KiKi Monique, the journalist at the center of the drama on this season of The Real Housewives of Orange County involving Katie Ginella, spoke exclusively to Us Weekly about her side of the story.
During season 19, Tamra Judge accused Katie, 41, of telling KiKi a rumor involving Gretchen Rossi.
The rumor that was reportedly shared was about an infamous dinner (nicknamed: “naked wasted”) at Tamra’s home during season 8 in 2013. Katie reportedly told KiKi that Gretchen, 46, claimed she had to be hospitalized after the event and that drugs were found in her system – the implication being she was allegedly roofied.
On the show, Katie denied telling KiKi the rumor but admitted to talking to her in the past. Tamra, 57, didn’t believe Katie and said she heard the information that Katie told KiKi from another reporter who was friends with KiKi. Other RHOC stars have cast doubt on her claims.
Now, KiKi is sharing her side with Us. The journalist and content creator said she went to follow Katie after she was announced as a new RHOC cast member and realized Katie was actually following her. Us understands Katie started following KiKi for her true crime content.
KiKi said she followed Katie back, which led to Katie sending her a direct message.
KiKi Monique Courtesy of KiKi Monique
KiKi said the two exchanged brief messages. Katie and fellow RHOC star Jennifer Pedranti then appeared as guests on KiIi’s radio show, Reality Checked on Radio Andy SiriusXM, in September 2024. She said this was the first time she met Katie via Zoom.
“I was really excited [about Katie coming on] because I had really been a cheerleader for Katie that whole season, and I knew she wanted to say some things on my show to contradict some of the things that Emily [Simpson] had put out there in that season,” KiKi told Us.
After the episode, KiKi said Katie put her on a group text chat with Jen, 48. The journalist said Katie told her to let them know whenever she was in Orange County, so they could meet up.
A month later, KiKi said she headed to Orange County with a friend and decided to text the group chat. She said Jen said she was out of town. Katie reportedly texted back telling KiKi she was shopping for the RHOC reunion, which was days away, but could meet afterward.
KiKi said the two met for lunch later that day. “We were literally just having a good time. I obviously asked her about, you know, ‘Oh, you’re shopping for a reunion. Can I see your reunion dress?’ I was, I was doing things that anyone that’s nosy like me would be asking and just really, you know, just like having a good time,” she told Us.
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She said the two talked about the upcoming reunion. “It was her first season as a Housewife and I did want her to succeed, so we’re just talking about that and we’re literally just having a casual lunch, nothing very serious,” she said.
“And then as the lunch kind of went on, that’s when she mentioned that she’d had a dinner with Gretchen. Now, I, again, this was October 2024. So, Gretchen had not been announced as a Housewife,” KiKi said.
KiKi said Katie then brought up the “naked wasted” rumor. She claimed Katie said something along the lines of “Did you know that at that [Naked Wasted dinner], that afterward [Gretchen] had to go to the hospital and they found drugs in her system.”
KiKi said she was “floored.” She said she asked Katie if there was a police report, if the police were involved or if production did anything. Katie said she did not know anything else.
When asked if Katie ever asked her to spread the rumor, KiKi said, “Absolutely not.”
KiKi told Us, “And that’s the one thing I do also want to clear up. She never came to me and said, ‘I want you to take this information and do something with it.’ And so, I don’t like that that’s being told because, you know, even though she’s called me a liar, she did not do that.”
She said she continued to stay in touch with Katie after the meeting.
Katie Ginella Casey Durkin/Bravo via Getty Images
KiKi, who reports on celebrity news, said the story about Gretchen came up in her mind again after hearing in January that Gretchen was rejoining the RHOC cast after her exit in season 8.
KiKi said, “‘I [didn’t] want this to come out,’ but if there’s any truth to the story — as someone who wants to get to the bottom of things like this — I do actually want to find out if there’s any truth to this because, if she went to the hospital, if there is like a toxicology report, I would love to know.”
