Tamra Judge looked back on her temporary departure from The Real Housewives of Orange County in a post shared to her Instagram Story on Friday.
After declaring she was “done” with the show after a dispute with Gina Kirschenheiter, 41, and a tense encounter with longtime friend Heather Dubrow, 56, Tamra, 57, admitted she was taking Xanax at the time, and mixing it with alcohol, as she offered an apology to Heather and thanked viewers for sending their support.
“Thank you for all the kind words you’ve sent (like this). I have NOT watched the episode. It was a painful time I don’t want to relive,” Tamra began on August 15 as she shared a kind message from a fan.
“No as a fan girl here, just as a human here.. you’re way too good for this,” the RHOC viewer had written. “I love watching you and completely love what you bring. But tonight I was broken hearted for you. In that time I can’t imagine the pain, and all the emotions you had within. To see you and feel like no one fully had your back (maybe Heather) or even just a heart for the time you were living. It was heartbreaking. I mean to think what this time frame was, I feel like no one has had any empathy in a way. They just try to say it’s another Tamra excuse … I mean come on.”
As RHOC fans well know, Tamra was going through intense therapy at the time the scene was filmed, and she had also been recently dealt with the heartbreaking news of Teddi Mellencamp‘s brain cancer diagnosis.
Continuing on in her post, Tamra wrote, “Emotionally I hit a wall with everything I was dealing with … I was taking Xanax to deal with the pain [and] mixed it with alcohol. Thank you [Heather Dubrow] [and] I’m sorry [for] the way I responded to you. I love you very much.”
At the time the RHOC episode was shot in New Orleans, Tamra offered a confirmation of her exit on social media.
“It was a long run! When life gives you real problems this reality sh*t doesn’t makes sense. Peace out … I’m out,” she wrote in a March 9 post.
The Real Housewives of Orange County season 19 airs Thursdays at 8/7c on Bravo.
