I only watch Real Housewives of Beverly Hills and have seen a few episodes of Real Housewives of New Jersey. Whenever I hear about the women on the other shows in the franchise, they’re going broke, getting divorced, and having legal trouble, sometimes all at once. This week’s In Touch has an article profiling all the Real Housewives who are deep in debt and/or bankrupt, and there are more of them than I thought. (And I read gossip for 8-10 hours a day.) There were some new ones in here, and their stories of stupidity and excess just made me shake my head. Here are the featured Housewives from In Touch, which is where the quoted text is from.
Peggy Tanous: RHOOC – foreclosure
$1.3 million house in foreclosure, drives a Bentley she refuses to give up. She has had a boob job, lip fillers and gets a monthly facial.
Alexis Bellino: RHOOC – barely avoided foreclosure
Had to sell off her house “at a fraction of its cost to avoid foreclosure.” She won’t admit money problems, insisting “We have other investments”
Tamra Barney: RHOOC – downsized
Wisely downsized after the economy hurt her real estate business. “My apartment is like 800 square feet for me and three kids.” That sounds like plenty of space to me.
Grechen Rossi: RHOOC – freeloading boyfriend
“Her boyfriend, Slade Smiley, is jobless and owes a whopping $138,000 in child support. Yet Gretchen insists she’s happier supporting Slade than she was with her rich late fiance, Jeff Beitzel.”
Lynne Curtin: RHOOC – eviction
“Because of her husbands mishandling of their finances, the Curtins were evicted from their house last year – a shock to Lynne, who is doing her best to recover.”
Nene Leakes: RHOA – eviction, expensive divorce
“Her marriage is on the rocks, with her estranged husband, Gregg, possibly angling to swipe $300,000 from her in what promises to be a very nasty divorce. But as Nene Leakes – who was, as reports suggest, evicted from the home she shared with Gregg back in 2008 – struggles to face the concept that she soon may be dirt poor, it seems she’s determined not to let history repeat itself. [She] told Rolling Out magazine that she’s in the market for a man with big bucks.”
Sheree Whitfield: RHOA – car repoed
“The ex wife of former NFL player Bob Whitfield saw her Aston Martin repossessed after failing to pay her divorce lawyers more than $100,000.”
Lisa Wu Hartwell: RHOA – foreclosure
Lost $2.9 million home to foreclosure in 2009. She’s no longer on the show.
Michaele Salahi: RHODC – sued 17 times, bankrupt winery
Michaele and her husband Tareq are scam artists and ran their Virginia winery and tourism business into the ground.
Taylor Armstrong: RHOBH – divorce may send her into the red
“Taylor’s credit card was once declined at Starbucks, a witness says.” Taylor is divorcing her husband Russell, who has been sued multiple times for basically running a Ponzi scheme. They filed for bankruptcy just five years ago.
Sonja Morgan: RHONY – owes $7 million
“She stands to lose her $6 million town house in her bitter divorce battle – but for Sonja Morhan, that’s just the tip of the iceberg. ‘Sonja is flat broke,’ reveals an insider of the housewife, who has been ordered to pay a movie company $7 million after a failed venture.”
In Touch left out the brokest, scamming-est Real Housewife of all, New Jersey’s Teresa Giudice. Giudice inexplicably took their cover yet again this week, probably in some paid promotional deal from Bravo, and maybe they figured they covered enough of her there. Teresa and her husband Joe’s financial shenanigans are legion, and he basically works for the mafia while she wastes other people’s money on crap like suits of armor, mahogany furniture and everything that’
You can’t take it with you, and while it’s comforting to have nice things it’s not worth the cost of living deep in the hole. And some of these bitches have their Botoxed brows so deep in a hole that you would think they’d wise up and face reality. Not when their lavish spending is earning them fame and precious reality show minutes. If a $60k birthday party for a four year old earns ten minutes of air time does that mean it was worth it or was somehow an investment? Taylor will find out soon enough.
Yep. And most of them aren’t actually “housewives” either, since they’re single or divorced. One of the many reasons I don’t watch.
Man I saw Taylor and Russell getting a divorce a mile away. Soooo excited for the new season of Real Housewives of Beverly Hills just to see all the drama with that.
Poor Peggy. I liked her this past season on OC Housewives. However that whole self made man thing doesn’t seem to be working out for them because Alexa’s husband was a self made man as well.
