Roxanne 
Vicki Gunvalson is looking back on one of the most controversial relationships in Real Housewives of Orange County history.
The OG of the OC opened up about her ex-boyfriend Brooks Ayers and the cancer scandal that rocked RHOC during Season 10.
While attending the RHOC Season 20 premiere party on Tuesday, June 30, Vicki spoke to Us Weekly about her past relationships and admitted that when she loves someone, she goes all in.
“When I love, I love hard, and I trust,” Vicki said. “Now people say trust and verify. I don’t want to be a detective in a relationship. You tell me something, I’m gonna believe that. And obviously we know what happened with that.”
RHOC fans will never forget Vicki’s relationship with Brooks, which became one of the franchise’s most talked-about storylines after the cast began questioning his stage III cancer diagnosis.
The drama exploded during Season 10 when Brooks’ medical records became a major point of discussion among the women. After months of scrutiny, Brooks later admitted that he fabricated documents in an attempt to prove he had cancer.
“What I did was wrong and inexcusable,” Brooks told E! News in November 2015. “I acted alone, without Vicki’s knowledge, to produce documents for a reality TV show in hopes of putting doubts about my cancer to rest. … From this day forward, my own personal journey with this disease will remain private as I initially intended over a year ago.”
More than 10 years later, Vicki says she still has unanswered questions about what really happened.
“I believed him, and who knows what the real story is because I never got to talk to him,” Vicki said. “He left me in the middle of the night, and that was it.”
Vicki admitted that she never got the closure she needed from Brooks.
“I never got closure on that guy, never. And then he got married real quick. … When you give your life to somebody and financially give money to those people, and then all of a sudden they lie to you. It’s hard.”
Brooks went on to marry Christy Groves in 2018 in Indiana.
The Brooks scandal remains one of the darkest chapters in Vicki’s RHOC journey. For years, fans questioned how much Vicki knew, while Vicki has maintained that she believed the man she loved at the time.
Looking back, Vicki says her issue was that she trusted too easily and did not want to play detective in her own relationship.
Despite the pain from that chapter, Vicki says she is now in a better place. The longtime RHOC star is currently in a relationship with Michael Smith, and viewers will get to see more of their dynamic during Season 20.
“As I get older, it’s not just about the love tank. It’s about having peace and having quality relationships,” Vicki explained. “Back in my 40s and 50s, it was my love tank. Now it’s like, I love him. I want the best for him. I want him to never be embarrassed by me. He’s a developer. He’s very private, but this is my gig. Just respect it and he does.”
Vicki’s love life has always been a major part of her RHOC story, from her marriage to Donn Gunvalson to her highly publicized relationship with Brooks.
But now, 10 years after the cancer drama, Vicki says she is focused less on filling her “love tank” and more on peace, respect and stability.
