Closing the chapter. Jim Edmonds’ daughter Hayley Edmonds slammed her stepmother, Meghan King Edmonds, after Us Weekly broke the news of their divorce.
“I’ve been waiting for it. For probably … three years?” the 22-year-old told Us Weekly exclusively about the split. “I think it’s impossible to be happy with someone so … I don’t know if I would say narcissistic but, she, like, creates her own problems and loves conflict and things like that. The selfishness is miserable for anyone to be around, let alone to be married to her. My whole family has grown closer because we have all had to stay silent in hopes to protect my dad and no one can do it anymore.”
Real Housewives of Orange County viewers may remember seeing Hayley and Meghan’s complicated relationship on season 10 of the Bravo series. The then-teenager moved in with Meghan and Jim while her mother, LeAnn Horton, battled cancer. (LeAnn, who also shared daughter Lauren with Jim, died in July 2015.)
“I will say I didn’t look the best when I was on the show, but I got so much scrutiny from the way that she portrayed me like I was stupid and I didn’t care about anything,” Hayley told Us about her stint on the series. “In reality, like, I dropped out of high school to take care of my sick mother and she came in and completely manipulated me to get on the show and told me I was making it harder on my mom to be there and I was giving her anxiety and I needed to live with Meghan and give my mom less stress.”
Meghan and Jim, who tied the knot in October 2014, are parents of daughter Aspen, 2, and 16-month-old twin sons, Hart and Hayes. In addition to Hayley and Lauren, Jim shares daughter Sutton and son Landon from his second marriage to Allison Jayne Raski.
“I have a good relationship with Allison and her husband, my sister and I both do. The way Meghan treats my dad’s mom is disgusting. And we’ve all just had to sit quietly and I’m just done with it,” Hayley told Us, claiming that Meghan blocked her grandmother on Instagram. “It’s a bummer. Because my grandma just wants to see pictures of her grandkids and she had to get them sent to her every day. It just really bummed her out. That really sucks.”
Us previously confirmed that Meghan accused Jim of “having an affair” with their 22-year-old nanny before he filed for divorce on Friday, October 25. Hayley told Us that the allegations, which Jim and the aforementioned caretaker, Carly Wilson, both denied, are “disturbing.”
“They’re family! They are around everyday and they care about those kids and they care about my dad because he’s just like … they want to help him,” Hayley told Us about the Edmonds’ staff. “They’re just young girls that are just trying to work and be positive and be happy and enjoy their job. And the way she stepped over the line is just completely disrespectful and it’s just absurd.”
Hayley continued: “Especially the way that she treated Carly is mind-blowing to me because she holds herself to very high moral standards and she is a great girl who moved to St. Louis across the country because she loves those kids. And it’s just I mean absolutely ludicrous I would say. I can’t even … I keep saying I’m shocked, but I’m not surprised at the way that she goes after people so ruthlessly.”
Hayley added that she wants people to see her dad’s side of the story because he’s a “great person.”
“I think this whole publicity thing with Meghan just ruined his reputation and it’s really sad to see because he was an amazing athlete and he held himself to morally high standards and just a great guy so it sucks to see. … Finally, I’m hoping he’ll put himself first and be happy and be able to be a dad again. And I’m stoked that I can have my dad fully back and not have to tiptoe around [Meghan].” Hayley concluded. “Everyone that cares about him is proud that he finally took the leap of leaving her. It really just pisses me off … She’s got the following and she has the public. We’ve always been a really private family. None of us wanted any of this. We all just want to live our own lives.”
Reporting by Brody Brown