The rest of this isn’t news. They talked about Sonja’s problems alot this pass season of RHONYC.
This certainly shatters any illusions of what a grand life they have. Its always the ones who try to be big pimping on TV that end up with all these money problems.
Fun fact: RHONJ is the only Real Housewives program where the women are all actually married.
It’s nauseating that these ‘housewives’ are so willing to expose the skeletons in their closet for 10 minutes of fame. These bitches live high on the hog while stiffing people who actually work for a living.
Why would anyone be surprised that these fools are broke or near.
I learned a long time ago that people with money who really understand it are not the ones that are flaunting it for the world to see. They enjoy what they can buy but are not out showcasing it with cars/diamonds..those kind of people are usually just a hairs breath to losing it all.
And look at these people. faking their wealth. Ugh..
I do not understand how these women allow their children to be involved with this type of shows. I would be embarrassed to show my face at school if one of these housewives were my mother.
I’m not surprises that these bitches are broke. Barely any of them have any money and barely of them are wives. If they got from in front of the camera. Stopped acting like 16 year old high schoolers they might do something productive. I guess they just use the money from the show for their upkeep. Smh.
“I learned a long time ago that people with money who really understand it are not the ones that are flaunting it for the world to see. They enjoy what they can buy but are not out showcasing it with cars/diamonds..those kind of people are usually just a hairs breath to losing it all.”
yup, you said it all right there.
For some reason, I really love Sonja though and feel like she is some past life duchess who can’t make her way in this modern world LOL like from the baroque period or something…call me crazy but I hope she can get out of her hole soon.
Just scrolling down these photos made my skin crawl!!!
I might have watched one of these ‘Real Housewives” shows if anyone of the woman were the genuine article they pretended to be. I love a little drama as much as the next gay man. But, these characters are nothing but self absorbed, botox’d up, budget Divas who only give real affluent people a bad name.
It’s both entertaining and horrifying to watch these women continue to live in their delusional bubbles of “reality” (what their perception of the world is like, anyway), and all the while having very real problems beyond what many of us in the “real world” would ever let happen.
And several of them think that they can start a fashion line of some sort and make money…but who really buys this stuff? It looks tacky and cheap. (Seriously, for the love of all things Haute Couture, would someone please STOP Alexis? Girl can’t sew and knows nothing about clothing design other than the streetwalker crap she wears.)
These women with their fake bodies and fake lives disgust me – simply disgust me. That is all.
so….fake eyelashes, boobs, lips, hair color, faces and it’s somehow news that they are shady, theiving liars?
None of this should be a big shock, really. Anyone with real money probably prefers to stay off of reality television.
Taylor Armstrong’s smile is freaking me out. She looks like a doll with her frozen ‘happy’ expression.
None of the this is a shock. The truth is that these women are like the other millions of Americans living beyond their means.
This is just entertainment. Who really give a crap if they are broke, pretending to be divorcing, really doing it, etc.
BTW: Camille still hasnt got her big $50 mill divorce settlement yet. She’s still waiting because Kelsey wanted to get married. Remeber that ‘bifurcation’ thing?
Hmmm, something tells me that Kelsey will somehow say “Oops” about the $50 mill, and Camille will never ever see that money. She be waiting, waiting, waiting, and then it be all gone-Oops!
the problem with all these women and their husbands is that they could actually get out from under the debts thery are in if they just downsized. filing bankruptcy while driving expensive cars and wearing expensive clothing is just revolting. bankruptcy is for people who have no other options, and when people with means foreclose their house or file bankruptcy it hurts the economy and brings down the housing market, which affects all of us. and of course they still get all their tax shelters, being wealthy and all.
I can’t bring myself to watch any of the Housewives shows anymore. With the exceptions of Gretchen, Caroline, Sonja and Lisa, I want to punch each one in the their filled faces and fake tits for being such dumbsh*ts. I feel your 15 minutes are about up ladies – better soak it up while you can.
I watch almost all of these shows. Tamra Barney does not live in an 800 sq. foot apartment. The last season of RH showed her renting a very nice, rather large home in the OC. It’s a lot bigger than my apartment, so I don’t feel bad for her. I also believe she has NO job, so I am not sure how she bankrolls everything. Every once in awhile she is shown acting as a realtor on the show, but I don’t believe she does this full-time, or really at any other time than when the show is filming her.
