Taylor Armstrong, who grew up in Tulsa as Shana Hughes, will return Friday for a book signing.
(Peter Kramer/AP Images for Bravo)
My interview last week with Tulsa's very own
Real Housewife of Beverly Hills, Taylor Armstrong, was an interesting one.
She talked to the
Tulsa World -- aka, me -- in advance of a book signing she's appearing at this Friday at Barnes and Noble, 5231 E. 41st St.
We talked about her new memoir,
Hiding from Reality, and the aftermath of the beyond crazy year she's endured.
In case you aren't familiar, Taylor's the one whose husband, Russell, committed suicide last August, following the announcement of their split, and Taylor's revelation of physical abuse.
Suddenly, the
RH franchise got very real. Too real for many critics, who accused Bravo -- and even Taylor herself -- of exploiting the incident for ratings.
I couldn't get every dishy detail into the story for space restrictions, so I saved some of these tidbits for this blog.
Anyway, for those of you who are ardent
Housewives fans (like myself,) here are some more nuggets from our interview:
On whether or not she'll return to RH of Bev Hills for another season:"We don't know the status -- we just wait and let Bravo do the announcement. There are so many rumors...I don't know yet. We haven't been publicly confirmed for season 3 as far as we know."
On whether or not the Housewives are real friends:"That's the question I get asked the most . . . as time goes on, and after you see all the glamor and wealth, I hope as people start to see how deep our friendships really are, how intertwined our lives really are ... Bravo did a wonderful thing pulling in such a diverse group of women. These are five strong women, even though we don't always get along -- we hold each other accountable for things.
They've also helped me learn a lot about my self, and helped me realize I was on a path that I wasn't happy about."
On dealing with the paparazzi:"It's not something you ever get used to, but I'm not as surprised as I used to be ... I find it fascinating that they do such an amazing job finding us, they show up in the darnedest places. I could be in some park in a neighborhood with (daughter) Kennedy, and the next thing I know, I see somebody with a camera...I realize it comes with the territory, but the biggest thing that bothers me is when I'm with Kennedy, I like to have time with her."
On how Kennedy is dealing with everything, including paparazzi:"She's great, thank you for asking. She doesn't know the difference; she thinks papparazzi follows everyone. As the show first started, she was 4 and she's 6 now, and she' thinks everybody is on TV... Kennedy has a ton of friends and is really outgoing and is growing up in such a sweet way."
On the controversy surrounding the lavish, $50,000 birthday party she threw for Kennedy on season 1:"I think what I was going through then, I had talked a lot in the book about growing up without a dad and the effect it had on my self-esteem -- what I was trying to do with her was create this fairy tale life for her to make up for what was going on behind closed doors ... I knew she was going to have a father figure, and I thought by putting all these Band Aids in place I could create a life for her that she would almost buy into."
On her homecoming to Tulsa:"I'm having all these flashbacks of places like 21st Street and Utica Square . . . but the most exciting part, too, is just going to see how much it's changed around there, from what I understand there's all these brand new areas."
