Heavy/NBCUniversal Heather Gay
“The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City” season 4 aired a bombshell finale episode on Tuesday, January 2, 2024. While fans were blown away by the reveal that newcomer to the show Monica Garcia was (at least partially) behind the Instagram troll account Reality Von Tease, some viewers became skeptical at how the information came out on the show. Some fans of the show went as far as to claim that the RHOSLC production team knew Garcia was behind the account all season and were waiting for the finale to have this information revealed to her co-stars.
“Definitely [think they knew]. I also think Heather knew most of the season but was told to hang on to the info,” one fan commented on a Reddit thread about the topic, with another fan adding, “Yes they had to. She is not the type they cast. I’ve always thought it was weird.”
On January 4, Entertainment Tonight spoke with a source close to the production who opened up about when the RHOSLC producers found out the truth about Reality Von Tease.
The RHOSLC Producers Claim to Have Found Out in Real Time
“The casting team and producers were unaware of Monica’s association with the Instagram account Reality Von Tease, and they had no knowledge of the account when she was cast,” Entertainment Tonight’s source shared. “While they were aware of her connection with Jen Shah, they were completely unaware of the information that Heather discovered in Bermuda. Heather’s revelation came as a surprise to the producers, much like the unexpected FBI visit at the Beauty Lab & Laser parking lot during season 2 involving Jen.”
Page Six also quoted a production source on the topic, who claimed, “Had they been aware prior to [the ladies’ vacation in] Bermuda, they would have never withheld that information from the core four,” with the “core four” being Heather Gay, Lisa Barlow, Meredith Marks, and Whitney Rose.
During the episode, Gay (after receiving confirmation that Garcia was behind Reality Von Tease from a friend whose name she did not disclose) gathered Barlow, Marks, and Rose on the beach outside their Bermuda vacation house to tell them the truth and ask them to back her up when she confronted Garcia.
In the scene, Gay mentioned how that group of four, all cast members since season one, have been through a lot together, and in a December 2023 interview with ET, Gay said, “I think everyone realized how much we really do enjoy each other, and how much of a great opportunity this has been for us to be friends, and I think that we stopped taking each other for granted and we came into this season as a team and wanting to just kind of like start fresh — fresh starts, fresh power, I mean, that was genuine and it really it worked.”
Monica Garcia is Owning the Reality Von Tease Title
Although she ended the finale with no allies among her fellow Housewives, Garcia is owning her role as Reality Von Tease on social media. The mother of four shared an Instagram post on January 4 of a photo shoot of her holding a piece of burning newspaper with the message “Warming my hands on the bridges I’ve burned” handwritten on the back.
“‘Sometimes people try to destroy you, precisely because they recognize your power — not because they don’t see it, but because they see it and they don’t want it to exist.’ XOXO, Monica Niki Garcia ✌🏽 🤍,” she captioned her post.
Garcia had previously posted more photos from her photo shoot, including shots of her holding newspapers with custom headlines claiming she was Reality Von Tease and a real-life “Gossip Girl”. This was since taken down and replaced with her January 4 post.
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