Sonya– I don’t get the banpruptcy. I just saw a RH of NY episode where she threw this lavish party for her friends, including musicians and a burlesque dancer. She wore an extremely extravagent costume. So, on one episode she is crying that she doesn’t want to lose her house, and another episode she is throwing a lavish bash?
Teresa- Something shady has to be going on there for her family to continue to maintain their same standard of living despite the bankruptcy and other legal proceedings against them. This season of her show, they have shown her and Joe claiming to be cutting back expenses, but they really aren’t. She has a new car. They had a gorgeous, really expensive looking Xmas tree. Teresa is always dressed to the 9’s, wrapped with furs, has professional hair and makeup people get her ready for parties. Sorry, I don’t understand.
and maybe just one or two actually worked, they can blame themselves–for all that has happened to them.
The way they flaunt their money is so vulgar they deserve to be humiliated with bankruptcy and divorce. ALL OF THEM.
Attack of the two-head!
Totally agree katnip. I work in a summer resort area, and most of the people here with really deep pockets are pretty low key and live well, but not garishly (and always pay their bills). It’s the people who are “new money” and eager to show it off who roll around in their ridiculous cars and make a big fuss, and then usually stiff people in the end.
I don’t watch any of these shows, but this post is like a slide show of bad plastic surgery warning photos.
Every single one of these wretched women deserve it. Bravo ladies.
also, teresa always tilts her head to the side in photos, and my dog does that when she wants to go poop. totally cracks me up.
I think many Americans are learning the hard way to live simply within their means. Sad, but true.
I have a question. Do these ladies really live in the houses that they have on these shows? Just wondering.
@Missy- Most Americans do not live the garish lifestyles these women live.
None of these women are truly wealthy, except Camille Grammer. I know alot of real housewives from Beverly Hills and none of them would ever consider doing one of these shows. These women get paid to do them, they are attention whores, and that’s why they do them. It’s a job that doesn’t require anything worthwhile and that’s what most of them have to offer. And some people are stupid enough to watch these vacous bitches. Good job keeping up with the quality programming Bravo.
What self respecting woman with money would be on this show? Of course its bunch of fake losers with nothing to their names.
Well, duh! Wouldn’t you have to be desperate to make an ass of yourself & air all of your dirty laundry publicly?
Trading one’s remaining shred of self- respect for some dineros.
I only watch the Beverly Hills housewives. I love Lisa and the Richards sisters.
yeh all these women are trash as are most of the RHOBravo network.. all snobs bimbos, etc
but you admit to reading gossip articles for 8-10 a day? wow what’s that make you?
btw some of the info you have above is outdated, misleading and downright inaccurate.
Amazed at how so many people live way beyond their means. I bet they consider maid/lawn service as necessities in “cutting back”. The way the RHo… live is just like many people not on tv live, just more extreme.
I lost my job last year, decided to start my own company. Cable tv, eating out, movie rentals eliminated. AC/heat cut back extensively. Money is coming in, but I prefer to live more frugally until income more steady. (And BTW, my home was paid off in 10yrs & I paid cash for my car)
As far as I’m concerned, the purpose of these shows is to remind us that money is not worth being obsessed over. There is more to life. I grew up in an extremely wealthy neighborhood (Malibu) and know for a fact that rich people are not necessarily happy. Most of my happiest memories are from times when I had the least money. It’s good to remember this. Thanks Bravo for the PSA.
The WORST part is that some of these women are moms. Good Lord I hope their kids are not paying attention to what mommy does to get a man, a reality show, a book deal, a richer husband… If there weren’t kids involved i would be rotfl…
That sound you hear is me playing the tiniest violion for these ladies.
I’ve lived in Atlanta almost all of my life and EVERY ONE of the women featured on that show (except Kandi, who isn’t even a housewife) has always been considered a joke by educated people of means in the city. I watch it to see how far they’ll go to keep up appearances that no one other than Bravo viewers outside of the metro areas believes in or cares about in the first place. They never cease to amaze with their “keeping.”
No Links, Jack & Jill’er’s, Girlfriends or Junior Leaguers and you’re professing Housewife status? No way. They are awful and totally inaccurate depictions of affluent “Atlanta women,” but they sure are hilariously delusional. They kind of make me feel good about being a “have not” if that is what life is supposed to be like for that segment of the “haves.”
Find companies that make antique reproduction furniture – then call then and pretend to be a college student doing a paper and find out who their customers are – and then go steal their customers.