Vicki Gunvalson and Tamra Judge Sparred over 'the Truth' About Teddi Mellencamp Before Explosive “WWHL” Comments (Exclusive)
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The ALL IN founder, who previously insinuated Gunvalson was involved in the Jan. 6 riots, took the "gloves off" during BravoCon and claimed Gunvalson is "triggered by somebody who actually has cancer"
It seems like Tamra Judge and Vicki Gunvalson will always have a difference of opinion over Teddi Mellencamp Arroyave.
When the Tres Amigas — including Judge, Gunvalson and Shannon Storms Beador — spoke with PEOPLE Saturday at BravoCon 2023, the 61-year-old Real Housewives of Orange County alum revealed that she and Mellencamp Arroyave, 42, had yet to bury the hatchet.
And they sure didn't do so later that weekend when Gunvalson and Mellencamp Arroyave were invited on stage by Andy Cohen to "Squash That Beef" during Watch What Happens Live's BravoCon Live "Dynamic Duos" special.
At Saturday's taping of the BravoCon Live episode (which aired Monday night on Bravo). Cohen wondered if Gunvalson's resistance to The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills alum stemmed from jealousy over her close friendship with Judge, 56. But Gunvalson countered, "Listen, I can share my friends, I'm not that kind of girl."
Gunvalson explained, "We can go way back — I'm gonna go berserk on it — one of the things you said was, 'Where was I on Jan. 6?" Her voice escalated as she explained she had "proof" she was at her condo in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico — and not at the Capitol riots as her nemesis had implied.
Related: 16 Epic Bravolebrity Feuds
"Why the hell would you ask me where I was on Jan. 6?" she angrily asked Mellencamp Arroyave.
"Here the thing, Vicki," responded the ALL IN founder, "I tried to give you a little bit of grace. I originally thought that maybe you just had issues between me and Tamra being such close friends. Then I realized, you were probably just triggered by somebody that actually has cancer."
"That's so gross, you're gross," said Gunvalson. "I have no respect for somebody that would say that to me. How dare you. Buh-bye!"
"We're gonna leave it there," concluded Cohen, 55.
Related: Vicki Gunvalson Honored with Bravo's 'Wifetime' Achievement Award: 'I Love You All'
Mindy Small/Getty; Cindy Ord/Bravo via Getty; Charles Sykes/Bravo via Getty
Prior to that, Gunvalson told PEOPLE that whenever she crosses paths with Judge's Two Ts in a Pod co-host, the moment is typically fleeting but fraught. “I just say 'Hi,'" reported Gunvalson in a a clipped manner. “That’s it, I’m good.” (She even reminded Judge of a run-in earlier that week at the network's fan convention in Las Vegas: “She was with you and she was standing there and I said, ‘Hi Teddi’ and I said hi to her husband.")
But Gunvalson clearly already had Mellencamp Arroyave's insurrection insinuations at the top of her mind, adding, "When she asked where I was on Jan. 6 — that’s pretty much gloves are off on that one.”
Related: All the 'Real Housewives' Stars Who Have Gotten Into the Podcast Game
Judge quickly defended her friend, insisting Mellencamp Arroyave only retaliated once Gunvalson “went after her first.”
When Gunvalson denied starting the fight, Judge doubled down, prompting the Coto Insurance & Financial Services founder to brush off the conversation: “You’re going to defend Teddi no matter what, so it doesn’t really matter."
She added, "Why not defend me?”
Responded Judge, “Because I’m defending the truth. You went after her first.”
As any Bravo fan knows, "The OG of the OC" may not cop to starting something, but she sure will finish it — and that's what happened at this weekend's taping.
Reactions at the filming were mixed after the explosive comment by Mellecamp Arroyave, who has been open about her journey with skin cancer since March 2022.
Clearly Mellencamp Arroyave believed her own experience undergoing treatment gave her a bulletproof opportunity to bring up Gunvalson's ex Brooks Ayers, who claimed he was diagnosed with stage 3 non-Hodgkin lymphoma in 2013.
Ayers' account of the journey sparked the suspicion in Gunvalson and Judge's castmates — particularly Meghan King, who doggedly attempted to track down records (or a lack thereof) to disprove him.
Related: 'RHOC' 's Vicki Gunvalson Says Brooks Ayers 'Made a Fool' of Her: 'I Thought He Was My Soulmate'
Two years later, Ayers admitted to falsifying medical records from cancer hospital City of Hope, which he originally presented in an attempt to prove his diagnosis. (At the time, a hospital spokesperson confirmed to PEOPLE that City of Hope “has not provided any cancer treatment to anyone by the name of David Brooks Ayers.”)
Gunvalson has long maintained she was simply a victim of Ayers’ lies and eventually set up a charity called Kill All Cancer to "prove the naysayers out there who said I was in on something or that I lied that I’ve got nothing to hide. Period."
For more of PEOPLE's BravoCon coverage, click here.
Archival episodes of The Real Housewives of Orange County and Watch What Happens Live can be streamed in full on Peacock.
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