Real Housewives Of Beverly Hills: Erika Jayne cries while denying divorce to Tom Girardi was 'sham'

Erika Girardi cried while denying that her divorce to lawyer Tom Girardi was a ‘sham’ to hide assets on Wednesday’s episode of The Real Housewives Of Beverly Hills.

The 50-year-old reality star, who performs as Erika Jayne, burst into tears on the season 11 episode titled A Pretty Meltdown as she met Kyle Richards, 52, at a park after the cast was forced to quarantine following a COVID-19 outbreak.

Erika was crying as soon as she took off her face mask and told Kyle, ‘It’s OK. I’m just overwhelmed’.

‘Oh, my God, Erika. I’m not used to seeing you like this. I’m sorry,’ Kyle told her.

‘Kyle, this is so hard to do. This is so hard. What’s happening is so hard. It’s just …I have such a story to tell. I can’t tell it, ’cause it’s not the right time,’ Erika said as her mascara streaked from her tears.

‘I’m sorry,’ Kyle consoled her while fighting back her own tears.

‘I’ve never been this overwhelmed, and in a place where my hands are literally tied. …I could have never predicted this f***ing s***,’ Erika said.

‘Ever,’ Kyle interjected completing her sentence.

‘Ever. Ever. Ever predicted that this would be what’s happening,’ Erika told her.

Erika was reeling throughout the one-hour episode as reports surfaced claiming that her filing for divorce against Tom, 82, was a sham to hide assets amid mounting lawsuits against the prominent lawyer.

Tom is currently under investigation amid accusations he ‘misappropriated at least $2 million’ meant for the families, including orphans and widows, of those killed in the Lion Air Flight 610 crash in Indonesia in 2018.

A class-action lawsuit filed by Edelson PC in December against Tom and Erika alleged they were ‘on the verge of financial collapse and locked in a downward spiral of mounting debts and dwindling funds’. 

In March, the LA Times reported that there had been more than 100 lawsuits filed and multiple complaints made to the California State Bar against Tom by disgruntled clients who alleged financial wrongdoing and theft. 

A documentary titled The Housewife And The Hustler was released in June on Hulu documenting the couple’s legal troubles. 

‘There’s nothing I can do except wait to tell my side of the story. And, you know, the feeling of just not knowing, and then these huge things being alleged, and just having to defend yourself,’ Erika told Kyle.

‘It’s just a lonely, lonely place to be, because… God, Kyle, my divorce is not a sham,’ Erika said.

‘I know,’ Kyle said.

‘It’s just not. I mean, nobody wants to be in the position I’m in right now. It is really unenviable. Being the possible target of a federal criminal investigation is, like, not cool. To have all those things said about you, which are not true, and then to have everyone basically question everything, it’s lonely, and it’s quiet,’ Erika said.

‘And you would be shocked at how quickly people turn on you, how quickly people distance themselves from you,’ she added.

Erika also said she hoped that someone was checking in on Tom ‘because he’s not good’.

She revealed that she hadn’t spoken with Tom since filing for divorce in November and noted that he was a ‘proud man’.

‘One of the reasons that I filed for divorce is the resistance to anything, the resistance to a conversation, the resistance to, ‘Hey, you know, I’ve noticed that you can’t see well.’ ‘What are you talking about? I’m fine.’ ‘No, you can’t see well. You can’t hear. You’re f***ing degrading in front of me, and you’re ignoring it”,’ Erika told Kyle.

Kyle then asked if the headline was true that Tom was seeking for Erika to pay his legal bills.

‘Oh, yeah. That was great. Well, you now, that just him being a f***ing ass,’ Erika said.

Kyle said she was shocked since Tom had always been her financial provider and Erika said that he was ‘concerned with himself first’.

Erika in a confessional said her relationship with Tom changed as she became successful as a singer and entertainer.

‘God, I can’t believe I’m gonna f***ing say this,’ Erika said. ‘As much as Tom encouraged me, I think he resented me every step I took forward.’

She was shown crying with mascara reaching her chin while talking to Kyle.

‘Around the time of ‘Chicago,’ Tom’s view of me had changed. Like, he was like, ‘Who the f*** do you think you are?’ I was like, ‘What are you talking about? You-you gave me the ball. I ran into the endzone with it. What the f*** are you doing?”,’ Erika added in her confessional.

