‘Real Housewives Of Orange County’ Star Vicki Gunvalson Responds To Reports She Staged The Phone Call About Her Mother’s Death

This week’s episode of The Real Housewives of Orange County saw one of its cast members receiving heartbreaking news. In the episode, Vicki Gunvalson was in the middle of a party at Shannon Beador’s home when she got a phone call about the passing of her mother, Joanne Steinmetz.

“What do you mean? What happened? No!” Gunvalson was seen crying out after receiving the call from her daughter, Briana. “Briana, I can’t do this. Oh, my God. I don’t want to believe this.”

Although the news was devastating to the reality star and understandably led to an emotional breakdown, some fans took to Twitter after the episode aired and started spreading the idea that the whole thing was staged.

Gunvalson was quick to answer the rumors and tweeted a few messages of her own denying that the phone call she received of her mother’s death was in any way staged.

“This was not staged whatsoever,” Gunvalson wrote back at fans. “Briana had been trying to reach me and I didn’t know why so I called her bk.”

While Gunvalson went on to write that she was “shocked at the way people treat one another nowadays,” her co-star Shannon Beader also sent a message in support for her fellow cast member.

“No staging. Really???” Beader wrote in her Twitter response. “Bad cell reception in my home and only get in certain rooms. #notnice.”

While the ordeal of watching Gunvalson get the news that her mother had passed was difficult to watch, Gunvalson stated that the episode was particularly gut-wrenching for her. Further, the reality star expressed her disapproval with how Bravo handled the released of the promo clip. Bravo decided to air the clip, which featured the scene where Gunvalson received the phone call.

“It’s the most terrible thing to have to relive again… Especially on Mother’s Day,” Gunvalson wrote on her Twitter account following the airing of the clip.

Meanwhile, as Gunvalson moves on with her life, she told her brother that she doesn’t know how she can live without her mother at her side.

“I wasn’t ready to stop learning from my mom,” Gunvalson stated. “I really don’t know how I’m going to function. I need her in my life. I don’t know why we have to die. I’ll miss my mom’s spunk. She had so much love for life. I don’t want this to be real.”

The Real Housewives of Orange County airs Mondays on Bravo.