The bubbling tension between Heather Dubrow and new housewife Noella Bergener has been a great source of entertainment for Real Housewives of Orange County fans. Fans excitedly watched the two housewives throw jabs at each other without picking either side.
The harmless banter between the two ladies took a dark turn when Heather insinuated that Noella’s personal tragedies resulted from her karma, and fans were left fuming at Heather in utter disgust.
Now the Housewife known as Fancy Pants is backtracking on her comment, explaining what she meant by her remark about Noella’s streak of bad luck and what prompted her to lash out at her season-long frenemy.
Heather defends her response to Noella, ‘she said it first’
Earlier in the season, when Noella and Heather were battling over an issue that allegedly happened at Heather’s sushi party, Noella chided Heather by saying, “This is your freaking karma, and your karma will solve it on its own.” Heather clapped back, “My life’s good. Your karma is already giving you what it needs.”
Fans were shocked to see Heather being so vile towards Noella, who went through a divorce from her husband, Sweet James Bergner, and also grieving the death of her estranged father. She is also now a single mother to two children, one of who has special needs.
During the Season 16 reunion clip, Andy Cohen asks Heather directly about the statement, insisting it kicked Noella while she was down. Heather’s response to that was, “She said it first. You sling something at me, and I slung it back.” Noella chimed in to say that, at the time, she felt ganged up on by some of the Housewives, and Heather and Gina insisted that was just not true.
Heather claimed that she was only responding to Noella’s jabs, not intending to attack Noella. Heather told Noella, “I feel horrible for everything you’ve gone through. I don’t wish it upon anybody. You said to me, ‘it’s your karma.’ I just threw it back to you.”
Shannon Beador immediately came to her new friend’s defense, saying she knows how hard it is for Noella to feel ganged up on by the group and how hard things had been for her around the time of the fight with Heather.
Heather discussed the comment on her podcast
On an episode of her podcast, Heather also mentioned her karma comment and Noella’s allegations that it was more personal than intended.
“She’s having a Bloody Mary delivered to her room in the morning, gets on the phone with her friend, Keni, and is hysterically crying about what I said to her the night before. She says, ‘Ms. Dubrow came after me’ and then said that I said to her that ‘you have bad karma, which is why you have an autistic son, a dead dad, and a divorce.’ I didn’t say any of that,” Heather alleged.
Heather continued, “To be a thousand percent honest, I wasn’t thinking anything; she f***ing pinched me, I pinched her back.” She added, “I take care of my family, I love my friends, I try to be a good person, and you know, do my best in this life and do not bring up karma with me. Just don’t do it. And it was literally just a knee-jerk reaction like ‘your karma will get you’ and I went, ‘your karma got you.’ I wasn’t thinking about anything – do you think I would wish for someone’s father to die? Of course not.”
The Real Housewives of Orange County airs Wednesdays at 9/8c on Bravo.