Vicki Gunvalson Tries To Defend Cancer Scam ‘Kill All Cancer’: ‘It Wasn’t My Charity’
Vicki Gunvalson is quickly abandoning her involvement with the charity Kill All Cancer. The Real Housewives of Orange County star was recently criticized for starting the cancer charity that sounded like a money-making scheme. Now, the reality star claims that she was only hired as the spokeswoman for the organization.
Is Gunvalson caught in yet another cancer-related lie?
“We just shut the website down,” Gunvalson told Radar Online. “We had some really bad – one bad guy that decided to say it wasn’t a truthful charity which is a lie.”
“So we voluntarily shut the site down and we’ll bring it back up,” she continued. “But it’s too bad that people don’t see the good that charity was trying to do for cancer survivors.”
Vicki Gunvalson Kill All Cancer Fraud Complaint Filed With Attorney General Exclusive https://t.co/B5jlOhcRKS via @www.realmrhousewife.com
— Patricia allen (@Eamon0303) October 12, 2016
Gunvalson went on to reveal that cancer has affected her personal life to a great extent.
“My brother-in-law is dying from cancer,” she stated. “I had two friends die last year. So I’ll do whatever I can to use my platform to help others. It’s unfortunate that people think I was taking money from them. No, I was giving my time to it!”
In order to further distance herself from the organization, Gunvalson said that she was only “a spokesperson” for the charity and did not create it.
Not only did Gunvalson star in a commercial for the now-defunct charity, but she also peddled it on a recent RHOC episode.
Of course, given Gunvalson’s scandalous history with cancer scams on the show, many of her co-stars weren’t buying it.
Last season, Gunvalson’s then boyfriend Brooks Ayers was caught lying about receiving cancer treatments. He even provided fabricated medical records to prove he had cancer. Gunvalson supported his claims all the way to the end of the season before she finally admitted that he lied.
When Gunvalson approached her co-stars with the new charity, Tamra Judge slammed her for trying to exploit cancer yet again.
“I’m authentic,” Gunvalson defended herself. “I didn’t lie about any cancer scam. That’s just ridiculous!”
She continued, “It’s so hurtful for some of my cast members to want to hang on to it – for whatever reason, I don’t know. Maybe they don’t want to talk about themselves, but I know what I went through.”
Vicki Gunvalson also thinks it is unbelievable that anyone would question her involvement with a charity meant to help cancer victims.
“It makes me angry and sad that anyone would believe I’m in on a scam when people are dying and suffering from cancer every day,” she shared. “There’s a 50 percent chance I’m gonna get cancer. Do you think I really would lie about it?”
According to Bravo, Gunvalson agreed to work with the charity because she wanted to help out people who suffer from the dreaded disease.
#RHOC Star Vicki Gunvalson Shuts Down Charity Website Kill All Cancer Amidst More Cancer Scam Claims https://t.co/jZ49iiO1zK
— Perry Miller (@perrymillercarp) October 12, 2016
Apparently, Kill All Cancer reps approached Gunvalson and asked her to be their spokesperson. The reality star agreed to work with the charity because of her past history with cancer, and she thought it was a good opportunity to do some good.
Gunvalson knew that working with a cancer charity might cause some controversy and tried to set the record straight early on.
“Just to clear the air, I was never in on a scam,” Gunvalson told ET Online. “…I’m giving back to research and to people that are suffering with cancer or suffer with cancer. We have wristbands, and it’s a transparent charity, and I’m gonna turn this all around and make good for it. Fifty percent of us are gonna be diagnosed with cancer. It’s not funny.”
Despite all the negative reaction by fans and co-stars alike, People reports that Gunvalson was optimistic that things would go well with the charity. In fact, Gunvalson hoped that the charity would stop the allegations that she was in cahoots with Ayers when he lied about cancer last season.
“Working with a cancer charity will prove the naysayers out there who said I was in on something or that I lied that I’ve got nothing to hide. Period,” she said on an episode of RHOC.
Unfortunately, Gunvalson underestimated the naysayers. Part of the problem with Gunvalson’s charity was the organization’s ambiguous purpose.
Although Gunvalson tried to sell wristbands to raise awareness, she also said that the charity would work as an insurance policy for cancer victims.
“This ‘Kill All Cancer’ policy will be something people will buy, and then if they ever got sick, this will help people get back on their feet again,” Gunvalson explained. “This is up my wheelhouse – I’m all about insurance, I’m all about charities, so I’m all in.”
For now, it appears as though Gunvalson is abandoning her role in the charity despite her enthusiasm for helping cancer victims. Whether or not she picks another cancer charity to work with remains to be seen.
New episodes of the Real Housewives of Orange County air Monday nights on Bravo.
Tell us! Do you think Vicki Gunvalson did the right thing by shutting down the charity? Let us know in the comments below.
[Featured Image by Bravo]
