RHOC alum Kelly Dodd questions why she was fired from the series

Former Real Housewives of Orange County star Kelly Dodd has spoken out about her controversial exit from the popular franchise.

The star, who was sacked last year after a string of politically incorrect social media posts outraged viewers, has questioned why ‘criminal’ Housewives have been able to stay on the show. 

Speaking to the Unpopular podcast, the 46-year-old pointed out that Teresa Giudice, Gina Kirschenheiter and Jen Shah have all remained on the franchise despite arrests and convictions.

‘What pisses me off is you have Teresa Giudice. Her and her husband were crooks, point blank. They went to prison for it. They got caught,’ she said.

‘And maybe she didn’t know. Let’s just say for a fact she didn’t,’ Kelly continued.

‘She went to prison. She didn’t get fired. As a matter of fact, that’s their [Bravo’s] darling, right?’

Giudice spent nearly a year at Danbury Federal Correctional Institution in 2015 after pleading guilty to a slew of fraud charges with her ex-husband Joe Giudice. 

Joe reported to prison in March 2016 to serve a 41 month sentence after he pleaded guilty to 39 counts of conspiracy to commit mail, wire and bankruptcy fraud.

‘Then you have Gina Kirschenheiter,’ Kelly said. ‘DUI. Didn’t get fired. Didn’t get in trouble. Kept her on. That Jen Shah, the Erika Jaynes.’

Erika Jayne has not been charged with any crimes, but has been the subject of multiple lawsuits ever since her estranged husband Tom Girardi was disbarred and accused of misappropriating clients’ settlement funds.

Gina was arrested and jailed overnight in early 2019, and later pleaded guilty to driving under the influence of alcohol. 

In July, Real Housewives of Salt Lake City’s Jen Shah plead guilty to federal charges of organizing a $5million telemarketing scam which preyed on hundreds of elderly people.

The star, 48, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud, with the US attorney dropping her second count of conspiracy to commit money laundering. 

Addressing the court, Shah said that she ‘knew it was wrong’ and that she was ‘so sorry’ for the ‘many people’ who were harmed.

Shah admitted that she ‘agreed with others to commit with wire fraud’ and ‘knew it misled’ victims, over 10 of whom were over the age of 55. 

Dodd said it was ‘disheartening’ to see ‘criminal’ Housewives remain on the network while she had been fired for politically incorrect gaffes on social media, which included questioning mask efficacy during the beginning of the Covid pandemic. 

‘It’s really, really disheartening when you have all these people that have done real criminal things, and here I am just asking questions,’ she said.

‘All I am [doing] is asking questions, and I’m getting ostracised for it? I’m being made out to be a bad person because I’m questioning what’s going on?’

Kelly was fired from the Real Housewives of Orange County last year alongside Braunwyn Windham-Burke and Elizabeth Lyn Vargas.

She was dropped from her partnership with Positive Beverage that same year due to her ‘controversial views and opinions’ on COVID-19.

She first partnered with the brand in February 2019 and regularly promoted the sparkling beverage on her social media accounts and in episodes of RHOC.

In January of 2021, Kelly and her friends toasted to being ‘super spreaders’ as they dined maskless in Newport Beach despite surging cases of the coronavirus throughout Southern California at the time.

In response to being let go from the company, Kelly noted that she was ‘glad I could help put Positive Beverage on the map and wish them well.’

Dodd claimed she was ‘getting a lot of hate for being at a restaurant we’re allowed to be at’ after California partially lifted dining restrictions amid the ongoing pandemic.

‘The sheeple are mad,’ she said. ‘I’m not a super spreader because there’s nothing to spread because we all got the vaccine and we don’t have it, so there’s nothing to spread about super spreaders.’

She also made headlines in 2020 after saying on social media that she believed that the pandemic was ‘Gods way of thinning the herd’ as she argued with an Instagram user who called her out after taking a cross-country flight. 

After a user wrote to Dodd, ‘If non-essential workers keep traveling back and forth like you, it will last longer,’ the reality star replied, ‘Do you know how many people died from the H1N1, the swine flu or SARS? It’s 25% get your facts straight you are only hearing numbers not the reality! It’s God’s way of thinning the herd!’

She subsequently apologized for the remarks and attempted to clarify her statement.

‘When I wrote that it’s “God’s way of thinning the herd,” that’s not what I meant,’ Dodd said on Instagram Stories. ‘What I meant was, “Do these pandemics happen because it’s God’s way?” I’m not God. I’m not insensitive.

‘I feel bad for all the families that have lost loved ones, and I do think we should all stay at home and protect everybody. That’s not what I meant, and I want to apologize to anyone who got offended, OK? I’m sorry.’

She apologized again while appearing on Watch What Happens Live, saying of her past controversy: ‘It was insensitive and I apologize if I hurt or offended anybody.’

The star also found herself in hot water when she briefly wore a novelty baseball cap at her bridal shower in 2020 that said Drunk Wives Matter – a play on the term Black Lives Matter.

Many interpreted the hat as Kelly being insensitive towards the BLM movement, but she later explained that it was just ‘a joke’ and nothing more. 

‘My girlfriend bought it for me as a gift. it’s a play on words,’ she explained. ‘Some people aren’t that smart.’

Since exiting the reality series, Kelly and her husband Rick Leventhal have started up their own podcast on YouTube, Patreon and Spotify called The Rick and Kelly Show.

They’ve also started flipping houses and are working on their own pickleball line featuring apparel and sporting goods.