"After being on the show for 12 years and, in hindsight, I think I needed a change, I really did. And this was a big change."
"It was just such a huge change, but I always knew that this day was gonna come," she explains. "I mean, being on TV for 12 years is a gift. I didn't go to school, to college or, you know, [get into] acting, and to be on national television for so long is, it's really given me a huge platform. I opened up two businesses, there's a lot of good that's come out of it. So, I can't really complain."
If you recall, Judge and Vicki Gunvalson left the series after Season 14. Meanwhile, Shannon Beador is returning to the series along with Braunwyn Windham-Burke, Emily Simpson, Gina Kirschenheiter, Kelly Dodd along with rumored newbie Elizabeth Lyn Vargas.
Beador and Gunvalson unfollowed Beador after she rekindled her relationship with Dodd and shared a cryptic post with the message: "Fake friends are like shadows. They follow you in the sun, but leave you in the dark."
Now, Tamra admits that message was 100 percent about her feelings toward Shannon and Kelly hanging out. "It just hurt my feelings," Tamra said. "She was always the one telling me last year, 'Don't hang out with Kelly, don't hang out with Kelly, don't hang out with Kelly,’ you know? And then, all of a sudden, it's like, she's not returning my phone call. And I'm not -- when I'm saying not returning, we talk once in a while. Once every few weeks. But, before we talked every single day, multiple times a day. So now, it's just, you know… I had text her, I called her. Nothing, no response. And it just hurt my feelings, that's it."
Tamra then claimed that as soon as she and Vicki were off the show, Shannon stopped returning their calls and texts. "As soon as we're not on the show anymore, she just doesn't have any time for us anymore and it really just kind of hurts my feelings," Tamra told Entertainment Tonight. "I felt like on the show, off the show, whatever, she was my friend, you know? I helped her through this divorce, I spent hours in the middle of the night answering phone calls and then, it came to a point where me and Vicki really went through some hard times, when neither one of us were gonna go back to the show, we really went through, what is our identity? Who are we? You know, what is happening? We just lost a seven-figure income and there was a lot of stuff going on including [my ex-husband Simon Barney] fighting cancer, and my kids and what they're going through and I just kind of felt like I never got that, like, ‘How are you doing? How are you feeling?’ kind of thing."
Tamra says, when she and Shannon finally did connect, it was an emotional call. "She finally called me and we talked for an hour and it really broke my heart, 'cause I told her, I said, I feel like I've not only lost my job, but I lost my best friend," she shares, tearing up. "I'm just, I'm hurt. I'm just hurt, ‘cause I really didn't expect it, you know? And it was always like, ‘I'm too busy…’ and, ‘Oh, I'm this, I'm that,’ and I just feel like I've always been there for you, why? Right now, I need you the most and you won't even answer my calls. So, it just got to a point, when she posted that picture with Kelly, I just thought, I can't watch this. There's no hard feelings. I just can't watch this, and I haven't heard from her since."
Tamra admits that it could "absolutely be" that Shannon just needs time to adjust to her new normal, shooting the show without Tamra for the first time and figuring out what that looks like, but she doesn’t know for sure, reports the outlet.
"It's just a matter of, like, just call me," she said "Talk to me. What's wrong? I thought, I don't know… and maybe it's just me being super sensitive, I don't know. But, she… I thought she was my best friend. So, it's just hard."
Tamra says she’s learning who her "true friends" are after leaving RHOC. "I was just left out in the cold in a very trying, hard time in my life," she said. "I had other people that have been my friends for, you know, 20 years, off the show, that have been nothing but supportive, calling me and asking me, how are your kids doing? How are you doing? You know, how is the transition? How is Simon doing? It was just a huge eye opener."
While many fans got the wrong message after she unfollowed her co-stars following her departure, Judge says she felt it was necessary for her mental health.
"I think it was really important for me," she said. “Heather Dubrow did this, and now I understand why she did it … after she left the show, she kind of unfollowed everybody. Didn't really hear from her for a while and I kinda did the same. My first instinct was, after I knew I wasn't going back, is just to disconnect, because I don't need to be reminded of what I'm not involved in."
"I had so many mixed emotions," she explains. "Here I am, dealing with my kids’ emotions, my emotions, moving, walking away from a job that I had for 12 years and I just I wanted that friend, that friend that I could sit there and cry on the phone with and it was just, I guess, I wasn't important to her."
Tamra hopes that she and Shannon can repair things in the future. "I love her to death," she told Entertainment Tonight. "I love her like a sister. You know, we’ve gone through ups and downs before."
Photo Credit: Bravo
