Vicki Gunvalson’s Brooks Ayers Cancer 1-on-1 with Andy Cohen – The Most Shocking Revelations

On a special Watch What Happens Live, One-on-One, Andy Cohen interviewed Vicki Gunvalson in an effort to get to the bottom of The Real Housewives of Orange County #Cancergate once and for all. What did she know? When did she know it? Was she in on the whole scam? Let’s dive in.

First, Andy noted that The City of Hope Hospital, where Brooks Ayers said he was being treated for Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma, gave a statement on November 10, 2015 saying they never treated a patient named David Brooks Ayers. Never ever. And with that, Vicki admitted she believes Brooks is lying about his diagnosis.

During the reunion, Vicki said she “went” with Brooks for his treatment, but now it turns out that she only picked him up from the hospital after his so-called chemo session. According to Vicki, Brooks said a nurse told him to wait thirty minutes before leaving. He and Vicki walked around the grounds. When they went back to check out, the nurse’s station was empty, so they left.

Like many of you, my family has been touched with cancer. And after a round of chemo, I can tell you my loved ones weren’t in any shape to wander around the hospital grounds for half an hour. Just saying.

Next, Vicki brought a thick file to the clubhouse which contained printed emails and texts from Brooks. She says he “orchestrated a crazy ass chain of lies.” She now believes he was building his house of cards long before filming ever began. Andy took the file and gently set it aside. When Brooks confessed to forging his hospital documents, Vicki says her reaction was a fierce, “I hate him. I hate what he did to me.” 

At the beginning of her relationship with Brooks, Vicki needed love. Brooks swept her off her feet, so much so, that she ignored all those annoying red flags. He would bring her coffee in the morning, call her during the day. He’d go to the grocery store and make sure her gasoline (not to mention her love) tank was full. “He was a wife to me. I needed a wife.” But, Vicki says she didn’t allow Brooks to move into her house out of loneliness. She took him in because he was sick.

When the story broke that Brooks was having sex with prostitutes, Vicki was in Oklahoma with daughter, Briana, and her family. According to Briana, Vicki received a call from Brooks. He claimed he was in the ER. She couldn’t be angry with him about cheating because he was “possibly” suffering from cancer. Vicki doesn’t remember that exact call, but there was no “possibly” about it. She believed Brooks.

Now here’s where we start running into trouble, kids. All the way back in the fall of 2013, Brooks and Vicki gave an interview in which they stated Brooks had cancer. But then in December of 2014, he tweeted that he was on his second round of chemo. Andy asked the obvious question: what the hell was Brooks doing for a year? Vicki said Brooks claimed he was taking a chemo pill every day. But he was “rediagnosed” in 2014.

Though his doctor urged him to increase his treatment, he’d decided to go with a more holistic approach. When Vicki questioned his choice, Brooks told her to “Stay out of it. It’s my journey.”

So when did the lightbulb flicker to life? When did she begin to suspect that Brooks was the boy who cried cancer? Not until the ladies of the OC questioned if the chemo was working, why Brooks would stop treatment.

At that point, Vicki says she flat out asked him if he had cancer. They argued about it every night. He gave her different answers and told her to back off, which she finally did, because she’s supportive like that. And also because she didn’t want to break up with him while she was being filmed. Priorities, people! Though Vicki spent time and money trying to cure him, they fought constantly. He made her feel like she was going crazy.

Also, Vicki witnessed Brooks getting sick after his treatments. He would run fevers, have night sweats, and throw up for days. Vicki now suspects he was ingesting eye drops, which many fans told her will make a person “violently ill.” Plus, he dropped 42 pounds in three months.

She firmly maintains she was not a part of Brooks’ scam, though she did admit to embellishing the truth to gain sympathy from the other Housewives. For instance, she might say he was throwing up for five days, not three. She suspects that since he was the most hated man in reality TV, he played the cancer card to curry favor with viewers.

Andy pointed out that the same viewers are furious with Vicki and demanding she get booted off the show. But she claims she never lied. She’s guilty of loving Brooks, of believing him, but nothing else.

She wants to tell the other ladies she’s sorry. She loves Shannon, and when Ronda went after her at the baptismal party, that wasn’t Vicki’s fault! And Heather, Vicki is soooo sorry she used Terry’s name in vain with that “IV situation.” No one was ever supposed to know about that. She told that story to Briana privately, off camera. And as for Meghan, she was coming from a good place at the beginning. Vicki’s made her mea culpa to Briana, too. So a big sweeping apology to all, but she was just defending her man. You understand that, right?

Vicki now wishes she’d never divorced Donn. He was a good husband after all, and they’re spending Thanksgiving together as a family.

So is Vicki still afraid of Brooks? Well, yeah. She’s afraid of his power (???), of him releasing personal information to the public—like her social security number, and afraid of his anger. But he’s been a victim too. He was put through the ringer—all because of Vicki. (It had nothing to do with his own cancer-lying, prostitute-loving ways.)

Andy felt sad that Vicki was so lonely and vulnerable, she chose the wrong man. But Vicki says she was willing to stay with the Brooks because being alone as a middle-aged woman was scary.

Andy also wondered if she was in denial about the severity of her situation. In a statement steeped in that very denial, Vicki says she’s over talking about it. Brooks’ health is none of her business.

She doesn’t think he really loved her, but while she was in it, he loved her like she’s never been loved before. Perhaps the saddest, most poignant thing is that Vicki didn’t love herself enough to see that Brooks was nothing but trouble from the jump.

So what do you think? Are you buying her excuse or do you still believe she was complicit in the whole thing? 

 

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