thought those were fighting words.

Though Tamra is not my favorite housewife by any means, I’ve always applauded her honesty in front of the cameras. But perhaps she was a bit too honest and didn’t think of the consequences of her words.

Some excepts from Simon’s blog below -

“Tamra has also made her choices in what she has said on the show this season about me, (her husband). My belief is you should never disparage your spouse to anyone for any reason (especially on national TV). All season long, I have been unpleasantly surprised by some of my wife’s comments and conversations about me. I have no idea what she says or has said on camera until it airs. If I’m not present, I don’t see these scenes until they air unless she tells me about it. And she never tells me about it. Hmmm. More about this to come…

The talk that Tamra and I had in our back yard was hard for me to watch. Our marriage is definitely not perfect, but then again, whose is? As I’ve already said, I can’t completely blame Vicki for this behavior. However I choose not to be around people that are not positive to my family and me. My wife seems to feel differently and always accommodates these kinds of people. She was not always like the way she is today. My wife has changed in the last few years. (I wonder why???) She is not the same girl I knew three years ago. I really don’t know her anymore. And it breaks my heart.

Next we see my really good friend Marcos and Tamra looking at houses. I only have one thing to say (again): “Don’t talk badly about your spouse, ever.” TV show or not. It just makes you look bad. For those who don’t know, Marcos is one of my closest friends. I had approached him regarding Tamra becoming his partner. I then had to convince Tamra to take this opportunity. So for all those people who see me as having an issue with my wife working, you are dead wrong. I welcome it if it is what she wants to do. I only had one concern. I just don’t want her to forget the most important job we have, raising our children.

The dinner with Tamra’s mom … HOW UGLY! Can I ever get a break this season considering I didn’t want to be on it this year? I really never knew my wife felt this way about me until I watched this episode. I guess I’m not the right man for her. This did remind me of a conversation on the first day of 2009 (January 1, 2009). Tamra and I were in Las Vegas the day after New Year’s Eve. She told me she knew she could get someone better looking, with more money, and who would let her do whatever she wants, regardless. But she was going to stay together for the kids. I was shocked, and I’m shocked now watching her at dinner with her mother, when she says, “If it wasn’t for the kids, I would leave him.”

Ouch! That really hurt! If this is true, she should have this conversation with me in private. I’m not sure any couple should stay together because of kids. It only does more damage to them. I guess I was under the impression that she was still in love with me as I am was with her. And sadly I had to find this out is no longer true on national TV. I guess she wanted to have the drama spotlight, rather than what’s best for our family and me. Have we really drifted that far apart in just a few years?

You don’t need to run me over with a truck to get your message across, honey! Of course it feels like a truck just ran over my heart and soul. Wow! What a fool I’ve been. Never thought to watch out within my own camp. “Et tu, Brute?”

Like I always say, “If it doesn’t kill you, it will make you stronger.” But I think this one is going to hurt like I was being killed.

Sorry kids, I would give up my life and conquer the world for you. Just couldn’t triumph over celebrity and fame. Daddy loves you very much…”

And there you have it folks. At the end of the day, one can only hope these two will be able to work things out as they have three young children together.

TELL US: WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS ON SIMON’S COMMENTS? IS THERE ANY HOPE FOR THIS MARRIAGE?

Real Housewives of Orange County

OC Housewife Tamra Barney Denies Cheating Allegations

by Reality Tea on January 8th, 2010

In response to the bombshell divorce papers filed by her husband yesterday, Tamra Barney is defending herself against allegations of infidelity.

Tamra’s husband, Simon Barney accused the Real Housewives of Orange County star of being unfaithful in the divorce papers he filed. Simon wrote: “Petitioner contends that Respondent has been verbally abusive and has committed acts of disloyalty and infidelity.”

Tamra has now taken to her facebook page to deny the cheating allegations. “Thanks to everyone who understands and supports me,” she wrote. “For the record, all accusations are false.”

