The Real Housewives of Orange County’s Tamra Judge and Shannon Storms Beador still have a long way to go with repairing their friendship.
On Wednesday’s episode, the ex-BFFs seemingly began to bury the hatchet though Shannon claimed the two had only scratched the surface when it came to apologies.
While discussing party plans to commemorate the closing of CUT Fitness, Tamra and Jennifer Pedranti had an open conversation about Tamra’s problematic behavior when confronting Shannon at the “flamingle” yacht party last episode.
“You told Shannon she could go f — — a duck,” Jen said as she filled in a hungover Tamra about the fuzzy details.
“Where did f — — a duck come from?” Judge wondered.
“You were going for her,” Jen continued. “She kind of met you with an apology.”
Fearing she’d “made things worse” with Shannon, Tamra pinpointed the reason for her brash behavior: “Not eating all day and drinking.”
Jen encouraged her to “extend an olive branch” by inviting Shannon to CUT’s closing party.
Tamra acknowledged, “Obviously I owe her an apology, because who knows what else I said to her? I mean, I just want to be done with it.”
In an effort to clear the air, Tamra called Shannon on FaceTime while she was shopping for crystals for “protection” from bad energies.
“I’m calling you to apologize from the deepest part of my heart,” Tamra said through tears. “I’m so sorry about the other night, you know, I’ve been so emotional [and] going through a lot. I don’t want to make excuses for myself, but I just wanted to apologize. I don’t want to do this anymore.”
Shannon replied, “I appreciate you apologizing. I just hope that kind of stuff isn’t said to me again because it was just a lot for me to take in.”
Tamra claimed she didn’t want to go “backwards” when it came to their relationship. “It’s not healthy for me, it’s not healthy for you,” she noted. “I just want to move forward and what that looks [like] I think we’ll figure out in time.”
Though Shannon appreciated her apology, the mom of three confessed she couldn’t shake feeling like Tamra hadn’t properly acknowledged all of the pain she’d experienced during their two-and-a-half-year feud.
“I’m just so conflicted right now, because I feel like I’m almost back to where I was three years ago where we’re not addressing my hurt and my experience that I had,” she said in a confessional interview. “Because I’ve talked to Tamra about her hurt and I’ve apologized for any hurt that I’ve caused her. Are we going to talk about mine?”
She then accepted Tamra’s invitation to put aside any “yuckiness” and have fun at CUT’s closing event, even though she had her reservations about attending.
“I want to be the bigger person,” Shannon said, crying to her (now-ex-)boyfriend John Janssen. “It just was a lot that night. I stayed calm. I don’t really want to go but if I don’t go then I’m an a — hole.”
Later in the episode, John and Shannon arrived at CUT and were greeted by an apologetic Tamra, who offered a hug and another apology.
“I’m so sorry,” Tamra said while holding Shannon’s face and wrapping her in another embrace. “I was beating myself up the next day. It was just a lot of emotions and I was too drunk. I didn’t eat and all this. I took it all out on you and I apologize. You didn’t deserve that.”
“Thank you for saying that,” Shannon said.
“I miss you, I really do.” Tamra continued, crying. “I’m so sorry.”
After the fact, Shannon reflected on the small step forward. “I appreciate Tamra’s apology,” she acknowledged, “but she also needs to apologize for everything that’s happened in the past two-and-a-half-years. So this is ‘to be continued.’”
The Real Housewives of Orange County airs Wednesdays at 8 p.m. ET on Bravo.
