“Yeah, so my life drastically changed this week,” Erika Jayne announced to the group of women on The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills, and she wasn’t lying. The most recent episode of the Bravo series takes place during Sutton’s Paris-themed lunch, the first time the women saw Erika since the news broke in November on Election Day 2020 that she had filed for divorce from husband Tom Girardi.
We’ve been promised that Erika will be mentioning it all this season on the show, but with his ongoing legal troubles, how much could she really say? Well, if this episode is any indication, a lot. Especially when it comes to the divorce, their marriage, and how she is starting her new life.
Here are the nine wildest revelations Erika shared with her friends:
1. What she left behind
“I let go of my Lamborghini, I let go of my 16,000 sq ft home, I let go of my marriage, I let go of everything,” she tells the table of women. “I literally made a decision that I had to.” On the bright side, she did get herself a new car in the form of a Range Rover.
“I left because he pushed me further and further out,” she explains about the end of her marriage to Tom. “I had to make a choice to do what was right for me, I couldn’t live that way anymore.”
2. Why she couldn’t tell a soul
“None of you knew on purpose because it would put you in a bad position if I were to give you information that you had to hold and I didn’t want to do that and that’s the truth,” she tells the group, which explains their complete shock when she previously texted them the news.
“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’s very good in that area,” she said, and the other women could only nod and understand the position she was in.
“I struggled for a long time knowing that had to leave, but once I made my decision, spent a good 30 days closing out certain parts of my life,” Erika continued, as we see her selling some of her gorgeous clothes. “I cried every day. This was the end of a massive part of my life and stepping into basically a void,” she said, detailing how every time she tried to talk it out with Tom, she was simply “met with such resistance.”
3. The truth about their marriage
“My marriage was never conventional,” Erika admits, though it feels significant now because she always sort of played it off as a relationship that worked for the two of them. Now, we see it did not. “In my marriage, if I wanted to open up and say, ‘You, Tom, have hurt my feelings,’ there was none of that. I was always dismissed.” Oof.
4. Why she filed on Election Day
“I filed on Election Day because I wanted it to get buried,” she confessed in her interview. “I was thinking, this is great, this is the most important historic election in modern times and this is gonna be a blip on the radar. I’ll slide through and nobody will know. Not happening,” she admitted, because we all know that after we performed our civic duty, we texted everyone about the news.
“Just so you know, I keep really good secrets,” she reminded her friends, before then adding, “As soon as I get a handle on what’s coming for me, and it will be coming for me,” which feels all too foreshadowy in this moment.
5. Her new house
“You’re welcome over to my new tiny baby dollhouse,” Erika said to her friends, before revealing that she found it online, and that “it’s a rental, it’s cute.” She also half-whispered that she “stole the furniture” to decorate, before clarifying that she “didn’t take a lot of things” from her old house, but that “I did take a sofa and two chairs. I still don’t have a kitchen table.”
And the way it all went down will give you chills. “I dropped Tom off and work and I went home and moved out. I was out within the day. It’s frightening, you know, when you think about it,” she said quietly.
Her new house is 2015 sq. feet and features 3 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms, which is certainly a change from her former 4 bedrooms and 9 bathrooms. But in this house, one bedroom is for sleeping, one is for clothes, and one is “a shoe palace” that will house her accessories.
6. That traffic story though
In what has to be one of the most revealing stories she’s ever shared about her marriage, not to mention very chilling and the most distinct proof that her strong facade was starting to crack, Erika dropped this truth bomb in her interview. “I’ll never forget one time I was joining Tom and five other guys for dinner. I said, ‘I’m sorry I’m late, I was in traffic,’ and one of them said, ‘Well if you were married to a better man, traffic would be no problem.’ Tom straight looked at him across the table and said, ‘Well if you think you can afford her, you can have her.” My god.
“But I didn’t tell anybody because he supported me when there was nothing,” Erika said. “There always that underlying pressure of wanting to please someone that’s provided for you. I felt always that I should shut up and be grateful to an extent.”
She also goes on to tell Lisa Rinna, “I’ve not felt this vulnerable in maybe ever,” and that “He left me no room and that’s the only way I can say it right now.”
7. How Tom got served
But there are a few other details she can share. “I almost floated the idea of trial separation but I knew it wouldn’t work,” she admitted, knowing that it had to be a “get your shit and go” situation instead.
“I didn’t leave a note,” she stated. “I drove him to work and I told him I loved him and he said, ‘Thanks hun,’ like I was an employee.” And that was the last time she saw him. As she explained, “I went home and started putting everything in the moving van. I drove off, went to my new place, spent the night there, and he was served the next morning. We’re not playing games over here.”
She also very wisely said that she “Expects nothing but the worst and hoping for the best” and that “He’s got some real challenges ahead of him.” Feels like a bit of an understatement at this point.
8. Hot Toddies & THC
In some better news for Erika, she sure does love a hot toddy, as we got to see her drink two this episode, but that’s nothing compared to another liquid. “That little present you gave me, I used it,” she tells Kyle. “I am lit right now. There is this intimate oil that Kyle gifted, it’s THC. She’s been telling us about this oil that she and Mauricio have been enjoying. So I said, hook a girl up, I put it all over my clit and my vajayjay,” she announced to the group to delighted squeals. But Kyle, hook us all up please and let us know which brand you’re using, girl!
9. When she will move on
It’s going to be a long road ahead for Erika as many messy legal battles are still to come, but when it comes to the also messy world of dating, she had a plan. “I’m giving myself 90 days,” she told the group. “No sex. It’s the last thing on my mind, but in 90 days I’m sure I’ll feel different.”
The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills airs Wednesday at 8 pm ET/PT on Bravo.