Jennifer Pedranti States There’s ‘No Reason’ for Slade at RHOC Reunion
Jennifer Pedranti is backing Gretchen Rossi’s partner Slade Smiley in his decision to skip the reunion for The Real Housewives of Orange County season 19, despite his role in some of the season’s biggest confrontations.
At BravoCon 2025, Jennifer, 48, shared with Us Weekly that her fiancé, Ryan Boyajian, was “never actually officially asked” to attend the finale, contrary to what had been reported.
“They reached out to me, asking, ‘Would Ryan want to go?’ and I said, ‘Oh, you’re not going to get Ryan there.’ This was weeks in advance,” she recounted on Saturday, November 15, during the Las Vegas event. “Then Ryan was confused, thinking he had canceled at the last minute.”
Jennifer emphasized that the real question was, “Did Slade want to go?” to the RHOC reunion, noting that Slade, 52, had a complicated relationship with cast member Katie Ginella and her husband, Matt Ginella.
Reflecting on the situation, Jennifer told Us, “I think Slade made the right choice. There was no reason for Slade to attend.”
Gretchen, 47, wholeheartedly agreed, stating in an exclusive interview with Us that there was “no need” for him to show up.
“There was nothing to prove,” she remarked. “It’s amusing because when Matt said, ‘Oh, he called me 20 times in a row,’ we looked at the phone records and I was like, ‘What did I miss? He called you once; what’s going on?’”
Gretchen remarked that knowing your truth, as she believes Slade does, means you won’t feel compelled to defend it publicly.
“It is what it is,” she explained. “If he decided he wanted to be part of the show, that’s on him.”
Fans of RHOC are aware that Katie, 41, had conflicts with nearly every Housewife this season, including Gretchen.
Despite starting this season as friends, Gretchen and Katie’s relationship deteriorated after Katie met with Tamra Judge in episode 14 and alleged that Gretchen and Slade asked her to fabricate a story for them.
Katie claimed during the show that Gretchen told her she had been roofied at Tamra’s house 14 years ago during the notorious “naked wasted” incident and required hospitalization. Gretchen maintains that she never claimed to have been drugged, asserting that Katie was distorting the truth.
“Gretchen is lying,” Katie alleged in the October episode. “Slade told me, ‘Make sure Katie sticks to the story. She can’t waver. That’s the nail in her coffin.’ His exact words were, ‘She has to stick to the story because it’s a legal matter.’ I feared I would be in trouble.”
Katie also revealed that her husband, Matt, stepped in after feeling his wife was being manipulated by Slade.
“Suddenly, it shifted from Slade contacting him repeatedly to total silence,” Katie claimed. “Matt decided, ‘I need to reach out to Slade again and sit down with him, man to man, and figure out what’s going on.’”
Matt shared his side during part 2 of the RHOC reunion, stating that Slade sent him a text saying, “Gretchen and Katie maintained their alignment and questioned her timeline. She exited.”
During the reunion, Gretchen accused Katie and Matt of manipulating the text messages while asserting that she and Slade never attempted to hide anything.
KiKi Monique, the journalist who found herself at the center of this season’s Real Housewives of Orange County turmoil involving Katie Ginella, spoke exclusively to Us Weekly about her side. During season 19, Tamra Judge accused Katie, 41, of relaying a rumor about Gretchen to KiKi. Reportedly, this rumor was […]
In the aftermath of Katie’s disputes with Gretchen and Slade, she also clashed with Jennifer, who mentioned to Us that the cast encountered Katie at BravoCon but she wasn’t certain they could ever reconcile.
“There’s been no connection. We haven’t communicated,” Jennifer explained, adding that after Katie failed her RHOC lie detector test this season, she started to pull away from the group.
When asked if she could envision Katie rejoining them, Jennifer replied, “If she was genuinely trying to build friendships, then sure [there’s space for her], but not through back-channeling, engaging with bloggers, and all of that. It doesn’t reflect well on any of us.”
