Episode 2 of the The Real Housewives of Orange County brings even more drama than the first. (And after last season, all I can say is it's about time.) Heather "Fancy Pants" Dubrow may be back on the series, but her return isn't without it's own drama. Right off the bat, Season 16 introduced us to RHOC's friend of Nicole James, who, according to Gina via a little birdie named Shannon, allegedly sued Heather's husband Terry Dubrow years ago.
Given that this storyline is only just beginning, I found it crucial to learn all I could about Nicole James, formerly Nicole Weiss, to see if I could make sense of the drama before all hell breaks loose in one of Heather's palatial rooms in her home.
So first off, who is Nicole?
We know from the first episode that Nicole has been friends with Heather for about 8 years and that before that, she actually had a short friendship with Shannon, although she was Nicole Weise back then and as Shannon claims, looks much different now. She has three kids and appears to be a full-time mother.
Ok cool, so what happened?
Based off what we've seen on the show so far, about 2o years ago Nicole got a boob job from Terry Dubrow and was allegedly unhappy with the results. This manifested into Nicole allegedly suing him, according to Gina's "tea spilling" in the premiere of Season 16. Shannon knew about the lawsuit at the time, but had since lost touch with Nicole. However, once she found out Nicole James was in fact Nicole Weise, she spilled the "secret" to Gina and Emily off camera. Gina didn't like keeping this secret from Heather, and tells her about the lawsuit in the preview for Wednesday's episode. A source told Radar Online that Nicole only ended up filming for the first couple weeks, and there is much speculation that this situation is why she ended up being demoted to "friend of."
So what do Nicole and Heather said about all of this?
Nicole has remained quiet on the subject so far, but Heather did tell Access Hollywood about the premiere party, saying, “it’s like the party is completely hijacked in such a hideous way … and I felt so completely blindsided and betrayed and pissed and upset … and I just didn’t expect the season to start that way".
Shannon has also spoken out about the situation to ET saying that she wasn't planning to bring it up on camera since she knew it could be detrimental to someone's business. She added that "I stupidly told a couple cast mates, after un poco tequila [at an off-camera dinner], because it was bothering me. At that point I didn't know for certain if it was the same girl, so... I shouldn't have done it. I take responsibility, I shouldn't have said anything to Emily and Gina because it was never my intent for this to become a story or be shown on camera."
And so the Heather and Shannon drama continues! Tune in to Wednesday's episode to see how Heather's party ends in disaster.
Images: Bravo