Vicki Gunvalson, who is still in shock over the split news, is also defending her costar by telling UsWeekly, “Wonder who he thinks she cheated with?” she said in an email. “Personally, I think if Tamra spoke to a man Simon would call it cheating. Tamra has 3 little kids. That’s all I care about is making sure they get through all of this.”

A rep for Bravo revealed that Tamra, 42, “is going to share her story first on Bravo’s Watch What Happens Show hosted by Andy Cohen, airing next Thursday at midnight.”

Last night’s episode of The OC Housewives also touched on the couple’s marital issues. Tamra spoke several times about being unhappy in her marriage, while Simon believes all is well. We also had Gretchen Rossi attempt to reach out to Lynne Curtin’s daughter, Alexa, whom she thought was depressed much to Lynne and Alexa’s dismay. Something about Gretchen trying to help Alexa came off as insincere and self serving to me, but perhaps I’m wrong. Vicki also renewed her wedding vows to husband of 15 years, Don Gunvalson.

TELL US – DO YOU THINK TAMRA CHEATED? WHAT WERE YOUR THOUGHTS ON LAST NIGHT’S EPISODE? WAS GRETCHEN WRONG FOR APPROACHING ALEXIS THE WAY SHE DID?

Real Housewives of Orange County

Real Housewives of Orange County Tamra Barney’s Husband Files For Divorce

by Reality Tea on January 7th, 2010

In a shocking bombshell, RadarOnline is reporting that Simon Barney, husband of Tamra Barney of The Real Housewives of Orange County has filed for divorce.

Even more shocking? Simon is accusing his wife of infidelity. This is quite ironic as tonight’s episode of The Real Housewives of OC deals with the couple’s marital troubles.

In the divorce papers Simon wrote: “Petitioner contends that Respondent has been verbally abusive and has committed acts of disloyalty and infidelity.” According to a source close to the couple, Tamra reportedly moved out of their million dollar home earlier this week and into a two-bedroom apartment.

Simon and Tamra have been married for 11 years. They have three children together in addition to Tamra’s son from a previous marriage. “Simon has simply had enough,” the source said. “The show changed her.” The source adds that though they had been having marital problems for the past couple of years, Tamra did not know that Simon was filing divorce papers, even after she moved out of their home.

It is interesting to see Simon accuse his wife of being unfaithful as viewers know Tamra has been very vocal and critical of fellow cast member Gretchen Rossi, claiming Gretchen cheated on former fiancé Jeff Beitzel.

TELL US – WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS ON THIS? ARE YOU SURPRISED?

UPDATE: A rep for Bravo tells UsMagazine that Tamra has “no comment” at this time . She will however be opening up next week on Bravo. “She is going to share her story first on Bravo’s Watch What Happens Show hosted by Andy Cohen, airing next Thursday at midnight.”

Hot Posts,Real Housewives of Orange County

Bravo Housewives Celebrate New Years Plus Tamra Barney A Grandma?

by Reality Tea on January 1st, 2010

Happy New Years to you all! Some of our favorite Bravo housewives made sure to ring 2010 in style by hosting New Year parties! New Jersey housewife Danielle Staub hosted a party at the China Club in New York City. NYC housewife Kelly Bensimon also hosted a party of hers at Guastavino’s in NYC as well. You can see more photos of the duo below.

In other news, some of the housewives recently got together to do a photoshoot for PEOPLE magazine. No word yet on when they will be appearing in the mag. A behind the scenes photo is below –

From L to R: Nene Leakes, Caroline Manzo, Gretchen Rossi & Kelly Bensimon

Is Tamra Barney a grandma? There are rumors floating around that the self professed “hottest housewife” on the block might have become a grandmother. Allegedly Tamra’s son, Ryan Vieth posted some information on his facebook about his one month old daughter named Dakota Vieth. Perhaps someone with access to Ryan’s page can confirm this for us.

Gretchen Rossi also recently took to her facebook fanpage to post a photo of her shooting a commercial for TurboTax, not sure what the correlation is between Gretchen & taxes but a behind the scenes photo is below.

