Photo: Jason Mendez/Getty
The Real Housewives of Beverly Hillsalum, 51, tells PEOPLE atBravoCon 2022she’s “really excited” to join the cast ofThe Real Housewives of Orange County— becoming the first Housewife ever to make the jump across cities.
“The difference for me is I went through so much trauma when I was onBeverly Hills,” Armstrong says. “And now I’m getting to have such a fresh perspective of just being with the ladies and having fun and speaking my truth and not being concerned about what it’s like to actually go home at the end of the day.”
“When I was onBeverly Hills, I had a friend of mine call me [during] season 1 and said, ‘I don’t know who that girl is on that show, but it’s not you. Like, I’ve known you for 20 years, and you seem nothing like yourself.’ I really was having so much drama at home with my marriage and the abuse in my life that I didn’t really get a chance to be myself,” she admits.
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Armstrong says it now feels “freeing to just be like, ‘Here’s who I am,’ " adding: “People are going to get to know a different side of me.”
The OG Housewife, who says she is “a huge advocate for victims and survivors” of domestic violence, explains that “you become like a shell of yourself” when experiencing abuse.
“You’re constantly changing in order to keep your abuser at bay, to keep the lid on the pot from boiling over. And so you start to take pieces of yourself away. You don’t laugh as much, maybe you don’t talk as much, and you just start to chip away at who you are. And I just became a ghost, really, at that point,” Armstrong tells PEOPLE.
“And when I watched season 1 ofBeverly Hills, I was like, ‘Eek!’ I was like a Stepford Wife. It was just weird to even watch myself realizing I had lost a lot of laughter and a lot of life. So now that I have it back, I’m excited for the fans and the viewers and people who are also coming off of the domestic violence situation to know there is life after.”
In August, PEOPLEconfirmedthat Armstrong would be joiningRHOCfor its upcoming 17th season as a Friend on the show.
Armstrong was one of the founding members ofRHOBHwhen it premiered in 2010. She remained on the show as a Housewife for the first three seasons and has appeared as a guest many times since.
The reality starmarriedattorney John Bluher, 64, in 2014 and moved to Orange County where they live with Kennedy, her 16-year-old daughter from her marriage to ex-husband Russell.
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The Vena CBD owner, 55,shared a photo of she and Armstrongon social media from June’sUltimate Girls Trippremiere party in NYC.
“Not only am I returning toRHOCfor season 17 but my girl Taylor Armstrong is joining me along for the ride,” Judge wrote. “Double the trouble coming your way.”
Armstrong responded to Judge’s post, writing on Twitter, “Here we gooooo!!!!” alongside a sea of emoji.
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Production on season 17 ofRHOCbegan in July, and BravoCon 2022 is taking place through Sunday at the Jacob Javits Center in New York City.
source: people.com
