Tamra Judge has confirmed that she has ‘reunited’ with her estranged daughter, Sidney Barney. This comes after the heartbreaking news of Simon Barney’s Stage 3 throat cancer diagnosis. The former Real Housewives of Orange County shared the news after a fan asked her in the comments section of an Instagram post about her relationship with her older daughter.
“Since the news of Simon of Simon does your other daughter talk to you?” To which Tamra replied, “we have all reunited ♥.”
If you recall, Judge and her eldest daughter's relationship changed when Judge split from husband Simon Barney in 2011. Sidney ended up moving in with her father shortly after Judge divorced Simon and got married with her now-husband Eddie Judge.
However, the drama between the mother/daughter duo exploded in the summer of 2017 when Sidney went on a long rant about Tamra on Facebook. Sidney expressed her disinterest in the Bravo reality show and set the record straight on the status of their relationship.
Sidney revealed in her post that she chose to leave because she “realized what [Tamra] was doing along with other things that were toxic,” calling Judge “the true parent alienator.”
“I want to start by clearing some things up as my mother continues to talk about me despite me requesting her to stop speaking of me publically [sic] as I don’t want to be associated with her or the show,” Sidney began her post.
“The reasons I left my mothers house are that she was neglectful (leaving us at home with no food or simply ignoring us entirely), she constantly put herself first and the biggest reason was that she was mentally and emotionally abusive. She was no mother to me,” Sidney detailed.
One specific account that made Sidney want to separate herself from her mother was regarding photos taken during her high school graduation, which Judge shared on her Instagram account, reported PEOPLE.
“[My father] forced me to let [Tamra] come to my graduation because it was a milestone. When I told my mother that she could come I gave her a few conditions. All I asked was that she remains cordial with my father and my stepmom and to not post anything about my graduation, anywhere,” Sidney recalled.
“Not even two weeks after I graduated she posted a photo of me and shared it with her one million followers knowing that it would get picked up by the press. The one thing I asked and have been asking for 4 years now has been to not talk about me because I don’t want to be in the spotlight,” the teenager continued. “But Again breaking her promises as per usual, she puts herself, her fame, her reputation, and her bank account before me. If she really wanted a relationship she would keep her promises and recognize that it is no one elses fault but hers that I do not want her in my life.”
However, after Simon Barney revealed that he has been diagnosed with stage 3 throat cancer, he admitted that his health battle has united his fractured family.
“It’s kind of like a new beginning for me and my family,” he previously told PEOPLE. “It’s really brought everyone closer together.”
Barney has also seen an increase in contact with Ryan Vieth, Judge’s son from a previous relationship.
“The kids were split after the divorce and chose sides but, at the end of the day, none of that matters,” Judge says. “All we have to do is rally together to make it through this.”
Barney told Judge about his diagnosis back in November, the two meeting at a local Starbucks.
“The kids were going to see me getting treatment, and I wanted her to kind of know what’s going on,” Barney explains.
After learning what Barney is going through, Judge broke down. “Honestly, I’ve never seen him like that. He told me the news and we both literally started crying. I just couldn’t believe it,” she recalls. “My first thought was, ‘I don’t want to take my kids to their dad’s funeral,’ and immediately, any ill feelings between the two of us just vanished.”
Simon's cancer diagnosis has brought him and ex-wife Judge in a better place.
“When I told Tamra, she said she cried for like, two or three days,” Barney said. “Things changed with our relationship from there, in a good way. We’re getting along in ways we haven’t in years.”
“Our conversations now are so different than they were before,” added Judge. “Before there was always such hate behind them. Not that we would always say nasty things towards one another, but we both came from a place of hate. And now we’re coming from a place of concern. It just put everything in perspective and helped us remember of that other s— means anything.”
“We’re just talking more, especially with our youngest one, to make sure we’re on the same page when it comes to how to take her through this situation. I’ll say, ‘What do you think of this? I tell her this,’ and Tamra will go, ‘Yeah, that’s a great idea, I’ll tell her that too.’ We never would have done that three, four years ago,” he said.
The former couple revealed that they took their kids to therapy, Judge says, to talk through how to emotionally handle the ups and downs that come with a cancer battle.
“We wanted to find a way to get them through this the best way possible,” Judge shared. “We were making sure that our kids are taken care of.”
So how did their children handled the news? Sophia, the more reserved of the three, has been supportive, Barney said, but mostly “doesn’t want to talk about it” and “doesn’t want to see me sick.”
Sidney, on the other hand, has been checking in a lot. But Barney is “really protecting her” while she’s away at school, Judge says, “making sure she doesn’t get distracted.”
“She said, ‘Do you want me to get out of school and come home and help you?’ and I said, ‘Absolutely not! You’re staying in school. That’s not going to happen,’ ” Barney told PEOPLE.
Spencer took the longest to reach out to Barney. “He wanted to know specifics first, he’s more an old soul,” Judge said. “So he wanted to know where he’s going to be treated, who his doctor is. He’s just very clinical about it.”
“He finally reached out to me the other day and just said, ‘Sorry, Dad. I just had to get a hold of it,’ ” Barney says. “It’s good because, I haven’t really talked to him in a while. But we’re getting there now.”
Tamra has also bonded with Barney’s fiancée of nine years, Catushia Ienni.
“Tamra’s become close with my fiancée,” said Barney. “They text each other almost every day, which at first I was very uneasy. Like, ‘Okay, what are they saying? Is she telling her to get rid of me?’ But they’re really both just taking care of me.”
“It’s funny, because now Tamra’s concerned about Catushia, making sure she’s getting enough sleep, that she’s not too stressed out,” Barney added. “Catushia has been such a great support to me throughout all of this. And the other day, Tamra brought me soup from a restaurant to see if I could eat — because it’s very hard to find anything to eat — and she had soup for Catushia too.”
“I’m just so grateful he has her by his side,” Judge said, of Ienni. “I told her, ‘Thank God you’re here. I know we’ve had our differences, but I just want you to know I’m here for you too.’ “
“That’s what I’ve always wanted,” he continued. “My fiancée, the same thing, she’s always wanted that with my ex-wife, for the kids. The kids would prefer it if we all got along. And they see that now, and it’s had such a powerful effect.”
Barney revealed how he handled the news when he was diagnosed with the disease. “Things always happen for a reason, so when I was diagnosed, the first thing I asked myself was, ‘Why is this happening? What is it you’re doing wrong,’ ” Barney previously told PEOPLE. “And I took a good look at myself and my life and I realized, I was working 12-hour days, stressing about everybody, and never really doing stuff for me. So now, I’m focusing on the things that bring me joy, like my family.”
“People don’t usually change the way they are, but when you experience an emotional jolt like cancer, you make the shift pretty quick,” he said.
Photo Credit: Bravo, Instagram
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