Heavy/Bravo/YouTube Erika Jayne
Erika Jayne revealed she asked her estranged husband, Tom Girardi, for a divorce long before she took the steps to separate from him, but three years later it’s a low priority for her.
The “Real Housewives of Beverly Hills” star opened up about the end of her marriage to the former power attorney on the August 29, 2023 episode of the “Two Ts in a Pod” podcast with Tamra Judge and Teddi Mellencamp.
Erika Jayne filed for divorce from Girardi in November 2020 after nearly 20 years of marriage. At the time, she issued a statement to Us Weekly to reveal that she made the decision to end her marriage “after much consideration” and that it was “not a step taken lightly or easily.”
Erika Jayne Told Tom Girardi to ‘Be a Man” and Divorce Her
While speaking on “Two Ts,” Erika, 52, admitted that she stayed in the marriage longer than she should have because she “tried to protect” Girardi, who is 30 years her senior. She also noted that his former law firm, which became the subject of multiple fraud lawsuits just after she filed for divorce, had been around since before she was born and she has nothing to do with that aspect of her husband’s life.
“I was in a marriage with a person that was rapidly changing and rapidly going downhill and there were so many things beyond my control,” she said on the podcast.
When asked if she ever thought about leaving sooner, she revealed, “I told Tom when I knew he was having affairs and all that kind of s**** I said, ‘I think you should be a man and divorce me.’ [And he wouldn’t]. He wanted me to be the bad guy!”
Nearly three years later, the two are still legally married. In August 2023, Erika told People that finalizing the divorce is not high on her to-do list at the moment.
“I’m separated,” she said. “It’s hard to divorce. It’s the lowest thing on my radar right now because I have other legal battles to fight out that I’m getting dragged into. So, f*** the divorce. I’m separated. We have separate lives. I’ve not seen Tom since the day I left, and it is what it is.”
Erika Jayne Said Tom Girardi Didn’t Care Enough to See Her Broadway Show ‘Chicago’
Fans may recall that in early 2020, Erika made her debut in the starring role of Roxie Hart in the Broadway musical “Chicago,” but the show was shut down a few months in due to the COVID pandemic.
During the “Two Ts” interview, Mellencamp asked Erika why her husband “didn’t come to ‘Roxie.’” “Because he didn’t care,” Erika said sadly. “Because he didn’t care.”
Erika previously told The Daily Dish that Girardi “is like the biggest Broadway fan ever.”
“When I came home and I was like ‘Honey, I have this opportunity,’ he was like, ‘You must take it.’ So he’s probably more excited than I am,’” she said in 2020.
But Girardi never made it to the show. Erika previously blamed the pandemic for his absence.
“He was gonna come the last week and COVID happened, so he never saw the show,” she said during the RHOBH reunion,” according to BravoTV.com.
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