Season 4 of “The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City” ended with everyone — including host/executive producer Andy Cohen — calling Monica Garcia a liar, and with Heather Gay trying to explain how she could have lied for so long about how she got that black eye in Season 3.
Monica was on the defensive most of the night, admitting she was behind an Instagram account that viciously trolled the other Housewives for years. But her justifications fell flat, and her excuses for her behavior included an unbelievable story about how the FBI wanted her to catch Jen Shah driving drunk.
And, according to a report Tuesday in People magazine, Monica will not return for Season 5. In an interview with Variety, “RHOSLC” executive producer Lori Gordon confirmed that Monica will not be part of the show’s sixth season, which begins filming on Feb. 5, but didn’t shut the door on the possibility that she could return at some point in the future. “Never say never,” Gordon said.
(Clifton Prescod | Bravo) Whitney Rose, Meredith Marks, Monica Garcia, Andy Cohen, Heather Gay, Lisa Barlow and Angie Katsanevas at the Season 4 reunion of "The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City."
Shading the truth
Monica says the original goal of the Instagram account was “to expose the truth of how [Jen Shah] treated her employees and the other Housewives. … We were trying to expose how abusive she was to you. Do you not understand that?”
Heather Gay replies, “You are not a hero in this, Monica.”
“I’m fine being the villain in your story, because you’re the clowns in mine,” Monica replies — an odd thing for her to say when she’s trying to convince them she had their best interests at heart.
Monica defends the page, claiming that (most of) the mean things on it quoted Jen Shah saying mean things about the other women. But the page repeated those things over and over again, and the other Housewives are angry because “this went on every single day for three years,” Heather says. Monica defends herself by saying it only went on for two years.
“It sounds like in trying to expose Jen, what you did is hurt all of them,” Andy says. “Tell me how it’s helpful blasting out into the world things about them that [are] horrible.” Monica has no real answer, and she doesn’t seem particularly sorry. And Andy tells her, “I’m kind of amazed that you’re so surprised that they’re pissed off by this.”
(Jocelyn Prescod | Bravo) Heather Gay, Lisa Barlow and Angie Katsanevas.
Lisa says that, based on what Monica posted, “you [expletive] hate us,” and just wanted to be on the show. “What is wrong with me wanting to sit on this couch?” she shouts. And Andy says, “Her plotting to get on the show is not a crime.” However, Lisa interjects, Monica “going against all of us is the crime.” And if her intentions were “noble,” then why didn’t she tell the other women about Reality Von Tease immediately. Monica says that was because there were “other people involved.”
Was a crime committed?
Lisa accuses Monica of spying on Jen, her family and her guests — including Lisa — by hacking her home security system. “It was my security system,” Monica insists, repeatedly justifying herself because Jen “asked me to put it in my name.”
Monica tries to spin this as Lisa and Heather coming to Jen’s defense. “Do you hear yourselves? That’s psychotic,” she screeches.
But the other women are not defending Jen, they’re (justifiably) attacking Monica.
Lisa accuses Monica of stalking Jen. Monica says she drove by Jen’s house two or three times; Heather says they have “probably 20″ videos of her doing that, and Lisa says Monica sold the footage to TMZ.
“You’re a mother with four kids, and single. What are you doing driving by Jen Shah’s house?” Lisa loudly asks. And Monica’s children are “in the back seat” of her car while she’s doing this. “Don’t [expletive] talk about my kids!” Monica shouts — but Lisa is talking about Monica’s behavior, not her children’s behavior.
And then things get really crazy. Monica says that she drove by Jen’s house at the behest of the FBI, looking for evidence that Jen was violating the terms of her release on bail by driving drunk. The other Housewives laugh, which upsets Monica even more. She tries to backtrack, but the damage is done. Her credibility sinks even lower.
“I’ve done nothing illegal!” Monica shouts. Is that true? Heather says, “It’s illegal to access someone’s security system and watch.”
