‘RHOBH’s Garcelle Beauvais On Sutton Stracke’s Race Talk With Crystal Kung Minkoff: ‘She’s Misunderstood’
Garcelle Beauvais reveals EXCLUSIVELY why people may not understand Sutton after her intense conversation with newbie Crystal.
Garcelle Beauvais, 54, thinks fans just don’t understand her co-star Sutton Stracke, 49 — particularly after her intense conversation about race with newcomer Crystal Kung Minkoff, 35, on a recent episode of The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills. “I think she’s misunderstood,” Garcelle told HollywoodLife EXCLUSIVELY while discussing her partnership with TENA, a female incontinence brand working to destigmatize taboo conversations around women’s health, aging, and incontinence. “Sutton is not a racist. Nobody on the show is a racist,” she added.
Race was a hot topic during the episode airing on June 2 while the ladies were in Lake Tahoe on a cast trip. Kyle Richards, 52, addressed her issues with Garcelle who she came after for not fulfilling a promised donation to a charity event she hosted. The co-host of The Real explained that because of the stereotype against Black people for not paying their bills, it was a difficult accusation to swallow. Kyle admitted she never even thought of this and apologized while confirming Garcelle has paid in full. The two have since seemed to put it behind them and move on.
But things didn’t go so smoothly for Sutton and Crystal, who tried to share her feelings about racial stereotyping she’s faced being a woman of Asian decent. Sutton, who shared that as a white woman from Georgia she, too, faces stereotypes, seemed to take issue with Crystal’s remarks. This didn’t sit well with Crystal who asked Sutton, “Are you one of those people that you say you don’t see color?” The women struggled to see eye-to-eye as the drama began to escalate. Sutton has since apologized to her co-star, saying, it was, “disrespectful to interrupt her and not listen to her express her truth.”
Garcelle admits fans don’t understand that with lack of sleep, footage not shown and some booze involved, it’s hard for people to get the full picture. “What happens and what people don’t understand: we shoot — we flew to Tahoe, we shot all day, we’re drinking the entire time and when people are talking, they tend to talk over each other,” she explained.
At the end of the day, Garcelle feels it was just a giant miscommunication and Sutton’s apology was very real. “I don’t think she was trying to take anything away from Crystal’s story,” Garcelle added. “Sometimes you want to tell your story too and you might talk over a friend and I think people can be really hard and she owned up to what people were saying in terms of her interrupting Crystal. She didn’t mean any harm. Just like, I feel like Kyle was trying to prove a point with me in the reunion but I don’t think she was doing it had she’d known the racial undertones.”
The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills airs Wednesdays at 8pm on Bravo.