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Vicki Gunvalson slams Bravo for ‘traumatic’ moment of learning of her mother’s death on camera
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Vicki Gunvalson slams Bravo for ‘traumatic’ moment of learning of her mother’s death on camera

Vicki Gunvalson slammed Bravo for filming her finding out about her mother’s death on “The Real Housewives of Orange County.”

The “RHOC” alum recalled the ordeal in a clip from Vice’s new series, “The Dark Side of Reality TV.” got by people Monday.

While filming season 10 of the hit reality series, Gunvalson was playing games with her co-stars at Shannon Beador’s home when her family members tried to reach her to break the tragic news.

Vicki Gunvalson criticized Bravo for how they handled her discovery of her mother Joanne Steinmetz’s death. Vickigunvalson/Instagram
Gunvalson’s daughter called her with the tragic news while she was filming Season 10 of “The Real Housewives of Orange County,” as shown here in 2015. Well done

“So they called production (and my daughter) Brianna had been calling, calling, calling, and they kept telling her, ‘Well, she’s filming right now, blah, blah, blah ‘” Gunvalson said. “She says, ‘I need to talk to my mom now.'”

Gunvalson, 62, remembers feeling uncomfortable after production decided to “set up” a room in Beador’s house with “lights and camera people” so she could use the phone fixed and call his daughter.

“I was really upset that production had known for an hour and they hadn’t told me,” Gunvalson said. “They crossed the line and I think they should have taken me aside and said, ‘Your mother died.’ Talk to your daughter off camera. If I were a producer, that’s what I would have done.

The Bravolebrity, pictured here in 2023, said she would have handled the situation differently. Well done via Getty Images
Gunvalson called the ordeal “traumatic.”

Gunvalson argued that the producers should have let her “scream and cry” by herself and “be angry.”

“It was very, very traumatic,” she added. “I will never forgive Bravo for this.”

Representatives for Bravo did not respond to Page Six’s requests for comment.

The Coto Insurance founder answered the call and immediately appeared shocked as he fell to the ground and screamed.

Gunvalson previously said she “doesn’t blame Bravo” for how they handled her mother’s death. Vickigunvalson/Instagram
“It’s my life,” Gunvalson said on “Watch What Happens Live” in 2015. Charles Sykes/Bravo via Getty Images

“Oh my God. I don’t want to believe that,” she cried at the time. “I just spoke to him this morning.”

Gunvalson continued to react to the news, saying, “I want to be with my mom. I need her every day. I need her so much. Who will worry about me? I have no parents now. I need my parents. I need my mother.

The Bravolebrity – who began starring on the show in 2006 – previously had a different stance on the ordeal.

“Mom wasn’t there. It was just me hearing the news,” she said in a 2015 interview. episode of “Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen.” “It’s not like I walked up to my mom and she was lying on her bed, dead.”

Gunvalson, pictured here with Heather Dubrow, has starred in the series since it aired in 2006. NBCU/NBCUniversal Photo Bank via Getty Images
Bravo has not responded to Gunvalson’s comments. Instagram

When asked if Gunvalson was “upset” by the scene being broadcast, she said she hadn’t seen it yet, but “wouldn’t be upset by it.”

“It’s part of my reality,” she says. “I lost my mother. I signed up to have all areas of my life exposed –– the good and the bad… It’s not a moment that I feel right now, that I regret.

Gunvalson doubled down on that statement, adding, “I don’t blame Bravo. I don’t blame Evolution (Media). I don’t blame anyone, it’s my life.