They had one of the biggest rivalries in The Real Housewives of Orange County history. So you can imagine the confusion fans felt when Alexis Bellino returned to the show in season 18 and was friends with Tamra Judge.
“If you had told me years ago that Alexis Bellino and I would one day be friends, I would have told you that you were absolutely fucking crazy,” laughs Judge, to 56 PEOPLE. “But here we are!”
So how exactly did Judge and the women she once called “Jesus Jugs” find their way back to each other.
‘It was actually Andy Cohen,’ says the owner of Vena CBD, explaining that it was Watch what’s happening live host “made it really easy” for them to reconcile while at BravoCon 2023 in Las Vegas.
“On Bravos night, they threw a big party for us afterwards at the hotel,” Judge recalls. “And at that point, I think they might have been talking to Alexis about coming back – I’m not entirely sure – but I hadn’t seen her in years and suddenly there we were, with Andy literally standing over us while we were talking!”
That conversation turned out to give Judge all she needed to let go of the anger she still harbored.
Although they were mostly on good terms when Bellino left the show a decade ago RHOCSeason 8 2013 Judge went sour with Alexis over the years after her now ex-husband Jim Bellino sued Judge in a $1 million defamation case back in 2018. The two were embroiled in a legal dispute for years until December 2021 when reached a settlement.
I really blamed Alexis for it as much as I did Jim, but she stood there that day and apologized to me and said, ‘I told Jim it was a bad idea, I don’t think he should have sued you,'” Judge recalls. “And then she told me that she was going through a very difficult time. Her mother had just passed away and she had just broken up with her fiance. So I felt a lot of compassion for her and told her right there that I forgave her, I was sorry and that’s all in the past.”
“Time really does heal all wounds,” adds Judge. “But I think Alexis is a lot alike when we’re not holding each other down. We were going through tough times in our lives the last time we were on the show together. I was in a bad marriage, she was in a bad marriage. And we’re both in different places now in our lives.”
“We’re past that,” Judge continues. “I apologized, she apologized – it was just time to start again.”
From that moment on, the two stayed in touch. And when Judge was on her now-defunct Tres Amigas tour with Shannon Storms Beador and Vicki Gunvalson, she told the crowd she’d love to see Alexis back on the show.
“Heather wanted her back, and I thought, ‘You know, it would be great to see Alexis back on the show — a single mom, without Jim in her life, free and able to speak her mind.’ I didn’t even know she was dating John Janssen when the cameras rolled!” The judge says.
Janssen, Storms Beador’s ex-boyfriend, met Alexis in November 2023 through mutual friends. By Dec. 5, the two were ready to make their romance official, with PEOPLE exclusively reporting on their relationship.
“We tried to fight the feeling,” Alexis said in the season 18 premiere, “[but] after two weeks, John and I knew this was it.”
John Janssen says he ‘never felt truly loved’ until girlfriend Alexis Bellino said: ‘She’s an amazing person’
Alexis Bellino and John Janssen in March 2024.
Amanda Edwards/Getty
Their relationship came as a shock to Judge.
“I was recording my podcast [Two T’s in a Pod] when Alexis texted me that they were dating and I was just as surprised as anyone,” she recalls. “Alexis told me that they met and became close because they had both just gotten out of long-term relationships. But she said: ‘I’m not seeing a 60-year-old man again.’ Those were her exact words. So I thought, ‘What!?'”
That’s important for Judge to point out, she says, especially since fans falsely claimed that the only reason Judge and Alexis became friends again was because Judge fell out with Storms Beador.
“People said, ‘You’re just trying to get back at Shannon,’ and it really had nothing to do with it,” Judge says. “Alexis didn’t even want to come back on the show at first. John was trying to talk her out of it, and she said to me, ‘I don’t want to kick Shannon when she’s down.’ But I knew she was a single mother and I actually encouraged her to do what she thought would be right for her for her own independence. I honestly thought it would be good for her.”
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Tamra Judge and Alexis Bellino on ‘The Real Housewives of Orange County.’
Nicole Weingart/Bravo via Getty
Tamra Judge Knows She Was Harsh To Shannon Beador, But She’s Reached ‘Breaking Point’: ‘I Won’t Let Her Go Anymore’ (Exclusive)
In retrospect, that part remains debatable as RHOC fans have been vocal in criticizing Alexis and her vocal defense of Janssen this season.
“It frustrates me, because what you see on television is so different from the experience I had on set,” Judge tells PEOPLE. “Earlier this season, I went over to her house and if you notice, her eyes were swollen shut. And we talked about Alexis’ mother dying for 90% of that conversation, but they only showed a small part where she was talking about John and Shannon, so the audience thinks so of her; the only conversations she has are about John and Shannon!”
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Does she regret giving Alexis that second chance? “Not at all,” says Judge. “I don’t base my views on people on what other people think. I can make up my own mind.”
The Real Housewives of Orange County airs Thursdays at 9pm ET on Bravo.
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Source: HIS Education