This Real Housewives of Orange County Interview Is Bizarre and Completely Insane

Despite Melanie Bromley’s giggly, pretend hard-ass questions masking what’s actually softball reporting, the interview did leave some confusing holes in Brooks’s story with answers that don’t seem to fully hold water. He begins by announcing that his cancer is down from “stage three to stage two.” This is apparently the third time he has been diagnosed with cancer.

Cast member Meghan King Edmonds, who was perhaps the most vocal with her doubts, brought up an ex-girlfriend of Brooks’ who claims that he had faked cancer before.

Ayers explains that this ex-girlfriend was angry after he left her to be with Vicki. At the time, he says he had already been diagnosed with Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma and also thought he might have “nose cancer.” Turns out, he didn’t have “nose cancer,” and he told her so. Brooks claims that she was referring to him faking “nose cancer” and not the Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma.

Throughout the season, Ayers looks rather healthy and says that he’s stopping chemotherapy to try a “holistic approach,” which includes a healthy diet and detoxing. (Interestingly, most doctors say detoxing is basically bullshit). He also claims that he only drank alcohol twice during the entire five months of filming and both of those times were caught by the cameras.

Vicki’s daughter Briana—who openly hates Brooks—has told a story of when she first met Brooks. She insists that he told her he had pancreatic cancer but later revealed that he actually just pancreatitis, or inflammation of the pancreas. In the E! interview, Brooks says he had lesions on his pancreas and blames this mixup on game of telephone, wherein Vicki gave Briana the wrong information.

Perhaps the most damming rumor came towards the end of the season. Brooks showed cast member Tamra Barney PET scans that were reportedly done at Newport Imaging Center. Meghan later calls Newport Imaging and learns that they don’t actually do PET scans at their facility.

Brooks explains that he went to Newport Imaging for the scans and they referred him to a different hospital which actually did the scans. He says he simply received his results on Newport Imaging letterhead, which seems like a weird thing for them to do.

Bromley also asks him about a rumor that Newport Imaging is planning on suing him for fraud, which Ayers brushes off by saying he hasn’t been served with anything yet.

Brooks blames the whole debacle on the women of the show trying to stir up drama for excitement and ratings. However, it strikes me as particularly, uniquely cruel, even for the Real Housewives franchise, to make up shit about someone’s serious health problems just for the cameras. At the end of this season of Real Housewives of Orange County, it is revealed that Shannon Beador’s husband David had an affair last year that both Tamra Barney and Heather Debrow knew about. Both women kept their mouths shut during last season’s reunion because they felt something like that was too personal and hurtful to reveal. Additionally, Tamra has been engaged in an ugly custody battle with her ex-husband, which none of the women ever discussed on camera.

Granted, nobody really likes Brooks, but clearly the women are capable of some tact. I don’t know guys. I really don’t know. There are two more reunion episodes to come which I imagine won’t lead to any real resolution considering that Brooks is standing firm on his diagnoses. Reality television is weird.