Roxanne 
After 16 years together and an on-camera engagement during The Real Housewives of Orange County original run, fans have long wondered why Gretchen Rossi and Slade Smiley still haven’t walked down the aisle.
In a candid interview with the OC Register, Gretchen opened up about the real reasons behind the delay, revealing it’s far less about reluctance and more about life’s unpredictable twists.
“There really isn’t any like, ‘Oh, we’re not getting married,’” Gretchen explained. “I don’t think that’s ever been our intent. It’s been more about circumstantial situations.” The couple initially set a wedding date but soon realized it fell on a holiday weekend when many family members were unavailable. Then, Slade’s work commitments took him away for months filming a History Channel miniseries in Mexico.
As if scheduling conflicts weren’t enough, Gretchen’s personal priorities shifted. “I started looking at my biological clock, going, you know, I’m 26, 27, and I really want to have a child. By the time we figure out this wedding crap, I’m probably not even going to be able to have a child anymore.” So they pivoted their focus toward starting a family through IVF, especially since Slade had a vasectomy 15 years earlier.
Welcoming their daughter Skylar brought both joy and hardship. Gretchen shared how she struggled deeply with postpartum depression for nearly three years: “I felt overweight and I didn’t feel good. My mind, you have a newborn, you’re not sleeping, you’re angry, all the stuff.” She stresses that their wedding delay wasn’t about hesitancy to marry, but about life’s realities: “It was just circumstantial stuff.”
Now, with Skylar turning six this year, marriage talks are back on the table. “Everyone’s asking us so maybe this is the time to do it. Skylar is of an age where she can truly understand it. She can be our flower girl.” But Gretchen also offers a refreshing perspective on what commitment means to her:
“I feel like there’s something to be said about two people choosing every day to wake up and stay together rather than people that want to put so much emphasis on, ‘Oh, you have to have a marriage license.’ To me, it proves something more that you don’t have a marriage license and you’re choosing to stay together because you want to be together. I actually think it’s a beautiful thing that Slade and I have been able to show that we’re in love and we’re together because we want to be, not because we have to be.”
Aside from her personal life, Gretchen also gave some juicy hints about the upcoming Real Housewives season — a season she describes as anything but predictable. “There are so many twists and turns and new things that happen. Every time you turn around, there’s some new storyline that could be a whole season.” She admits to being at the center of much of the drama, and teases, “It ended in a way that was unexpected and surprising.”
Despite renewed hopes for peace, old tensions with castmate Tamra Judge flare up early on. “When I decided to do the show, I really wasn’t coming back to start this feud with Tamra again,” Gretchen confesses. “I was hopeful that maybe we could actually have an adult conversation… There could be some accountability that was taken on her part, which I was foolish to think because I’ve been watching her, you know, for the last 11 years, being the same person.”
Still, Gretchen stands firm: “I certainly wasn’t afraid to call her out and address her on the B.S. and the stuff that she had done for years.”
