I know I said I probably wouldn’t cover this second, even more heartbreaking part of Taylor Armstrong’s interview with Entertainment Tonight, but here we are. It’s hard to look away from this for so many reasons. Taylor, who has been shown falling apart on The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills as her marriage disintegrates, had to cope with the suicide of her abusive husband in August, after this season’s filming wrapped. On Tuesday, ET aired the part of Taylor’s interview where she discussed the abuse she suffered for years. Taylor described how she covered up for her husband after he hit her so hard this summer that he fractured the bones around her eye. In this second half of the interview she talks about discovering that Russell had committed suicide. She never saw his body, but she says she wanted to give him a hug goodbye and was told by emergency workers to stay away. It was too much to listen to.
Our no-holds-barred, exclusive interview with Taylor Armstrong continues. Tonight, The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills reality star reveals new details surrounding her husband Russell Armstrong’s suicide — and how she discovered he was dead that fateful August day.
“I’m sure a lot of people won’t understand this, but I asked the emergency workers if I could go in and hug him before they took him away, but they wouldn’t let me,” Taylor tells our Nancy O’Dell, wiping away tears. “I just felt like I needed to see him one last time, but they wouldn’t let me.”
Despite her recent abuse claims at the hands of her late husband, Taylor remains emotionally attached and even wears his wedding ring on her finger together with her own: “Right now I’m still doing anything I can to just figure out how to get close to him,” she explains. “I just never would have imagined that he would be in a position where he felt as though life isn’t worth living.”
[From Entertainment Tonight]
I watched the first season of this show and I’m staying away from the second after this tragedy. This lady needs friends and family around her, not a camera crew. This interview is the type of thing she should be telling a therapist or someone close to her, not a national entertainment news program. We don’t need to know these details! It’s too personal, it’s too sad and it happened just over a month ago. It’s clear she hasn’t worked through it, and it disturbs me that this is on the air. Multiple people had to sign off on this interview, but it’s clearly an awful idea. Yes she made the decision to do this, and she got paid for it, but at what cost to her and her daughter? I’m so done with all of these Real Housewives shows.
These photos are from March, 2011. Credit: WENN.com
This whole thing is just so sad.
This is really heartbreaking. I imagine that she is doing it because she needs the money, so the interview and the show are a source of income to her. I hope Kyle Richards can be a true friend to her. She seems so lonely and vulnerable right now.
I am not a fan of the other housewives franchises, but I love the Atlanta edition.
I confess I’ve never watched any of these real housewives shows, so I can’t comment on it knowledgeably. But I’m wondering… with all the stuff going on in TV land lately (Toddler and Tiaras, Courtney Stodden, Real Housewives etc.) have we as a culture just crossed a line? I mean, does anyone else think, “Whoa, this is too much. Too awful to watch, too horrible to turn into entertainment, too far beyond the pale of what should constitute enjoyment…”? I’m just raising the questions because my husband and I were kind of talking about it last night–like, the last two or three years, something has gone off the rails?
I’m with you-the whole thing is just so pathetic and the fact that it’s being aired as “entertainment” is a million kinds of wrong.
Well she really sunk to a new low by showing footage of Kennedy and discussing Kennedys private thoughts.
Taylor is truely a narcissus, she is not thinking of anyone but herself.
Fame whore all you like Taylor but please for her sake keep your daughter out of it.
I caught part of season 2 last night. It was playing in the background after the show I had been watching (Top Chef: Just Desserts) ended. Couldn’t bear it. I’m done with RHOBH. It has a dark cloud over it.
Bring on Basketball Wives: LA (on VH1) instead! “Reality” drama without tragedy looming!
She is a disgusting human being.
Whatever she is, he seems to be a worse monster. Multiple fraud scandals, domestic abuse…
And in every photo, that’s a smile that doesn’t reach the eyes, if I have ever seen one.
Go away tacky duck lips!!
What #7 said.
I agree with some of the comments. I do believe she was abused, I think she needs help but exploiting her abuse is just wrong. She needs help but therapy not going on E to cry in front of millions of people because we all know it’s for attention not awareness of abuse.
So… who identified the body?
There has to be another way for her to earn money.
This is too much.
So, it’s not okay to watch the show but it’s okay to write about this constantly? I have no doubt this lady is going through a bad time but the fact remains that she is a con artist.
LOL @ her expression in the 2nd pic.
I think the woman was abused… though to what extent, I obviously don’t know. I feel bad for victims of abuse, but I have a hard time feeling bad for her. Not as an abuse victim, but as a person.
