Gretchen Rossi Reveals What It Would Take To Get Her Back On ‘RHOC’: ‘They’ve Called A Couple Times’
Gretchen Rossi left ‘RHOC’ years ago, but she EXCLUSIVELY reveals what it would take for her to reconsider joining the cast again in the future.
The future of The Real Housewives of Orange County still remains uncertain, but as fans anxiously await an announcement on a potential sixteenth season of the series, Gretchen Rossi is teasing a possible comeback.
When Gretchen recently sat down with HollywoodLife for an EXCLUSIVE interview, she said she’d consider returning to RHOC, but it “would depend on the cast and [Andy Cohen] knows the specific cast member that I do not want to be on camera with again.” Gretchen didn’t name names, but for anyone who watched the show while she was on it (specifically, Season 4-8), it was obvious that she was referring to her onscreen rival, Tamra Judge, who she still feuds with in interviews on social media from time to time.
Anyway, Gretchen said a decision to return would also depend on “the financial side of it”. She explained, “It’s funny because even last night I was talking to [my fiancé] Slade [Smiley] and I was like, ‘You know what? Our businesses are doing really well. We’re at such a good place right now in our life and I don’t even know at this point if even the money would draw me back.’ It’s just, unfortunately, such a toxic environment. I just remember my stomach turning every week before [I] would go on. Every week, there’s some GIF about me, some article written about me, somebody being cruel, some cyber bullying going on and I’m not even on the show anymore. I don’t know if I’m excited about subjecting myself to that audience and that fan base because they love to hate you. Fifty percent love you and fifty percent hate you.”
But even so, Gretchen says she has been approached to return to the show — multiple times. “A couple seasons after I left, they had called a couple of times and they were like, ‘Do you want to come back?’ and I was like, ‘Pay me $5 million,’ and they were like, ‘Are you serious?’ and I was like, ‘Yeah, I’m serious!’ and they were like, ‘OK, we’ll talk to you later!’ So it’s one of those things where it would have to be really stupid money, where all of my friends and family would have to be like, ‘Gretchen, this is stupid to say no.’ It would take probably a lot and I just don’t think the network’s at that place where they want to do that,” she revealed during our interview on May 7.
Gretchen went on to say that she was also asked to return to the show a few seasons later, but for some reason, things just didn’t work out. We’re guessing they didn’t offer her that $5 million paycheck. “[They asked me to come back] the season right after I left, and I think we were talking two seasons right after that again. I don’t even know what season that would’ve been. There’s been some conversations, for sure,” she told us.
Gretchen didn’t say whether or not she’s been asked to come back for a potential Season 16, but she did say that she and some of the current cast members are worried about the show’s future. “Here’s the thing,” she said. “I’m curious what’s even going to happen with Orange County because normally, they start filming in February and normally, the show’s almost in the can and they’re talking about airing it and air dates right now around this time. I’m still friends with some of the girls on the current cast and they’re like, ‘We don’t know what’s happening. We don’t know what’s going on,’ so it’s like in my mind I’m like, ‘Are they even going to bring back Orange County or are they going to transfer it to the Peacock like they did Miami or are they doing a new show to replace Housewives?’ All these things start going through your head because 15 seasons is a lot of seasons and I think the audience — as much as they love it — they’ve seen a lot of the storylines and they’ve seen a lot of the stuff that goes on. I still think there’s some pretty fabulous people in Orange County that they could have on the show, but they tend to not like that as much I feel like. I think they like a lot of the dysfunction more than the fabulous, so I don’t know! I think it will be interesting to see what shakes out for the future with Orange County.”
To see what else Gretchen had to say — including her current thoughts on rival Tamra Judge, watch the full video above.