Speaking out. Amid Erika Jayne’s ongoing legal battle, she got candid about how she’s dealt with the fallout from the drama.
“This has been the darkest part of my life,” the Real Housewives of Beverly Hills star, 50, said on the Friday, February 11 episode of E!’s Daily Pop. “Just the most desperate, most afraid I’ve ever been in my life. Most unsure, most volatile.”
She continued: “I’ve been angry, I’ve been sad, I’ve been happy, I’ve been everything. And it’s really challenged me to my core.”
The Pretty Mess author’s legal drama first made headlines after she filed for divorce from Tom Girardi in November 2020 after 21 years of marriage. Less than one month later, the estranged spouses were named in a fraud lawsuit, accusing them of embezzling $2 million in settlement funds from the families of the Lion Air Flight 610 crash victims. In the suit, the 82-year-old former attorney was also accused of mishandling the money of several of his clients.
The trustee had named the “Roller Coaster” performer in the case, claiming she had prior knowledge that the Colorado native’s law firm had covered her expenses for nearly 12 years. (The reality TV star, for her part, has continually denied the allegations.)
“You know, when they can’t get to that man, then they turn to his partner. And that’s what I think has happened,” the Bravo star told the outlet on Friday. “I think that I have taken a lot of the attention that should be for other people. … I’ve been the whipping girl for a lot of people, and I’ve taken the beating in the public when others should be. I think it would be a bad legal story and I think it would have gone away, [but] I do think that because I am on a reality TV show, it is magnified. I think that because of what I’ve done professionally, it is magnified.”
Us Weekly previously confirmed in January that the complaints against Erika were dismissed in Illinois as the court docs found that the allegations against her were “dismissed without prejudice and without cause.”
The Dancing With the Stars alum has since returned to filming for RHOBH season 12 in better spirits.
“I think she is in a better place,” costar Dorit Kemsley exclusively told Us last month. “She went through a lot, and I think she’s coming out the other side and she’s feeling better and feeling stronger. I think it’s still, you know, a battle and it’s not over, but I think that she is doing better and better.”