She is whoring the story out to the media. If you need money, selling stories about abuse from your dead partner isn’t the classy way to go.
I just can’t get over how plastic she looks. Her face is tragic. When she smiles she’s more or less just baring her teeth, and her eyes always look so vacant. She just doesn’t strike me as an interesting, or intelligent human being.
Does that mean she deserves the abuse? Hell no. She needs help to get through this, and the child too. But instead of pimping yourself out to entertainment shows, try getting behind an organization that can actually do something to help, not just sit around complaining/exploiting.
It just is sooooo fake!! She should leave the show forsure and eat a hamburger. And I think she had a nervous breakdown and it was just scary.
I agree that this is all too much. I don’t want to hear any more from this lady. I feel sorry for her little girl. The more she talk I feel sorry for her husband. Something was so bad that he didn’t want to be on this earth any more and she keep running her mouth. She is not in any danger so can she shut up already. I will never read her book or watch that show.
This women needs help so I’m just boycotting RHOBH…and I like that blue dress…that is all.
She needs money, lots of it, there will never be enough-I so wish she could be banned fron TV, internet and print media. Then she can go back to hustling money from sucker investors in Holiday Inn conference rooms.
I saw this interview and my first thought was that she couldn’t even cry properly for all the wretched Botox.
Then I thought how it was that these people think it’s normal to go on television and talk at length about it and cry on cue.
Not sure whether any of that expression of sadness was real or staged. What can you believe with her. The fact that this article was written in a manner to not question her motives or any of her accusations of abuse is awful. Because she said it, does it mean it actually happened…she actually has remorse? What do we believe? Poor writing.
I do agree she does not need a camera crew…she needs a therapist as is said, she needs to find reality….not a reality show. Bravo should be slapped for milking this and allowing her to milk this at the expense (as mentioned) of her child.
Sad….really sad and disgusting all at once!
Ok this is going to sound mean but here i go. I do not feel sorry for her or him, trout lips needs to stay away from cameras and spend some time with her daughter, I really feel bad for the little girl because she’s really young and traumatized by this and then later when she sees that her mom started whoring out the tragedy mere weeks after it happened she’ll be needing a lotta therapy.
Saw her on Dr. Phil this morning…she’s already writing a book. Something is not ringing true here for me…many inconsistencies in the Dr. Phil interview…had some pat answers prepared…having someone go in his room and being told “no one is here” and she says, “keep looking,” and then the body is discovered…something is amiss. And I don’t think it was a suicide. Plus, she flat out lied in the interview about previously saying she was related to the Fords (an out and out lie) and said she took the name “Ford” because of a designer she admired. And I also thought she was “acting”–don’t pounce on me…just my gut reaction. I don’t trust her, and I don’t believe her…how convenient that she took a “witness” with her to find Russell’s body.
Judy – Im with you. Its all to fishy and her lies are starting to catch up to her because her story has changed over the weeks.
If he beat her so bad why would she be so upset with his death? It just doesnt add up at all to me. How did she know to push the guy to go further into the room? The whole thing is fishy and in lieu of his business partner being found murdered w/in days – i think she knows more than shell ever admit.
And him yelling at her in front of the daughter means she kept her daughter in an abusive household because of the lifestyle he was providing- she is sick!
For her daughters sake alone why is she selling the supposed abuse pictures and doing interviews??? It makes no sense. She is capitalizing on his death for sure!!!! When her daughter gets older she is going to be PISSED her mother did this.
You have to feel for his family. What mother would be ok with her husbands ex trashing him after his death.
She is very low class! Regardless if he abused her or not doesnt change the fact that she is milking this for money and fame and she is trash!
@judy
I found some parts of the story to be weird too. Almost like she was expecting to find him dead. They were proceeding with a bitter divorce. I don’t find it strange that he would ignore her texts and calls for 3 days. Seeing their interaction on the show, he could barely maintain a 5 minute conversation with her. He’s obviously a introvert who I could see wouldn’t mind being alone for 3 days in a room. Something is just off. I hate to wonder if she already knew something was off and waited a few days to figure out how to maximize public exposure. Let’s now forget he stole millions from all sorts of people. I find it suspicious his business partner died soon after. Taylor was in on his scams. I read that article exposing their lies and Taylor was named in a lawsuit because she was always by his side at functions working the crowd into investing.
One of the names she used had the last name Ford. I read that Russell and her used to trick investors into believing she was part of the Ford family so they would be more at ease with “investing” with them. By investing I mean supporting their lifestyle. They were and she still is a con artist.
