Kelly Dodd wasn’t bummed out at all by her co-star Vicki Gunvalson’s demotion from The Real Housewives of Orange County .
During an interview with Hollywood Life on August 16, Kelly opened up about her thoughts on Bravo TV’s decision to remove Gunvalson from her full-time role after 13 seasons and put her into a reduced role for Season 14.
“I’m glad that she’s demoted because I think she should’ve got demoted a long time ago,” Dodd told the outlet.
Although Dodd did acknowledge that it was Gunvalson who started the franchise way back in 2006 and essentially paved the way for all of the housewives that followed her, Gunvalson is still not someone she enjoys being around. In fact, she said a lot of cast members don’t want to be around Gunvalson, including former star Lauri Peterson, who briefly worked for Gunvalson years ago.
“[Lauri] doesn’t have anything really nice to say about Vicki or Tamra [Judge], but she was one of the OGs, and she was one of my really good friends. But Vicki just happened to last longer than the original cast,” Dodd said.
Peterson was one of the original cast members of The Real Housewives of Orange County but left the show after its fourth season when she married her current husband, George Peterson.
While Gunvalson is only listed as a “friend” or part-time cast member of The Real Housewives of Orange County ‘s 14th season, she has already been featured on the show a lot and is expected to be seen throughout the new episodes.
When asked about the large role Gunvalson has played on the series, Dodd told Hollywood Life that she does her best to ignore Gunvalson and not let her bother her.
“I try not to get upset with her. She does like to antagonize me. She likes to bully me. Vicky loves to divide and conquer. That’s what she likes to do, and she does a great job of doing it,” Dodd explained.
As fans have seen over the past few weeks, Gunvalson has remained quite close to her co-stars, including Tamra Judge and Shannon Beador, and appears to be doing her best to remain relevant on the series as Dodd continues to feud with a number of the other women.
To see more of Dodd, Gunvalson, and their co-stars, don’t miss new episodes of The Real Housewives of Orange County Season 14 on Tuesday nights at 9 p.m. on Bravo TV.