Brooks Ayers never had to defend his partying before he was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, but many raised their eyebrows when the Real Housewives of Orange County star was spotted out drinking last week.
“The story took legs when it said that I was out partying in the midst of dealing with chemo, which is a no-no. You don’t do that,” Ayers exclusively explains to Us Weekly. “So I haven’t been doing that. I do have a drink on occasion, [but] it’s nothing like it used to be, three or four times a week socially; it’s a couple of times a month, very, very scaled back.”
Vicki Gunvalson’s ex was spotted out in Fort Lauderdale, but he insists it was an innocent evening of fun.
“I wasn’t over the top drunk, I wasn’t with any woman,” he tells Us. “I was with three of my buddies. And I had two cocktails and that was it.”
He also revealed that the last time he went in for chemo treatments was in late January. Even when he was getting treatments, they only took place once every six weeks.
“It’s implied — people say chemotherapy, they think the worst, they think three or four days a week,” he adds. “And it is awful. I’m not demeaning that at all. But the route I went was a more potent chemotherapy treatment, one time, every six weeks. I did not have to get a port for that, one day of receiving via IV chemo was fine.”
Ayers found himself in the tough situation of having to defend the legitimacy of his own diagnosis to the RHOC women — particularly Meghan King Edmonds — on the most recent season of the Bravo show.
“These ladies are barely acquaintances with me,” Ayers says. “I see them three or four times a year, and for them to pretend like they know everything that’s going on in my head and my doctor’s appointments and what I’m doing and what I’m going through … That’s the sad part, where I’m having to spend negative energy and unnecessary stress to be able to deal with an issue to try and rid my body of this cancer.”
Ayers will be unable to defend himself during the reunion special, which is being taped this week, as he will be on a company retreat, but he has filmed a sit-down interview with Bravo host Andy Cohen to tell his side of the story.
Though he admits they don’t talk often, Ayers remains complimentary of his ex Gunvalson, 53. He shed some light on what led to the end of their longtime on-off romance.
“The unnecessary stress is part of Vicki’s work four or five months of the year that carries on for the balance of the year because of the show airing, not just filming,” Ayers says. “And that was part of the reason why we didn’t make it. I’m not going to give it all the credit in the role, but that’s her work and nobody can ask her to walk away from that. It was just too much for me and her to survive with our personalities. So she’ll be fine and I’ll be fine and we’ve moved on.”