Since Taylor didn’t say specifically in the ET interview video when she actually saw Russell last, this ROL/Star article says she saw him the day before his suicide. They say she told her friends that Russell hit her on Sunday, the day before Russell’s body was found on Monday.
http://www.radaronline.com/exclusives/2011/08/russell-armstrong-beat-taylor-armstrong-so-badly-she-left-terrified-just-hours
***
From HLN’s JVM show w/ Carlos Diaz as sub-host:
“DYLAN HOWARD, “STAR” MAGAZINE: Well, Carlos, we broke this story this morning in the latest issue of “Star” magazine. And it details the final blow, if you like.
Twenty-four hours before Russell Armstrong decided to take his own life, he was involved in yet another violent confrontation with his wife, Taylor.
So much so Taylor, distraught and sobbing, rang two of her closest friends on the Sunday night and said what had taken place.
She said Russell had beaten her after she confronted him over the couple`s financial state. ”
http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/1108/24/ijvm.01.html
**
Then various TMZ stories reported that the coroner said Russell was dead more than 24 hrs before he was found.
***
So if both Star & the coroner’s office are correct, then the last person to see Russell alive was Taylor the day before she went back to the house with Francisco and had a “feeling” that the house-owner should check further into Russell’s bedroom.
Also, that would mean that his door wasn’t locked since Friday as she says in the video.
***
But he was alive on Saturday night, as Rumorfix’s exclusive interview with his grandmother is about her phone call with him at 7pm on Saturday night.
http://rumorfix.com/2011/08/exclusive-russell-armstrongs-grandmother-speaks-reveals-his-final-moments/
***
Question: What is the proper way to respond to the suicide of your estranged, allegedly violent husband with whom you apparently committed many financial misdeeds?
It’s not just good people who feel anguish when someone dies. Liars, schemers and con artists do too. They also become targets of domestic violence.
I don’t think she’s giving interviews to raise awareness. I think she is flailing.
She admitted that she grew up poor, that they had nothing. She said that she wasn’t going back to that way of life (this was before he died)
She also said of meeting Russell, that she was out with friends and saw him walk into the room and knew he was the one. Really? I hate to speak ill of the dead, but this guy didn’t exactly have a sparkling personality. Maybe the expensive clothes and watch caught her eye, and she saw security. I feel like she married this guy for the wrong reason, hoping that she would grow to love him. Her fairytale didn’t pan out.
She was as much to blame for their financial problems as he was. 65,000.dollar party for a 5 year old? She said she loved to the throw the biggest and best parties-she loved the lifestyle. Am I saying that she deserved to be beaten? Absolutely not, but I wonder if those tears are guilty tears or maybe crocodile tears. She isn’t an innocent party in this. Not by a long shot.
there is an amazing blog- it was started and run for two years before the woman’s husband took his life in front of her. now it is her therapy, and her sanctuary, where she expresses her loss and emotions in such a raw way. suicide is an awful thing. but her blog is changing lives.
http://www.rrsahm.com/
i dont think there any “working through” this. it’s never gonna be okay, she’s probably never going to be ok. I really hope Kennedy will be ok.
@Anne_000
Thanks for that info- stunning implications.
Personally, I tend to think that Russell and his business partner finally burned the wrong person, but of course we’ll never really know.
Here is what I don’t get… She says he abused her. She says she spent her marriage walking on eggshells not knowing when he was going to hit her again. Why then is she wearing his wedding ring to “be close to him” ??? Either she is lying about the abuse too along with everything else she has been lying about or she needs to be committed and her kid needs to be raised by normal sane people. Something stinks really bad and I believe that the stench comes from Shana Huges/Taylor/Ford, whoever she has decided to be today.
Anyone who doesn’t believe that one can love, miss, and be attached to another person who has caused him/her harm, even if it were significant harm, is…well, to be optimistic about it, lucky.
Im so happy to read that your getting off the housewives shows!i watched them for awhile in the beginning but after a few seasons…i wont give them my ratings anymore!its all garbage.our country is in crisis after crisis.the ppl on these shows,the way they’re selling their lives,it makes me sick…
Taylor is an actress so of course she is doing interviews for the money her husband and her are con artist she is lying I don’t believe she killed her husband by she knows who did and the same person killed his business partner.
The police need to wise up she really needs to be in jail and she needs alot of therapy of course the daughter is the one I feel sorry for. Taylor please take out those lip implants you look awful why in the world does think she looks good And she is way to thin her lips even look worst she is really ugly to me.