New season of RHOBH, same Erika Jayne drama. The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills star’s divorce from Tom Girardi and the former couple’s legal woes are still top in the forefront on season 12 of the Bravo hit.
While the “Rollercoaster” songstress declared the “facts are in my favor” during the May 10, 2022, premiere, it’s been a long road for Erika and Tom, who split in November 2020. One month after the divorce news broke, they were named in a class action lawsuit that alleged that Tom’s former law firm, Girardi & Keese, misused funds intended for Lion Air Flight 610 plane crash victims’ families. Erika has since denied claims that she was given more than $20 million in embezzled money for her business.
“Sutton [Stracke] chose to repeat things and say things that have been disproven now. There was never 20-whatever-million dollars in my LLC,” she told Garcelle Beauvais in the season 12 premiere. “I’ll never get away from ‘widows and orphans’ even though it’s not true. I never had it. It was never in my hands. It was never in my account. The bankruptcy trustee says, ‘Erika Girardi never touched the Lion Air money.’”
Investigator Ronald Richards, who represents the trustee on the bankruptcy case filed against the former couple, fired back in a series of tweets after a sneak peek of the premiere dropped.
“This statement by @ErikaJayne is blatantly misleading,” Ronald wrote. “$25,000,000 was paid from Girardi & Keese and was never paid back. All the money was spent on Erika’s personal expenses. She then improperly deducted it from her joint tax returns as expenses. It was for only 4 her benefit.”
Additional lawsuits against Tom and his former firm surfaced while Erika maintained she had no knowledge of any wrongdoings. In the premiere, Erika revealed that she and Tom, who is living in a memory care facility amid his battle with dementia and Alzheimer’s, are “legally separated,” noting there are “bumps in the road about divorcing an incompetent person.” The musician concluded that she will get divorced “when I can” as she continues to navigate the legal trouble.
“I am front and center. I am the face of this instead of the lawyers that worked at the firm and referring attorneys and, you know, law funding people — instead they point to me,” Erika told Us Weekly ahead of the premiere. “For my mental health, it’s been hard. No doubt. But again, I couldn’t lose and I was just going to fight it out every way possible and still am.”
The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills airs on Bravo every Wednesday. Scroll through for updates on Erika:
