On last week’s The Real Housewives of Orange County, Tamra Judge was exposed as a two-faced manipulator and a “snake.”
She had some real fallout to deal with after the other Housewives compared notes and realized that Tamra had been starting drama left and right.
But before she and Shannon could get into it, Tamra had another issue much closer to home.
Her eldest son, Ryan Vieth, is a deeply troubled man.
Hearing him admit his devastatingly low self-esteem issue as he discusses his mental and emotional health was a blow to Tamra’s heart.
In fact, she confesses that it makes her want to die — and she fears that Ryan could take his own life.
Tamra has some real concerns
Her eldest child, Ryan Vieth, is a deeply troubled man. On top of behavioral, mental, and emotional issues, he’s a grown man in his thirties who is obsessed with the opportunities that he was denied due to his background.
Ryan’s issues are clear
On top of things like leaked texts showing him making vicious threats against the mother of his child, his alarming social media posts, and his arrest for domestic violence, he clearly has self-esteem issues. So after Tamra got him to go see a therapist, Tamra was invited to a session to address Ryan’s childhood.
Tamra feels like she failed him
“I carry guilt ’cause I feel like I let him down,” Tamra admits through tears. “I look at my kids now and the opportunities that they have. I got two kids in college now. Ryan never… He ran out of the house at 18 ’cause he couldn’t stand his stepdad. He doesn’t want to be controlled, he doesn’t want to be told what to do, so he fights life.”
Ryan says …
Obviously, Ryan envies his siblings — who were born into a wealthy household rather than going from a loosely supervised child of a young, working, single mom to one living in a structured and affluent home at 13. That was a jarring change. But Ryan also talks about how he resents that his biological father has missed so many of his and his young daughter’s milestones.
Speaking of Ryan’s daughter, Ava
“You are a good dad,” Tamra assures Ryan through tears, telling the therapist: “But I see that he’s putting all of his energy — all of it — into her. He is so troubled by his past that he doesn’t want her to have that life.” That is not uncommon for parents who had rough lives and want their children to have a better future.
Tamra tells the camera
“I can look at my son’s eyes and see he’s just not himself,” she says during a confessional. “He just wants to protect this little girl so much, like just smother her, and he doesn’t let other people in. He isolates himself with Ava, and it’s starting to concern me.”
Ryan then expresses himself
He reads off a list of descriptions of himself: “I’m a bad person, worthless. I’m a failure. Can’t succeed. Powerless. I don’t belong. I don’t matter.”
Hearing that just about kills Tamra
“It just makes me wanna die,” Tamra laments in her confessional. “I worry that one day Ryan might commit suicide. That’s my biggest, biggest fear.”
Eddie weighs in
After reassuring Tamra, Eddie shared his, uh, opinion: “Tamra’s a great mom with all her children. Every kid is different. Some need to be coddled, some need to be motivated, some need a kick in the ass. When you’re struggling with your childhood issues as a man, I don’t think you’re a man, k? So just get over it, move on, grow up, take care of your responsibilities. That’s life.” Eddie’s talking about an adult, so he’s not describing child-abuse, but … he could have phrased that better.
The moral of the story …
Ryan has ever right to resent that he didn’t get a good start in life. Childhood scars mean decades or even lifetimes of mental and emotional problems, and that’s not his fault. However, Ryan is an adult man who remains responsible for his ACTIONS. From alleged violence and threats to his bigoted political opinions, Ryan has also made poor choices that are no one’s fault but his own.
But Tamra’s drama isn’t over
Last week, a number of Housewives compared notes and realized that so much of their drama had arisen from Tamra blurting out what others had said.
Shannon still has a bone to pick with her
See, at first, Shannon had told Kelly that she didn’t want to hear anything bad about Tamra after Tamra spilled the news to Vicki that Kelly had expressed more interest in attending the OG’s funeral than her party. (Yikes)
Kelly had fired back
She showed Shannon texts in which Tamra had made fun of Shannon for wanting to go to the ER after Kelly had played whack-a-mole with Shannon’s head.
And worse …
Kelly had revealed to Shannon that Tamra had gossiped to her about Shannon regaining some weight. Shannon was horrified, because she had told Tamra that in confidence.
That wasn’t all
On top of what Shannon shared, Braunwyn made sure that Kelly knew that it was not actually Vicki, but Tamra, who had first said the word “train” aloud. That’s true, though it had followed a lot of very desperate hint-dropping by Vicki.
Shannon was understandably upset
For Tamra to gossip about Kelly is one thing, but Shannon considers Tamra to be like a sister. So naturally, this week, there was fallout.
The Dos Amigas sat down together
But it was TAMRA who was furious, convinced that Shannon was some sort of two-faced master manipulator who had deliberately set off Kelly as part of some sick game. Interestingly, that’s more or less what a lot of the Housewives thinks about HER.
As for the “train” rumor …
Tamra sort of shrugged her shoulders over Kelly knowing that she’s the one who spoke it into existence. “If she wants to be pissed about that, I don’t really give a s–t. But for her to go and try to make you mad at me because she’s hurt is bulls–t. I just don’t understand why this group of girls can’t… As soon as somebody’s not there, all they do is just bash ’em. It’s sickening to me.”
Speaking of rumors about Kelly
During Tamra’s griping about Kelly, she says: “She threw her mother down the stairs, she got in a fight…”
Shannon was astonished
Tamra acknowledges that Vicki is the one who made that stairs claim about Kelly, one that Kelly has repeatedly denied.
As for what Tamra said about Shannon
When Shannon asks her straight-up if she said those comments about her weight to Kelly, Tamra says: “No. Not that I recall! I’ll tell you that right now.”
Shannon spoke to the confessional
“Tamra is the one that brought up the word train, and Tamra is the one that told me about Kelly’s bar fight,” Shannon observes. “So much simpler in life if you say, ‘You know what, I make mistakes every day. I made one here. I’m sorry.’ Own your stuff!”
And Tamra reaches a decision
Regarding Kelly Dodd, Tamra says: “I’m done with her, and for her to do this and to say those things to you is bullshit because she is playing a very dangerous game. Very dangerous.”
Well, that’s that
It sounds like Tamra didn’t so much convince Shannon that she hadn’t badmouthed her as she did … overwhelm her and get her to a place where she’s willing to overlook it.
And now all of the anger is back on Kelly Dodd
Kelly and Tamra’s feud even spilled out into the public earlier this year after Tamra was secretly recorded speaking the train rumor, so this feud will only get MORE intense from here.