Amid heartbreaking news of Simon Barney’s Stage 3 throat cancer diagnosis, his family has reunited — his ex-wife Tamra Judge, 52, and their daughter Sidney Barney, 21, included, apparently! Tamra surprised fans with this news after sharing a photo that featured the Bravo star with her and Simon’s 14-year-old daughter, Sophia, to Instagram on Feb. 28. Although Tamra has never been on bad terms with Sophia after finalizing her divorce with Simon in 2011, her other daughter, Sidney, removed herself from Tamra’s life. Curious about their current status, one fan jumped into Tamra’s comments section to ask, “Since the news of Simon of Simon does your other daughter talk to you?” To that, Tamra replied, “we have all reunited ♥.”
This is happy news, given how long Tamra and Sidney had been apart from another! In the Season 10 reunion of The Real Housewives of Orange County, Tamra revealed that she hadn’t seen her eldest daughter in two years — and that reunion aired in 2015! There seemed to be hope for this mother-daughter relationship when Tamra attended Sidney’s high school graduation in 2017, which she shared photos of. However, Sidney specifically requested her mom not to broadcast the family day on social media!
Sidney took to Twitter in 2017 to share a screenshot of an alleged text conversation between her and Tamra, in which Sidney wrote, “also i don’t want you to take pictures and post them anywhere, no tweets or anything either because you know i don’t want to be posted about.” Tamra allegedly replied, “Okay. I don’t post pictures of you sidney and would never do That.” The high school graduation also aired in the Season 12 finale of RHOC, and despite the reunion, the end of the episode delivered the following update: “After attending Sidney’s graduation, Tamra had dinner with both Sidney and Simon…Soon afterwards, Tamra and Sidney had a falling out and are no longer speaking.”
Sidney complained of more problems beyond the graduation photo controversy. In a Facebook post that she shared in Aug. 2017 and has since been deleted, Sidney claimed, “The reasons I left my mother’s house are that she was neglectful (leaving us at home with no food or simply ignoring us entirely), she constantly put herself first and the biggest reason was that she was mentally and emotionally abusive. She was no mother to me.” Tamra quickly denied any abuse on her own social media, writing, “I love my daughter and I would NEVER abuse, hurt or neglect her in any way. I ask that you do not send Sidney negative messages or comments. Direct them at me if you need to. Thank you for all your love and support.”
https://twitter.com/sidney_barney/status/894728606986797058
Sidney had been very vocal about not being put in the spotlight, and Tamra later revealed she’d give up her orange if that meant she could reunite with her eldest daughter! “If your daughter asked you to quit the show to have a relationship with you, would you do it?” Andy Cohen asked Tamra on Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen in Oct. 2019, and the answer came easy for the mother of four: “Yes. Yeah, absolutely.” Tamra later confirmed that she wasn’t asked back as a main cast member on RHOC in Jan. 2020, ahead of Season 15.
Tamra also shares one other child with Simon, their 19-year-old son Spencer Barney (although he opted to live with Tamra after his parents’ divorce). The Bravo star shares another child, Ryan Veith, 34, with her other ex-husband Darren Vieth.