She got emotional in her confessional as she described their relationship in halting words.

‘I’d go to hug him, and …he wouldn’t hug me back,’ Erika said. ‘There was another life happening. The outside …saw a lot of support. But the inside was not. There was a lot of conflict,’ she said.

Erika admitted that she was worried about her future.

‘There’s no other way to say it. I mean, it’s just a disaster,’ Erika said.

‘Tom is in the place that he’s in, which is his own personal hell, and I cannot help him. I cannot help him,’ Erika tearfully told Kyle.

Kyle got emotional as she recalled Erika saying that she always thought she would be with Tom ‘until the end’.

‘Until the end. Well, this is the end,’ Erika said.

She added: ‘You know, it’s not the end that anyone f***ing wants. Because it’s torture to see someone just f***ing melt’.

The episode opened at the Bolognese Lunch hosted by Lisa Rinna, 58, with Sutton Stracke, 49, and show newcomer Crystal Kung Minkoff, 38, still arguing with each other.

Crystal refused to retract using the word ‘violate’ to describe Sutton walking in on her naked in Lake Tahoe also refused to apologize for Sutton being upset about it.

‘I will not apologize for your actions. You’re an inappropriate, awkward person,’ Crystal told her.

Sutton said that she also was hurt by Crystal describing her as ‘manic’, but Crystal said she also waas ‘not taking that one back’.

Dorit Kemsley, 45, reminded Crystal that Sutton’s father committed suicide and the term ‘manic’ was particularly hurtful.

‘I feel bad that I said it and I won’t say it again,’ Crystal told Sutton.

Lisa in a confessional said Crystal’s words belong in the ‘non-apology apology hall of fame’.

The episode then picked up four days later with Dorit, Kyle and her older sister Kathy Hilton, 62, all testing positive for COVID-19.

Kyle admitted that she felt ‘depressed’ as the entire group had to quarantine for at least two weeks.

Filming resumed on December 2, 2020 with Garcelle Beauvais, 54, and Sutton on a video call discussing reports that Erika and Tom had been sued for alleged fraud and embezzlement.

‘Wow, this is on Fox News,’ Sutton said.

‘It’s everywhere. It’s everywhere,’ Garcelle said.

The housewives were then shown in confessional reacting to the reports.

‘There’s news reports coming out that are alleging that Tom embezzled this money from victims of this plane crash, and to see Erika’s name involved in it is shocking,’ Lisa said in a confessional as a DailyMail.com headline was shown.

‘Seeing these headlines makes you cringe. Sone of these victims, they’re widows, orphans. That’s the punch in the gut,’ Dorit said in her confessional.

‘You just can’t imagine this is somebody you know or you spend time with, and this is possible,’ Garcelle said to the cameras.

‘I have no idea if it’s true or not. But I have to be able to keep an open mind and say innocent until proven guilty, because I’m going based on the person that I know,’ Kyle said in her confessional.

Two days later, Erika was on her bed in a baby blue sweatsuit in a video call with Lisa and Kyle who asked how she was doing.

‘I’m f***ing horrible. How do you think I am? This sucks so bad,’ Erika told them.

‘The things that are being said are just wrong. People are believing them, and they’re everywhere, and it’s terrible, and I’m here by myself. And what’s being said is just, I mean, it’s insane. That my divorce is a sham. But nobody cares about the facts,’ Erika said.

‘They said my divorce is a sham so I can help hide assets. The answer is no,’ she added.

Erika in a confessional remarked on her pain.

‘Divorce is very painful. And then having it called a sham is even more painful. Took a lot of courage to leave, and it took two seconds for some a**hole to say it was a sham, and everybody to believe it,’ she said.

Erika told her friends that she had more lawyers than she could afford and that Tom ‘hasn’t given me one dime since I’ve walked out that door’.

Kyle and Lisa vowed that they would be there to support her.

‘We are here for you, Erika. We know who you are. You are a good person,’ Lisa said.

‘I didn’t do this,’ Erika said tearfully.

Erika also talked about her situation later with Lisa and Crystal, while Garcelle separately talked to Kyle about it.

Kyle was home alone after her family left her alone to quarantine and it reminded her of a Little House On The Prairie episode called Quarantine when she had scarlet fever and was in isolation.

‘This is one time where I really did not need life to imitate art,’ she quipped.

The Real Housewives Of Beverly Hills will return next week on Bravo.