However, she claims that she was convinced not to leave the show. “I had said that I was going to just retire. I was just going to be at the reunion [and] just say, ‘You know what?’” she recalled. “And people told me there … They’re like, ‘Listen. Don’t do that. You don’t know what the future holds. Just don’t make any rash decisions. You’re super emotional.’ So I didn’t say anything.”
The mother-of-four then moved forward with plans to stay on the show despite her personal struggles. “I’m like, ‘Oh, gosh. OK. This is happening. This is going to be really hard for me to go on and film. It’s going to be difficult.’ So I’m going in my head, going, ‘Oh, s—t,’” she told Us Weekly. “I had gotten a call and I was camping and the producer said, ‘Hey, we want to talk to you.’ And I’m like, ‘What’s up?’ And they’re like, ‘Well, the network has decided to go in a different direction.’ And I’m like, ‘What?! OK, well I thought we start filming in a couple days.’ And they’re like, ‘Yeah.’ And they even said, ‘We’re shocked. We’re completely shocked at this.’”
“’They know that you said you’d never become a friend, so they want to give you a limited role,’” she said. “And I’m like, ‘No, thank you.’ That’s not what I said. I said, ‘F off!’ And then I just took a week or so and I just absorbed it. … I cried and I was scared.”
Judge admitted that Andy Cohen supported her decision to turn down the limited role offer. “He said, ‘Listen, just take a year off. Right now, everything’s so heavy. I don’t even think if you were on the show you’d be good TV,’” she noted. “And he said, ‘Let’s revisit this the following season.’”
Judge mentioned that she is “absolutely” leaving the door open to return, though she wishes she had retired when she first planned to. “I always wanted to go out on my terms, and yeah, I’m a little bummed about that, but whatever,” she acknowledged.
Photo Credit: Bravo
