Reality Recap: Backpedaling, revelation, confrontation

Shannon Beador has been awarded $138,000 from Alexis Bellino’s ex-husband, Jim, after that ongoing lawsuit. And though Alexis may not be returning to the show, another former Real Housewives of Orange County star, Gretchen Rossi, will be, as a friend of the cast. Lisa Rinna was turning heads (and raising eyebrows) with her looks at the Paris Fashion Week. And for what must be the first time ever, Spencer Pratt turned down an invite to be on TV, rejecting Andy Cohen’s invite to be on Watch What Happens Live. Find out why here.

Bronwyn walks it back

During the second of the three-part Real Housewives of Salt Lake City reunion, the cast discussed a lot, including the contentious spat between Shawn and Meredith, that heartbreaking scene that echoed around the world between Mary and Robert Jr. and how it deepened her friendship with Angie. But the conversation about Todd and Bronwyn’s marriage – a season-long hot topic, not only among the rest of the cast but fans as well, revealed a lot at the reunion.

Earlier in the season, Bronwyn shocked the cast when she revealed that she had experienced infidelity in her marriage, and that her daughter was the one to have discovered the disturbing text messages between Todd and an unidentified woman. But immediately after her revelation, Bronwyn was annoyed when Meredith and Lisa stood in defence of Todd. When asked about this situation by Andy at the reunion, Todd had this to say:

“Well I have to apologize because I haven’t seen it. Anything that Bronwyn had shared would be more than I want her to share,” he said, implying that he simply hadn’t watched the show.

Despite initially referring to it as an emotional affair, Bronwyn immediately started backpedalling after Todd spoke: 

“I wouldn’t even call it an emotional affair. There’s a lot of people that Todd has different conversations with and I felt like there was conversations that went further than I would’ve had with someone,” she said, prompting Heather to jump in and remind her of her emotional state when she shared it, almost as if to remind her that it hadn’t all been in her head.

Bronwyn’s backpedalling is a major upset for Lisa and Meredith, and rightfully so, because they got a lot of heat for defending Todd only to hear at the reunion that it was a much smaller ordeal than it was initially made out to be. But I don’t think that’s what’s really going on here.

I’m a few sessions into therapy, and not for the first time in my life. Very early on into our sessions, my therapist helped me realize that when it comes to my feelings, I constantly move the goal post by recategorizing and relabelling my feelings, which is most likely a response to not feeling like I have the right to feel the way I feel. 

After watching this reunion, it appears that Bronwyn has that issue, too. If, upon discovering the text messages, the conversations, whatever the hell it was that she saw, she felt that he had been unfaithful, then she has a right to feel that way. So why, then, at the reunion, did she feel the need to change her tune?

It must have been a tense discussion between her and Todd prior to getting to the reunion. Or, as some fans are speculating, not a conversation at all. This photo from the reunion shows Todd looking like he had the wind knocked out of him when it was revealed that Bronwyn told them it was Gwen who discovered the messages. He either had no idea that she told them that information, or he had no idea Gwen saw the texts. 

As I’ve written before, Todd seems to have quite the iron fist. And dealing with someone who doesn’t hold space for your emotions or validate them can lead you to swallow your feelings entirely or break them down to be a bit more digestible. And while my hope is that Bronwyn learns to stand on business when it comes to asserting and defending her feelings, she can’t expect Lisa and Meredith to ride at dawn on her behalf.

Kyle’s true colours are on full display

It's no secret that Kyle is having one of the worst seasons on Real Housewives of Beverly Hills, if not the worst. This week’s episode gave us two instances that showed that clearly. 

First, there was her conversation with Portia, who reveals that she was heading to lunch with her sisters. Immediately, Kyle begins asking where they’re going and what time they’re meeting up in hopes she can join them, saying:

“Can you tell me in case I wanna come?” which leads to radio silence from Portia.

In a confessional, Kyle reveals that her daughters have been wanting to spend more time amongst themselves, alone, to talk about their parents divorce. 

“I think the girls want to spend time alone more often these days to talk to each other about what’s going on. I know that they lean on each other a lot. Of course I’m thinking, ‘I’m here, can I come?’” she says. 

As a mother, I completely understand wanting to be there for your kids, particularly if they’re navigating the divorce of their parents. But in this case, almost all of her kids are full adults and can and should be able to lean on each other, inviting their parents in when it’s convenient for them. The other thing to be mindful of is that if Kyle attends lunch with her daughters, cameras are in tow. Her daughters are completely within their right to want to hang out and talk independently of either of their parents, and especially independently of cameras. 

The second instance we see Kyle’s self-centredness came thanks to a shady but eye-opening montage that clearly illustrates the double standard that she operates under. 

Garcelle invites all the women to spend a day at her beach house, but with Kyle on the outs with most of the group, she invites Erika, Sutton and Garcelle to dinner ahead of the full group day in a move that Sutton refers to as a “rallying of the troops”. Before Sutton and Erika arrive, Kyle explains to Garcelle why she’s so frustrated over calls for her to share her texts with PK, saying: 

“I’ve been having my life scrutinized, my marriage scrutinized, my sexuality, everything. And now my character?” 

But then, the montage airs of instances in recent years that Kyle held her castmates to a standard she is now unwilling to hold herself. 

“When things are brought out in the open and put out there, they have to be addressed in this group,” she said, speaking to Denise Richards in 2020. 

“She’s gonna have to answer more than she’s comfortable, because you know what? We deserve the truth,” she said in reference to wanting more information about Erika’s legal woes in 2021. 

Now, in 2025, she’s in a confessional saying:

“For me to be questioned by these women that know me is extremely frustrating to me.” 

It’s clear that even the producers are tired of her bullsh-t, and she’s got to start answering in earnest if she doesn’t want more smoke, not only from her castmates, but from the producers who have 14 seasons of footage that could easily put a nail in her coffin.

Sai, Jessel and Jenna take Brynn to task

The first of the three part much-anticipated reunion of Real Housewives of New York aired this week and fans are relieved to see Brynn finally being held accountable for some of her many wrongdoings this season.

When Brynn accuses the women of deliberately coming into the season to make her look bad, it sets her castmates off, and they let her know that her lies and manipulation is what made her look bad – not them.

During a heated confrontation with Sai, the two were at odds over what each other did for work. But it was Brynn’s confrontation with Jessel over remarks she made about her marriage to Pavit that really lit a fire on set. 

Jessel was recounting an off camera conversation she had with Brynn about who her craziest hook up was with, and she admitted it was with someone other than Pavit. But in recounting the conversation to the women, Brynn inaccurately repeated the question she asked, making it appear that she asked Jessel who the “love of her life” was, and repeating Jessel’s answer about it being someone other than Pavit.

Jessel tearfully described the extremely compromising position this put her in when watching the season with her husband. In addition to that, her family, including her in-laws, had all watched the show, too. 

A lot of fans were shocked to see Jenna, who has always had a soft spot for Brynn (and has also been the target of her queer-baiting all season long), jumping to Jessel’s defence, slamming Brynn for putting Jessel in this situation.

As I’ve said in the past, the main point of reunions are reconciliation. But there’s another huge component to reunions and it’s accountability. It’s holding people’s feet to the fire. This is a huge issue that didn’t come up during filming because Jessel had no idea Brynn did this. But now that she knows, it doesn’t seem like she’s letting Brynn off the hook, leaving her with yet another thing to answer for.