Erika Jayne dropped an emotional bomb on her Real Housewives of Beverly Hills cast members Tuesday evening.
When new Housewife Teddi Mellencamp was talking about her famous father, John Cougar Mellencamp, Jayne was asked about her father.
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“I don’t know him,” the 46-year-old pop singer told her castmates. “I didn’t grow up with my father. We don’t speak.”
Jayne explained that her mom, Renee Chahoy, gave birth to her at 18 years old, and that her dad left “for good” when she was only 9 months old. They reconnected briefly when she was in her mid-twenties, she continued.
“The first time I met my father was when I was 25. I was visiting here in Los Angeles, I had not moved here yet. And he came down to meet me,” she said. “It wasn’t emotional, it was like meeting a stranger.”
Asked by Lisa Vanderpump what the meeting was like, Jayne said she shook her father’s hand, saying, ” ‘Hi, hello. Nice to meet you.’ “
“It wasn’t like this long-lost s— in the movies where you run towards one another. ‘Oh my God, dad, where have you been?’ ” she joked. “And I didn’t expect him to sweep me up in his arms and go, ‘Oh my God, what have I done.’ It wasn’t like that.”
The Dancing with the Stars alum admitted to the camera that there were times throughout her life that she wished her dad had been there for.
“Sure you wish you had a dad,” she said. “Of course, when everyone talks about their dads, you go, ‘Oh I missed out at having a dad.’ … I think a little girl always wants her dad.”
But she doesn’t think too hard about it, she added.
“At the same time, I don’t feel like I’m missing something in my life,” Jayne said. “It’s okay in hindsight because everything turned out good…I don’t have this relationship but I have a lot of other fabulous relationships. I have a great marriage, great son, great family.”
One thing Jayne wanted to emphasize was that her lack of a relationship with her father isn’t what led her to marry an older man, 78-year-old husband Thomas.
“It’s all too easy to say, ‘You didn’t have a dad, therefore, you married an older man,’ ” she said. “Listen, I didn’t marry my dad. My dad is much younger than my husband. So f— you!”
This kind of insight was important for her fellow Bravo Housewives, they revealed.
“You have such empathy,” Lisa Rinna said. “And you go, ‘Okay, another piece of the puzzle.’ I don’t know how that really affects someone but I imagine that makes you want to protect yourself. Because I think she’s smart and she’s got boundaries. I look at it and go, ‘God I wish I was more like that.’ “
Real Housewives of Beverly Hills airs Tuesdays at 9 p.m. ET on Bravo.
Photo credit: Bravo, Instagram / @theprettymess
