Tamra Judge Addresses “Sad” Relationship With Estranged Teen Daughter

Tamra Judge, star of The Real Housewives of Orange County, has found a cause. She may not be speaking in Washington DC, yet, but when it comes to parent alienation, Tamra has a wealth of experience to share. Tamra took a moment to share the news and set the record straight about the status with her children.

“I’ve never lost custody of any of my kids,” the reality star told ET. “I hear that all the time … I’m not going through a custody battle.”

During the last reunion, Tamra revealed that she hadn’t seen or spoken to her daughter, Sidney, in two years, but clarified there was no “huge thing” that sparked her daughter to leave Tamra’s home.

“She came in the kitchen, and she sat down and she said, ‘I don’t want to live with you anymore,’” Tamra tearfully recalled. “‘You’ve ruined my dad’s life.’ And I said, we need to work through these things. We can go to counseling.” Tamra added, “She basically left that day and, two years later, has not come back.”

Tamra explained that a therapist has diagnosed Sidney with “parental alienation” and Simon “won’t agree to” participate in family therapy.

“It’s sad, and hard, and horrible, and it’s happening all over the world,” Tamra said. “It’s when a kid gets stuck in the middle … There was no huge thing that happened between us. It wasn’t like we were fighting or screaming at each other. It was nothing like that.”

In the past, Simon Barney has attempted to get sole custody of their kids, but the “judge laughed at him” according to Tamra. As a result of the turmoil, their son Spencer now lives full-time with Tamra and refuses to speak to his father. But if anything good has come out of airing her family troubles on RHOC, it prompted Sidney to reconnect with Tamra’s mom and her brother, Ryan.

“…Spencer, lives with me full time and he doesn’t speak to his dad,” Tamra explained. “It’s a mess. I have asked, like, ‘Can the four of us sit down?’ … I truly believe kids need both their parents. They need both of them to be healthy, successful, happy adults. Now, the situation is just so messed up and [Simon] won’t agree to it.”

Going through this experience has inspired Tamra to work with Erasing Families, an organization that helps parents in the court system who have been “erased.”

“If there’s anything that I can do from this experience, it’s let other people know that this is happening all over the place, all over the world,” she said. “Parents get divorced. Kids sometimes choose sides … they just want to pick a side. They don’t want to hear about it. They just want to pick a side, and they want to walk out, and that is like the worst thing they can do.”

“When you allow a child to do that, you’re teaching them to turn away from their problems and not deal with them.”

Tamra has received advice from children who’ve gone through tough family divorces and they’ve told her to, “’Never stop communicating with her. Even if she doesn’t answer, send her a text message. Send her an email. Send her whatever you can,’ and I do,” Tamra explained. “Every single week, I send her something… it’s all I can do.”

 

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