The Real Housewives of Orange County alum Katie Ginella was especially emotional to learn that the show reportedly planned a cast trip to Japan after her alleged experiences with racism within the franchise.
“Can you tell me if my tears are overreacting? I just found out that the Real Housewives of Orange County confirmed that they went to Japan on their cast trip,” Katie, 41, claimed in a TikTok video shared Saturday, April 25. “I can’t for the life of me figure out why they would go to a country where they have zero respect for Asian culture, most of them, not all of them.”
The RHOC season 20 cast, including returning Housewife Vicki Gunvalson, were spotted in viral social media footage on Saturday alongside cameras at Tokyo’s famed Shibuya Crossing. The women appeared to dress up like Harajuku Girls in ruffled skirts, vibrant prints and multicolored wigs.
Neither the RHOC cast nor Bravo have publicly addressed the potential season 20 trip or Katie’s comments. Us Weekly reached out to a spokesperson for the TV network for comment.
Katie, for her part, held an orange during RHOC seasons 18 and 19, announcing in January that she would not return for the upcoming season 20.
“When I brought up Asian culture [on the show], I was met with comments like, ‘Nobody cares about race but you’ and other comments that weren’t funny to me and they weren’t a joke,” Katie, the first Asian-American Housewife on RHOC, claimed on Saturday. “Making fun of the foods and the meats at hotpot, a culture that they obviously don’t know anything about that I was introducing them too.”
Katie also claimed that she once told her fellow Bravolebrities that wanted to take a trip to Korea “possibly with them” to learn more about her heritage after being adopted as a child.
“So, finding out that they took the cast to Japan on their cast trip it stung,” Katie lamented. “It broke me [and] it made me cry. It’s not because I need to be there or need to be with those ladies. It’s because of what that trip represents. I deserved respect, I deserved inclusion, I deserved a place there and every minority does.”
Katie further stressed that she doesn’t hold a grudge about her RHOC exit.
“I’m moving on [to] bigger and better,” she concluded. “My life is so much more peaceful, but seeing this news really devastated me.”
