For the first time since filing for divorce in November 2020, Erika Jayne is giving new insight into her marriage to and subsequent split from Tom Girardi on The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills.
“Let’s discuss the elephant in the room,” the 49-year-old reality star told costars Lisa Rinna, Kyle Richards, Dorit Kemsley, Garcelle Beauvais, Sutton Stracke, Crystal Minkoff and Kathy Hilton on the Wednesday, June 23, episode of the Bravo show. “My life drastically changed this week. I let go of my Lamborghini, I let go of my 16,000 square foot home, I let go of my marriage, I let go of everything. I literally made a decision that I had to.”
In a confessional, Erika further explained, “I left because he pushed me further and further out. The conversations that I used to have were now reduced down to a sentence or two. I just kept walking around that house and knowing that this marriage was headed down a really s—ty path. I had to make a choice to do what was right for me. I couldn’t live that way anymore.”
Erika, who admitted that she filed for divorce on Election Day to try to bury the story, told her castmates that she kept them in the dark on purpose.
“It would put you in a bad position to give you information that you had to hold,” she said. “It also doesn’t serve me to talk a lot about what is happening legally — or will happen legally — because I am married to somebody who is very good in that area. … I thought about this and tried and tried and tried to talk and tried to work it out and I was met with such resistance. Such resistance. I can’t do this by myself. I can’t convince someone of anything and so I said, ‘OK, well I have to take this step on my own.’”
Later on in the episode, Bravo cameras capture Erika walking around her new home, pointing out that her house with Tom was 16,000 square feet, four bedrooms and nine bathrooms while her current place is 2,015 square feet, three bedrooms and two bathrooms.
“After finding a place to go to, I dropped Tom off at work and I went home and moved out. So I was out within the day,” she said in a confessional. “It’s frightening, you know, when you think about. It’s the uncertainty and instability of being, really, out of on your own. … Just getting up the courage to leave is a big deal. This was my home for over 21 years.”
Us Weekly confirmed in December 2020 that Tom and Erika were being sued for allegedly embezzling settlement funds from the families of plane crash victims. Jay Edelson, who filed the class action lawsuit against the spouses, alleged that Tom gave Erika’s company “10s of millions of dollars” over the years.
She has yet to explicitly address the lawsuits on the show but hinted that “something is coming” for her on Wednesday’s episode. During a different chat with Lisa, Erika added, “He left me no room, and that’s the only way I can say it right now. … We’re not playing games over here. And he’s not going to be playing games with me. … He’s got some real challenges ahead of him.”
In previews for the upcoming episodes, Erika seemingly says Tom is the “only one” who knows the truth about the legal woes and claims she was unaware of his alleged actions. Tom, meanwhile, revealed in a 2020 deposition that he has “no money” left. During a June court hearing, the former attorney, who has been stripped of his law license, told the judge that he objected to the conservatorship he was placed under after he was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s earlier this year.
The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills airs on Bravo Wednesdays at 8 p.m. ET. Scroll through for the biggest bombshells dropped by Erika on the series: