After its well-received, highly rated 18th season on Bravo, which concluded in November, “The Real Housewives of Orange County” will once again add Gretchen Rossi to its ranks — she will appear as a “friend” of the cast. Production on the show’s 19th season began this week, with the entire cast returning, except for former “friend” Alexis Bellino.
Rossi joined the cast of “The Real Housewives of Orange County” — the OG series that kicked of Bravo’s “Real Housewives” franchise — in Season 4, which premiered in November 2008. At the time of filming her first season, Rossi was engaged to Jeff Beitzel, an older man of means, and there were those in the cast who painted her as a golddigger (who “went to Bass Lake!”). By the time the season premiered, Beitzel had died.
Soon afterward, in Season 5, Rossi and Slade Smiley — sort of an original cast member, in that he’d been the fiancé of Jo De La Rosa, who was on the show’s first and second seasons — got together. Their relationship was also a source of controversy among the cast, since Smiley was known for inserting himself into storylines, and, once again, there were those who questioned the authenticity of their relationship.
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However, in the show’s eighth season Rossi — her final one as a series regular, as it would turn out — delivered an elaborate proposal to Smiley, and he said yes. Rossi and Smiley are still together, recently celebrated their 16th anniversary, and have a daughter, Skylar Gray Smiley, who was born in July 2019. They never did get married.
Rossi was let go after the show’s eighth season — the perception had grown among the audience that her stories had become increasingly staged and inorganic. But she’s stayed within the Bravo firmament: She appeared as a guest in Season 12 of “RHOC.” And she was a cast member in the likely doomed “Morocco” season of Peacock’s “Ultimate Girls Trip,” which was filmed in January 2023. That installment of “Ultimate Girls Trip” has been disappeared due to Caroline Manzo suing Bravo and NBCUniversal in January 2024, alleging she had been sexually harassed and assaulted by her castmate Brandi Glanville. So Rossi’s turn in that show will probably never be shown — but now, viewers will see her in action later this year on “RHOC.”
In addition to Tamra Judge — who clashed with Rossi often during their time on the show together — Rossi will join returning cast members Shannon Storms Beador, Heather Dubrow, Jennifer Pedranti, Katie Ginella, Gina Kirschenheiter and Emily Simpson for Season 19.
Only Bellino will not return. The one-time full-time cast member, who for Season 18 came back as a “friend” and antagonist of castmate Beador, was not invited back for this season. Thoughout Season 18, Bellino irritated nearly everyone, even her close ally Judge, and in the end, Bellino was shown the door.