The Most Shocking Stories From Erika Jayne’s New ‘RHOBH’ Book

From humble beginnings in Atlanta, Georgia to pop star and Real Housewives of Beverly Hills icon, Erika (Girardi) Jayne has done it all.

The 46-year-old has never been one to keep her stories close to the vest, and in her newly released memoir, Pretty Mess, the Bravo celeb tells all on everything from her troubled family life, her first marriage and the creation of alter ego, Erika Jayne.

She also shared some great behind-the-scenes gossip from RHOBH and her dramatic stint on Dancing with the Stars, admitted to getting a nose job and breast implants, and revealed the details about her one and only ménage à trois.

Keep scrolling for some of the juiciest passages from Pretty Mess, which you can buy your own copy of here.

On losing her virginity

In her book, Jayne revealed she lost her virginity to a high school boyfriend named Jonathan when she was a teenager.

“I lost my virginity to him when I was fourteen. We were in his bedroom at his parents’ house and the Eagles’ ‘Hotel California’ was playing on the stereo,” she wrote. “He wasn’t a virgin, but he wanted to be a gentleman and not push me. I was ready and I had to convince him of that.”

“Jonathan is still a great guy,” she added, “and we are in touch to this day.”

On her Go-Go dancing years

After moving to New York City, Jayne and her friend started dancing at go-go clubs around New Jersey, which the RHOBH celeb makes clear in her book were not strip clubs.

“There were no lap dances or glamorous champagne rooms or anything like that. This was just dancing in a microbikini and talking to the guys — all blue-collar dudes after work — for their extra singles,” she said. “I wish it had been something exciting like that, but none of that was happening in suburban New Jersey … This was way before my boob job, so I was small and natural.”

She also added that a lot of the dance moves she used back in her go-go days are the same ones she uses now while performing.

 

On her three-way encounter

The reality star also detailed a “three-way situation” she had one year on Valentine’s Day with an ex and his wife.

“There’s only one time I had a same-sex encounter. To be fair, it was more of a three-way situation,” she wrote. “An ex-boyfriend I kept in touch with had married an acquaintance of mine. He was about six feel tall, muscular, educated and professional. She was a light-skinned Caribbean beauty with golden highlights in her dark hair. They were a handsome couple.”

After getting dinner together, the three of them went back to the couple’s place and “had quite the memorable Valentine’s Day.”

“It was a very positive experience, I had a great time with the two of them, and it satisfied my curiosity,” she added.

On her attraction to husband Tom

After the end of her first marriage, Jayne moved to Los Angeles while co-parenting her son with her ex. Her life changed immediately when she met Tom Girardi, a lawyer 33 years her senior, while working at a restaurant.

“What really attracted me to him was the way that he interacted with people. This man treats everyone with respect. Everybody loved Tom,” she said.

After working at the restaurant for a year she decided to give  him her number.

“Everything kind of fell into place, and we gelled immediately … When someone is positive, successful, loving, inspirational — I gotta tell you right now, that s— is seductive,” she wrote. “That is more enticing to me than six-pack abs and a chiseled jawline.”

 

 

On her engagement to Tom

When Jayne and Girardi got engaged, he was clear he didn’t want to wear a wedding band, but the two also never got a prenup.

“It never came up. let’s be serious, Mr. Girardi knows the law so well that a prenup is not going to do s—,” she explained. “As any lawyer will tell you, there is always a way around a prenup, even if you think it is ironclad.”

He supported her desire to become a pop star and even attended her first gig as Erika Jayne, a San Francisco sex party called the Nymphomaniac’s Ball.

On finding her way to RHOBH

After performing at different clubs for years as Erika Jayne, she had almost given up on her alter ego before the Real Housewives came into her life.

“I thought it was time to hang up my catsuits and settle back into the quiet life of being the wife of a successful attorney,” she said. “The return on investment wasn’t making sense anymore … The whole process was beginning to feel a bit rote.”

Jayne was friends with Yolanda Hadid, who was the one who suggested she join RHOBH. Although neither Jayne nor her husband had ever watched the show, she tried out and landed the job immediately.

“I will always have a soft spot for Kyle [Richards], because she was so kind to me on that first day. She has been on the show forever. She could have been a real b— if she wanted to,” Jayne said.

 

On being on RHOBH

Since making her way to Bravo celebdom, Jayne has become a fan favorite. But she’s also been involved in her fair share of drama.

“When you sign your name on that paper, you’d better be prepared to look like a fool, to be made an idiot, and now to be shown in your best light. It’s an inevitability,” she said of being on the show.

Addressing her infamous blowup at Eileen Davidson in Hong Kong, she said, “There comes a point in every Housewives’ life that the frustration takes over. Each personality expresses itself in a different way: some yell, some cry, some get mad, some get quiet … I felt I wasn’t being heard and that what I was trying to say had morphed into something else. That’s what I exploded on Eileen when she said something so innocent.”

She added there’s a lot of “self-preservation” behind the scenes. “Some people will keep your secrets and look out for you. Some wouldn’t piss on you if you were on fire,” she said. “And I’m not just talking about my cast. That’s a reoccurring theme among the Housewives of every city.”

On her Dancing with the Stars drama

Jayne competed on Dancing with the Stars in 2017 with partner Gleb Savchenko, but the experience wasn’t all she had hoped for.

She initially was upset when judge Len Goodman called one of her performances “too raunchy,” but then she started reading some of the online comments.

“I know the first rule of the internet is never to read the comments, but it seemed like a lot of people wanted me to fail. They enjoyed seeing it,” she said.

She knew she was headed for the chopping block when she was cast as a fish during the show’s Disney week.

“I wanted to be a villainess or a princess. I could identify with anything but Dory, the fish who can’t find her way home,” she said. “As soon as we got that assignment, I knew the die was cast. They were going to help me find my way home.”

“The biggest lesson I learned from the whole experience is that there is such a thing as being too much woman. There is,” she said. “What they want is cute: cute smiles, dainty figures. Erika Jayne is a lot of things, but no one will ever call her ‘cute.’”

The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills airs Tuesdays at 9 p.m. ET on Bravo.

Pick up your copy of Pretty Mess here.