Sutton Stracke is getting right to the point.
The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills star spoke out in a May 9 interview with Page Six on the long-swirling rumor that castmate Kathy Hilton called Sutton's assistant, Josh, a homophobic slur while filming season 12. Reports of the alleged incident first surfaced in March after an RHOBH group trip to Aspen. After a fan asked, "Did Kathy Hilton really use a slur when talking about your assistant?" on one of Sutton's Instagram posts, Sutton responded, "no."
Now she's elaborating on the situation.
"I don't read a lot of stuff," Sutton said, explaining that her three kids and boutique business keep her busy. "And so I miss a lot. But when I saw that about Josh, that's going to make me not happy because untruths need to be squashed. And no one ever said that."
In fact, Josh wasn't even on the cast trip to Aspen, Sutton added. "This was ridiculous."
Sutton went on to note that Josh and Kathy "like each other, they respect each other."
She tried to make as much clear in April by sharing a photo of her alongside both Josh and Kathy.
"Josh is the best," Sutton captioned the Instagram post. "And he got a promotion yesterday. He is no longer my assistant. He executes everything we do around here with grace and style, and we have fun while doing it! And @kathyhilton has been nothing but kind and respectful to him."
Josh shared the same photo to his own profile, writing, "When you meet good people, hold tight to them. These are two of the most wonderful people I've ever had the pleasure to know."
"And as much as I've loved being your 'homosexual assistant,'" he continued, "this new adventure we are about to take is looking quite exciting. Love you @suttonstracke and @kathyhilton."
All's well in the RHOBH-verse then, right? Not exactly. Read on to catch up with all of the show's other off-screen drama before season 12 premieres Wednesday, May 11 at 8 p.m. on Bravo.
An RHOBH cast trip to Aspen, Colorado commenced in February, but as we now know, this was no typical vacation. Kathy Hilton told E! News that the group "did have some squabbles," and at one point, several of the ladies straight-up left her sister Kyle Richards' rental property.
Then, one night, Kathy found herself alone in the house and scared, so she left a comment on her husband Rick Hilton's since-deleted Instagram post: "Please call me I need to get out of here now!!!!!"
Screenshots of the comment quickly went viral on social media; however, Kathy insisted that she was just frightened after losing her phone and everyone leaving. Lisa Rinna has a different side of the story, though.
The RHOBH trailer became a point of contention for Erika and Garcelle Beauvais when the latter used a particular snippet from it—she could be seen telling Erika, "I don't have to make you look bad, you can do that on your own"—to promote her new memoir, Love Me as I Am. To tie in the book, Garcelle then wrote, "You know how else you can look bad all on your own? By not pre-ordering your copy of #LoveMeAsIAm before it comes out on Tuesday."
This clearly didn't sit well with Erika, as she documented herself throwing the book in the trash on Instagram.
In an April 13 appearance on Watch What Happens Live, Garcelle revealed where she stands with some of her RHOBH co-stars, including Kathy (who seemed to be at odds with several Housewives in the aforementioned season 12 trailer, including her very own sister, Kyle). Asked by Andy Cohen if she and Kathy are currently closer than Kathy and Kyle, Garcelle responded: "Absolutely."
Kyle admitted to being "shocked" by the comment during an Amazon Live stream the following day. "I mean, this is someone who has known my sister for two seasons on a reality show," she said of Garcelle. "Kathy was barely even on last season because she was busy with Paris' wedding. [Garcelle] is comparing knowing someone from a reality show for a couple seasons to a lifetime of being sisters, regardless if Kathy and I are having an issue right now or not."
Garcelle later told E! News that she reached out to Kyle that same day "and apologized if I hurt her feelings. I felt really bad."
In May, Sutton addressed the long-swirling rumor that Kathy had called Sutton's assistant, Josh, a homophobic slur while filming season 12. "I don't read a lot of stuff, and so I miss a lot," Sutton said. "But when I saw that about Josh, that's going to make me not happy because untruths need to be squashed. And no one ever said that."
Garcelle, Crystal and Sutton were shaping up to be RHOBH's new dream team, but the trio encountered trouble mid-season. Though they made up after the fact, Garcelle told E! News that "in re-watching it, new feelings emerge."
"New cuts are open," she added. "And so it's hard because you do it, and sometimes you resolve things, and then you watch it back, and it's like, 'Oh?' So I think that's what's happening to a lot of us."
After Garcelle called co-star Diana Jenkins "uneducated" on Watch What Happens Live, the newbie took to Instagram to list her charitable efforts. "Dear Garcelle, next time you go on national television why don't you educate viewers on how many times I went to Haiti," Diana wrote. "Your home country." She then proceeded to talk about the millions of dollars she said she's donated to various causes over the years.
After a sneak peek of RHOBH's July 6 episode hit social media, several fans were upset with Erika for berating Garcelle's 14-year-old son Jax, telling him to "get the f--k out" of his mom's birthday party. Dorit Kemsley and Kyle also came under fire as they could be seen laughing at Erika's behavior in the same clip. Kyle took to social media on July 5, claiming that she wasn't laughing about Erika cursing Jax out but rather Erika's "drunken, ridiculous behavior."
The same sneak peek clip showed Kyle accusing Sutton of lying about her two previous miscarriages, which prompted Kyle to once again take to social media to explain herself. "I had obviously had a few drinks and didn't express myself clearly and I was disappointed in the way I handled myself altogether," Kyle wrote in an Instagram Story. "I immediately called Sutton and apologized to her. I consider Sutton a close friend and care about her a lot."
Kyle said that Sutton accepted her apology and they have since moved on.
One-time RHOBH friend-of Dana Wilkey shared a speculative post alleging that Dorit and Kyle's husband, Mauricio Umansky, were romantically intertwined, prompting a strong rebuttal from Dorit. "Is something wrong with you woman?" she commented on Dana's Instagram post, which featured a fake movie poster for An Affair to Remember with an edited photo of Dorit and Mauricio. "Or are you just so miserable in your life you have nothing better to do? You're definitely one of the thirstiest people I've ever seen, I guess it's just as simple as that?" Read the full response here.
After Garcelle's son Jax, who had been on the receiving end of hateful comments on social media—some from those who claim to be fans of RHOBH—the network issued a statement condemning the cruel behavior.
On the show, Lisa accused Kathy of having a meltdown and allegedly insulting Kyle and other RHOBH cast members. There's no footage of the supposed events—not that viewers have seen, at least—but Lisa said the apparent breakdown was so dramatic she has "PTSD."
Kathy denied Lisa's version of the story and subsequently took to social media to throw shade at her accusations. Among Kathy's many Instagram stories was a clip posted by a fan of Lisa and Kim Richards' infamous Amsterdam dinner fight on RHOBH season five. "Lisa Rinna is talking? I think she forgot about all the stuff SHE HAS DONE," read the post, complete with a teacup emoji.
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