Vicki Gunvalson is known for her poor choice in men. And that was made abundantly clear when the now former Real Housewives of Orange County was dating Brooks Ayers. After Vicki spent multiple seasons on RHOC defending Brooks about everything from his inappropriate behavior to his claims of having cancer, they finally broke up after 4 years. And Vicki has some regrets.
As reported by People, during an RHOC panel at BravoCon 2022, Vicki admitted the “biggest regret” of her relationships. Said Vicki, “I divorced my husband for Brooks and it’s the biggest regret I ever had. I will never, ever cheat again. It destroyed my family.”
Vicki and then-husband Donn Gunvalson married in 1994. Their often tense marriage played out on camera while Vicki filmed the series. Even after a romantic vow renewal, things fell apart. And despite denying it for an extended period of time, Vicki eventually came clean that her relationship with Brooks started before her marriage to Donn ended.
While dating Brooks, it seems as though everyone knew he was bad news. Everyone except Vicki. She told castmates and family over and over that Brooks did in fact have cancer and she had the binder to prove it. But at the time, Meghan King was still on the show and she wasn’t so easily fooled.
Meghan used her detective skills to uncover Brooks’ lies, even though he wouldn’t admit to it. It wasn’t until 2015 when Brooks told E! News that he forged medical documents from the cancer center City of Hope, to bolster his assertion that he had stage 3 non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. City of Hope also confirmed he was never a patient. Yeah, we know.
For her troubles, Vicki ended up filing a lawsuit against her perennially unemployed ex. She alleged that he owed her almost $200k in unpaid loans. She ended up dismissing the lawsuit against him.
Since the Brooks debacle, Vicki dated and was engaged to failed California Gubernatorial candidate Steve Lodge. They broke up in 2021 and he was married to someone else just 7 months later.
Now the OG of the OC has moved on yet again, revealing in February that she’s dating someone new. And her past won’t stop her from wanting to get married again. Alas, Vicki’s boyfriend doesn’t seem to be on board with that. Said Vicki, “I absolutely want to be married again. And I told him that, right out of the gate. I said, ‘You want to be married? You want to be committed?’ And he’s like, ‘I don’t want to be married again.'” Sigh. Vicki must be colorblind because she really just cannot see red flags.
Regardless, she asserted that she won’t be pushing for marriage anytime soon. Vicki said in June, “Marriage is a big thing. You can’t just decide to get married after three or four months. So, I am at the belief that it takes anywhere from a year to a year and a half just to even know the person. So, we’re taking it slow. There is no rush. We enjoy each other.”
TELL US – SHOULD VICKI HAVE STAYED WITH DONN? WAS BROOKS THE WORST BOYFRIEND/HUSBAND IN HOUSEWIVES HISTORY? IS VICKI IGNORING RED FLAGS IN HER NEW RELATIONSHIP?
[Photo Credit: Jesse Grant/Getty Images]