KiKi said she reached out to a trusted media source who is a friend. She asked her friend for help in figuring out if the rumor was true or not.
“And that journalist helped me, and when he got back to me, I was very comfortable that that story about the hospital just wasn’t true,” she said. “So, I did nothing with it ‘cause there was nothing to do with it.”
KiKi added, “I ended up having a separate conversation with [a second] journalist, and that conversation included a lot of things, but this story [also came] up.”
“It was an off-the-record conversation. I never expected it to get back to anyone on the cast, but it was taken to Tamra Judge, and that’s how it ended up coming up on camera. I didn’t know that that happened,” she continued. “All I know is at the end of February. I’m on the tarmac about to fly to New York for two weeks. I get a text from Katie saying, ‘Are you around to film?’”
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KiKi said she responded with a question mark. Katie reportedly told KiKi her name got brought up on camera. Kiki said she replied with an exclamation mark and asked, “Who and what about?”
Katie then mentioned it had to deal with Tamra. KiKi said she asked what it was about and Katie allegedly said she was not sure. KiKi said this was the last time she spoke to Katie.
On the show, the cast asked Katie to call KiKi to clear everything up. Katie claimed she reached out to KiKi but never heard back. KiKi said this was not true and that she did respond to her messages.
After receiving the text from Katie, KiKi told Us that she spoke to two journalist friends, off the record, about the rumor. She said she found out that one of them had told Tamra.
Gretchen Rossi Ethan Miller/Getty Images
“And I’m freaking out cause, like, I don’t want to be involved in this. The whole point was to not have this story be brought, you know, to camera, and now it’s kind of the opposite has happened,” she told Us.
She said she went into denial mode until she received a call from a RHOC producer asking her to shoot a scene with Gretchen due to her name being brought up during filming. “And that’s where I was like, ‘I had two choices. I can just ignore this and be like, I don’t want to be a part of it,’” KiKi said. “But now that I know that my reputation is being questioned and I’m being called a liar.”
KiKi said she had lunch with Gretchen and Gina, 41, which was filmed and aired this week on RHOC. She said she told Gretchen what Katie told her. ‘And Gretchen was horrified. She denied it. She said she never said it. I didn’t really know how to feel because again, at this point, I also didn’t know who to believe,” KiKi explained to Us. “Up until that point, obviously, like, I really only had a relationship with Katie, but I have a woman in front of me who is crying and saying she didn’t say this, and I can believe [it]. Do I believe that Gretchen could have said something about the hospital and Katie could have taken it and ran with it? I can believe that too.”
When asked why she felt Katie was telling a different story, KiKi told Us she felt she was trying to “protect” herself and “the other women on the show.”
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“[Katie] figured I could just be collateral damage because who was going to believe me, especially if I keep getting labeled a blogger …[which] in this Bravo world, it’s a very negative thing,” she told Us.
“And for someone like me who has single-handedly built up her career and her reputation on her own, which I’m sorry, in this particular industry in L.A. as a plus-size black woman is very difficult to do when you have no contacts, no connections,” Monique added. “And I did it all on my own, to have that sort of just ripped away in an instant because somebody wants to call you a liar is the most hurtful thing about this. I don’t know why she chose to throw me under the bus, other than she doesn’t see me as valuable.”
KiKi didn’t hold back when asked how she feels about Katie now.
“It’s really upsetting cause, honestly, in my mind, I thought I would be getting an apology from her for calling me a liar to all of these people watching a show. She knows I’m not a liar, but instead, she has chosen to double, triple down, continue to say that she didn’t tell me,” she said. “And continue to make it seem like I’m a liar. And then she went so far as to block me. So now it’s like, I don’t know, it’s super hurtful and I’m over here trying to salvage my reputation.”
A source familiar with the situation tells Us, “There is a piece of this story with KiKi that has yet to be told.”
KiKi appeared on this week’s episode of RHOC and can be heard on Reality Checked on Radio Andy SiriusXM channel 102 with cohost Dorinda Medley.
