Elizabeth Lyn Vargas’ ex-boyfriend Ryan Geraghty has been sentenced to six years in prison after being charged with assault last year.
Deadline reported on Wednesday, May 10, that Geraghty, 34, pleaded guilty to attacking the Real Housewives of Orange County alum, 48. He was arrested in February 2022 following a dispute at Vargas’ home. According to reports, he was charged with single counts of extortion, assault with a firearm, criminal threats, corporal injury on a spouse or cohabitant, possession of a firearm by a felon and grossly negligent discharge of a firearm. He also faced two misdemeanor counts of possession of a controlled substance.
Us Weekly confirmed at the time of the incident that Vargas called the police after an ongoing disagreement with her ex. According to the Newport Beach Police Department, Geraghty barricaded himself inside the former reality star’s home and was “actively threatening the life” of the Vargas Vodka owner. Police took him into custody after he allegedly held his ex captive for several hours.
“She’s shaken up and had an extremely traumatic experience,” David Weintraub, Vargas’ manager, told Us in a February 2022 statement. “Fortunately, the Newport Police Department saved her and she’s doing well.”
Before her romance with Geraghty, the former Bravo personality was married to Bernt Bodal, whom she wed in 2000. The pair called it quits in 2017 but didn’t finalize their divorce until July 2020
“You know, I don’t know how I’m feeling today. I’m excited but I’m sad and I — it’s the end of an era — I was with the guy for 20 years. 17 years but divorcing for three,” she wrote via Instagram at the time. “20 years total of my life and I’m happy but it’s a failure. … I paid an arm and a leg to get divorced and to get what I thought I needed … and here we are transitioning to a new phase in my life and I’m excited.”
Following her split, Vargas appeared on season 15 of RHOC, which aired from October 2020 to January 2021. During her time on the reality show, she was dating a man named Jimmy Juarez, but the twosome called it quits after she wrapped filming for the series.
“I guess I’m going through a big transition,” she said in a video posted via Instagram in June 2021. “I lost my job, lost my boyfriend, lost my dog — it sounds like a bad country song.”
The Missouri native left the franchise that same year alongside Braunwyn Windham-Burke and Kelly Dodd after Bravo decided not to renew their contracts. Shortly after news broke of their exits, Dodd, 46, claimed she was “blindsided” by the network.
Vargas, for her part, echoed similar sentiments during an exclusive interview with Us.
“[I was] completely shocked. I was told the Friday before by my manager that I had the gig again and then the day of my announcement they announced Heather [Dubrow] instead, which is fine, whatever,” she told Us in October 2022. . “I didn’t even get to show people who I really was and who I could be after such a devastating experience. I wanted to show people like, ‘Look, you can come out of this. I’m completely smashed, hit run over by a truck, but OK, I’m here again and now let’s see what I can do by staying positive,’ and I didn’t get to do any of that.”