Why does any of this matter? Because “if she did that to Jen, she will do that to me,” Heather says. She, Lisa, Meredith, Angie and Whitney agree that cyberbullying has “ruined” their experience as Housewives.
(Jocelyn Prescod/Bravo) Monica Garcia and Andy Cohen on "The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City" Season 4 reunion.
Andy says Monica is lying
Lisa is convinced that the producers knew about Monica’s involvement in Reality Von Tease when they added her to the cast. And Monica says she told the casting department in her first meeting with them.
“If you said, ‘I run a burner account,’ we wouldn’t have cast you,” Andy says.
Who’s the source of the rumors?
Meredith, Heather, Lisa, Angie and Whitney suspect that Monica was behind DMs full of “evidence” about financial improprieties involving Angie. Monica claims no knowledge of the DMs.
Angie says the info was false. When Andy asks who she thinks is responsible, she says, “I feel Monica has been pretending to be my friend and betrayed me the minute that she could.”
Monica admits she brought this up on camera first, and Andy says, “You can’t bring something out in front of the cameras — like the gay rumors — and then say. ‘I didn’t say it.’”
(Bravo) Heather Gay says Jen Shah gave her a black eye on "The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City."
Explaining the black eye
Heather finally explains how she got the black eye in Season 3 — sort of.
She says she still isn’t completely sure how it happened, but she’s sure Jen gave it to her after the two did “a lot of drinking. … I didn’t know how, but I knew I’d gotten it from Jen.”
Heather apologizes to Andy, the other Housewives, Bravo and the audience for lying and say she didn’t know how it happened. “I didn’t know how to navigate it myself. ... It was a horrible situation.”
Andy is clearly unhappy that Heather said during one stop on her book tour that someone may have come into her room and hit her “but production edited it out. … It’s not funny to accuse the producers or the production company of covering up a crime.” Heather, however, says she was joking when she said that.
Andy asks Heather, “Is the grace that you are asking of everyone now the same grace that should be given to” Monica. Heather makes it clear she considers the situations to be different — her comment was “clearly … absurd humor. And it wasn’t posted online. It wasn’t perpetuated.” (Unlike Monica and Reality Von Tease.)
Andy, who made several attempts to get Heather, Lisa, Meredith, Whitney and Angie to let Monica off the hook, does not let Heather off the hook himself. “Look, you lied to production, [to] Bravo,” he says. “And even, at one point, said that maybe a producer had done it to you, which is very serious because it puts people’s reputations and jobs at risk.”
Asked if Jen thanked her for keeping the secret, Heather replies, “Jen Shah? She was never my friend. She pretended to be my friend, and I fell for it. And I will not fall for a pretend friend again” — a clear reference to Monica. Heather is still worried about “retaliation” from Jen, but adds, “I was a different person when I started the show.”
Heather tells Monica that, when she confronted her in Bermuda, “I kind of thought that you would say, ‘The gig is up. I’m sorry. And I wanted to be here so badly that I did all of this.’ But you didn’t. You spun it. You deflected.” Heather says she defended that kind of behavior from Jen, “and I’m not going to do it again.”
Monica tries the it-happened-to-me-too defense. “Heather can hate me all she wants. That’s fine,” she says. “But you could never deny that she and I went through that same exact trauma [with Jen.] I went about it a different way. She kept it all in. I blurted it all out.”
Whitney, Lisa, Heather, Meredith and Angie all express support and forgiveness for Heather. But when Andy asks if the other women can forgive Monica, nobody is in a forgiving mood. Heather says Monica’s behavior at the reunion has only made things worse. Whitney says she doesn’t trust Monica. All of the women say there’s nothing Monica could have said at the reunion to change their minds about her.
“I think it’s very problematic to move forward in a situation where trust has been completely decimated,” Meredith says.
So problematic that “RHOSLC” will return for Season 5 without Monica.
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