As part of your 2024 TV schedule, Vice has a new series called Dark Side of Reality TV that explores gruesome behind-the-scenes secrets from your favorite reality shows. Just when you think you know about reality TV’s iconic moments, the new series will give you an inside look at shows like Hell’s Kitchen, Survivor, America’s Next Top Model, and more from the personalities who starred in them. One episode will have The Real Housewives of Orange County’s Vicki Gunvalson reflecting on the time she found out her mother passed away on-camera and why she’ll “never forgive Bravo.”
The Real Housewives of Orange County has been going on for the past seventeen seasons, delving into the professional and personal lives of several women there. One of the reality show’s personality figures, Vicki Gunvalson, has had plenty of memorable moments on the show like finding out then-boyfriend Brook Ayers was faking cancer or when she and Tamra Judge were involved in an ATV accident in the Imperial Sand Dunes.
But one of the most heartbreaking moments in the Bravo series was when Vicki Gunvalson found out on-camera that her mother passed away. In People’s first look at the Dark Side of Reality TV episode, Gunvalson unleashed how she’ll “never forgive Bravo” for a shocking secret they kept from her during that dark series moment:
I was really upset that production knew for an hour, and they didn't tell me. They were out of line, and I think they should have taken me aside and said, 'Your mom has passed. Talk to your daughter off camera.’ If I was a producer, that's what I would've done. Let me scream and cry on my own and be mad. It was very, very traumatic. I will never forgive Bravo for that.
Vicki Gunvalson further explained that she was playing Bunko at Shannon Beador’s house with a bunch of friends while her daughter was trying to call. Her loved ones called production who let them know they needed to talk to their mother only to be told she was in the middle of filming and couldn’t talk.
If you rewatch that devastating moment from RHOC, Vicki Gunvalson was having fun with her friends until she picked up the phone to receive the sad news of her mother’s unexpected passing. You see the businesswoman collapsing on the phone in tears in complete shock and disbelief at what she’s hearing. You can’t help but feel like crying witnessing a woman who comes off on the show as so carefree having an emotional breakdown hearing the unimaginable.
However, the truly depressing moment of Vicki Gunvalson’s life was an opportunity for all of the women to come together to bring comfort and support to the Coto Insurance CEO. Even though they were all at a loss for words, they still provided hugs to their friend and didn’t leave her side.
Back in 2015 while on Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen, Vicki Gunvalson said at the time she wasn’t upset with Bravo filming the moment she received news of her mom’s passing. She accepted that she knew what she was signing up for showing the good and bad of her personal life on reality TV. But as it’s been almost a decade since the airing of that heartwrenching episode, it appears that Gunvalson looks at Bravo’s treatment of her life-changing moment in a different light.
Even though Vicki Gunvalson wasn’t happy with Bravo for holding onto information for an hour of her mother’s passing before she knew it, she still has a place in the American reality series. After her Season 13 departure as a regular, Gunvalson still returned to the OC series for several guest appearances in Season 17 and the ongoing 18th season. You can watch the reality TV personality disclose all about that memorable episode in Dark Side of Reality TV, available to watch on Channel Vice every Tuesday at 9 p.m. ET. You can also watch all episodes of The Real Housewives of Orange County on your Peacock subscription.
