Erika Jayne needs all the support she can get. The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills star has been entrenched in lawsuits for almost 2 years now. Ever since her second husband, Tom Girardi, was charged with embezzling money from his clients, the courts have come for her too. About a month before Tom was exposed for his alleged misdeeds, Erika filed for divorce after 21 years of marriage. The move was widely criticized as an alleged attempt to distance herself from creditors but it hasn’t worked. One of the largest suits against her is for a whopping $50 million.
While Erika once claimed on RHOBH that she became “radioactive” after the allegations, she still has the backing of her ex-husband and son. As reported by Page Six, Erika revealed that she’s still on good terms with her ex-husband, Thomas Rizzo. When Bravo’s The Daily Dish asked if they are close, Erika replied, “Yes, actually, I am!” She added that Thomas has been “very supportive, honestly, throughout the entire process.”
She continued, “And my mom is close to him and his mother. People don’t understand this, but we’re actually pretty tight. They have been very supportive of me, and I’m very grateful.” Erika also shared that her current legal drama has brought her and her son, Tommy Rizzo, closer. Tommy is police officer in Los Angeles who chooses to lay low, despite his mom’s high profile.
Erika stated, “My son’s been amazing. And I will say this — the silver lining to all of this s–t is that our relationship is stronger.” She went on, “My son and I, we’ve really come together. He’ll be 30 in June. Jesus. I just remember walking around here in New York being pregnant with him, but he’ll be 30. And so asking him what he thinks about things, you know, you get this adult perspective, and it’s really nice.”
While she has previously noted that Tommy doesn’t follow her RHOBH drama, one headline did give him pause. Erika recalled, “Oh my God, I’ll never forget. One time, he called me, he’s like, ‘Hey, are you dating this guy?’ I was like, ‘No, what the f–k are you doing? I’m not dating him.’ He was like, ‘OK, well, you know, I saw it somewhere.’ I was like, ‘Call me, please, before you, you know.’”
The former go-go dancer met Thomas when she was 19 years old and dancing at a club in New Jersey. Thomas was 7 years older and worked as a DJ in Manhattan. Erika reminisced in her memoir, Pretty Mess, “He was a tall, muscular Sicilian with the kind of streetwise swagger that only native New Yorkers can muster. He was an absolute piece.”
They quickly became a couple and moved in together after just six months. Shortly thereafter, she became pregnant with Tommy, prompting the two to get married. Erika and Thomas were married in 1991 but by 1996, they divorced. At that point she moved to Los Angeles. Erika wrote of the experience, “I feel like my marriage came apart because of me, not because of anyone else. I can take responsibility. I knew I was a good mom. I thought I was adult enough to be a wife and a mother, but really I wasn’t. Tommy bore the brunt of that.”
By 2000, Erika married Tom G, 33 years her senior, after meeting him while she was a waitress at a restaurant he frequented. Two decades later, the marriage unraveled as Tom was accused of using client money to fund his posh lifestyle with Erika. Tom now lives in a senior living facility and was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s. Erika recently admitted that the two do not speak often and when he does call, “It lasts about five seconds.”
TELL US – ARE YOU SURPRISED THAT ERIKA IS STILL CLOSE WITH THOMAS? WHY DOES SHE LOVE SO MANY MEN NAMED TOM? WHAT DO YOU THINK OF HER SO FAR ON THIS SEASON ON RHOBH?
[Photo Credit: Charles Sykes/Bravo]