Hot Photos,Real Housewives of New Jersey,Real Housewives of New York,Real Housewives of Orange County

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

by Reality Tea on December 21st, 2009

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?

Real Housewives of Orange County

The Real Housewives of Orange County & Their Money Woes

by Reality Tea on December 17th, 2009

The recession has affected most households in this country and even The Real Housewives of Orange County are not exempt.

This season has chronicled the housewives’ financial struggles whether small or major. Gretchen Rossi had a garage sale, Jeana Keough went shopping with her daughter at H&M, Tamra Barney is now doing her own housework, and coming up soon will be the eviction of Lynne Curtin. Off camera, Slade Smiley’s financial difficulty is also common knowledge since the publication of a report showing he owes over $80,000 in back child support.

All of the above is a drastic turn from what we’re used to seeing from the OC Housewives. Long gone are the days of buying yatches, diamond rolexes and harleys. A new article from the Huffington Post details the financial woes of the housewives. “All of them have been very much affected by the economic situation,” explains the show’s executive producer, Douglas Ross.

Ross discusses the upcoming episode that will show Lynne’s family being evicted. “We try to treat it as gently but as honestly as we can,” Ross says. “We happened to have been there with our cameras … as part of our normal schedule when they were served the eviction notice. It’s one of those great reality TV moments that happened to be caught because we were in the right place at the right time.”

And though money can be a sensitive issue, the OC housewives don’t seem to mind sharing their struggles with millions of viewers. “It helps people across the nation because they realize it’s not just them,” says Jeana. “I’m pretty open. … There’s not too much I’ll hide. It was difficult for my husband … but the world’s in this place right now and I think people are going to relate to it,” adds Tamra.

Though the housewives get paid to appear on the show, Jeana says the amount (rumored to be $100,000 per housewife) is not enough to support a family. “It’s so minimal. It’s not enough to make your house payments. It’s more like a location fee to keep your house clean.”

Vicky Gunvalson is however one of the luckier housewives as her insurance business is booming more than ever. “When I first started (on the show), I was working out of the house with two employees and now I have a huge office with 10 employees, 700 agents out in the field,” says Vicki, who plans to retire comfortably at age 55. Interestingly, the HuffingtonPost article quotes Vicki as saying she is 42 years old, which is false as she is 47.

Despite her very public eviction, Lynne says things are looking up for she and her family as she predicts they will be able to build a house next year. “My husband is a builder in Southern California. It’s not like he doesn’t try. He’s not sitting at home watching TV. He is going out and making an effort. … I’ve been married for 20 years. … We’ve had the high life we’ve had the low life. It’s just reality.”

Real Housewives of Orange County

OC Housewives’ Tamra Challenges Gretchen To Take A Lie Detector Test

by Reality Tea on December 11th, 2009

Last night’s episode of The Real Housewives of Orange County brought us the long awaited confrontation between castmates, Tamra Barney and Gretchen Rossi.

Tamra wanted Gretchen to admit to wrongdoing, and Gretchen wanted an apology from Tamra. In a new interview with RadarOnline, Tamra opens up a new can of worms as she once again bashes Gretchen and her boyfriend, Slade Smiley.

Tamra refers to Slade as a “douche bag”, and referred to Gretchen as “always lying,” especially about the allegations that she was cheating on her dying fiancé Jeff Bietzel. Tamra then upped the ante by telling RadarOnline: “I challenge you, Gretchen Christine Rossi for a lie detector test. If you pass, I will forgive you.”

The subject then turned to new housewife, Alexis Bellino, whom Tamra claims to actually like. “I like Alexis,” Tamra said. “I think so far she’s a really good match with us, she seems to be very sweet.”

Really hope Tamra Sue’s getting paid for these interviews, it just seems rather catty and unnecessary.

TELL US – WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS ON THIS STORY AND LAST NIGHT’S EPISODE OF THE OC HOUSEWIVES? ARE SIMON AND JIM CONTROLLING HUSBANDS?

Real Housewives of Orange County