Jo De La Rosa made an appearance on the recent episode of The Real Housewives of Orange County, courtesy of Tamra Judge. Jo was an original RHOC cast member and dated Slade Smiley, Gretchen Rossi’s fiancé.
But if her presence at Heather Dubrow’s birthday party was meant to make a scene, viewers were sorely disappointed. She and Gretchen were very cordial to one another. Hardly the moment that would go down in reality TV history. However, the meeting was not without tension. Jo explained why during a podcast appearance.
Jo De La Rosa can’t be “fake” with Real Housewives of Orange County’s Gretchen Rossi
“Literally days before I’m about to film with Tamra, I get a podcast sent to me. And it’s her on there saying unkind things about my pop-up last season, that there was desperation, just all of this stuff. And so for me that was more the thing,” Jo said of the backstory with Gretchen on SiriusXM’s Reality Checked.
She continued, “So obviously when I get to this party and Slade and Gretchen come up to me to say ‘Hi,’ I was one, caught off guard because I had just heard this, right? And it had just been a few weeks ago, and I was like, ‘Hi.’ Kind of like, I don’t understand. I’m really bad at being fake. So like, ‘Let’s talk about it and let’s squash it.’ Unfortunately that’s not what happened.”
Dorinda Medley agreed that Gretchen didn’t take the opportunity to explain herself. The Real Housewives of New York alum thinks she “wanted to really just get through” the conversation “very quickly.” The interaction, which consisted of greetings and basic niceties, “felt very rushed” to both Dorinda and viewers.
Not to worry though, there will be drama later. According to Jo, “it got real deep a little later” in the season with Gretchen.
“Between all of us,” she added. “That’s as much as I wanna share right now. But at one point there was a comment made that her and I, according to her, we were never friends.”
Catch The Real Housewives of Orange County Thursdays at 9/8c on Bravo. It streams on Hayu in the UK and Ireland.
