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Credit: Dave Starbuck/Future Image/Cover Images
Garcelle Beauvais opened up about the defining moment that led to her exit from the Real Housewives of Beverly Hills and recalled her home being swatted while appearing on a radio show earlier this week.
Months after announcing her departure from the Bravo reality show, Garcelle, 58, whose friendship with Sutton Stracke, 54, came to an abrupt end at the season 14 reunion, recalled the moment in which it was “very clear” that she would not be returning to the series for season 15.
“The reunion was very clear to me. I didn’t have an ally anywhere,” Garcelle explained on an episode of SiriusXM’s Smith Sisters Live.
Although Garcelle acknowledged that running into “bumps in the road” is “part of the show,” she said that after the series was no longer fun, and after her 18-year-old son faced online hate, continuing wasn’t an option.
“Jax [was] getting trolled and really just, viciously. That was hard. And then he said, ‘I don’t wanna go back.’ And I said, ‘I completely understand that and I respect that.’ Jaid was like, ‘I’ll do it.’ And I said, ‘Okay.’ And then it just became, it just wasn’t fun for me anymore,” she shared.
As for the swatting incident at her home, Garcelle recalled taking 11 teenagers, all of whom were Black except one, to her beach house.
“I had them from Thursday on. So by Saturday afternoon, I’m like, ‘You know what, everybody’s gotta go.’ We’re gonna go back home because if I don’t leave, they’re not leaving. So I’m like, ‘We’re packing up, we’re all going home. Tell your parents to pick you up, whoever’s not driving,” she revealed.
After returning home, Garcelle received a series of phone calls, including one from her neighbor.
“She goes, ‘Our street is shut down and there’s FBI cars. I’m in front of your house.’ And she goes, ‘They want your number.’ And like, being Black. I’m like, ‘Don’t give my number,’” Garcelle said. “So she goes, ‘We’re not allowed to go outside.’”
While Garcelle got off the phone at that point, she heard from the neighbor again, 20 minutes later, and was informed that her house had been “swatted.”
“I didn’t even know what that was. So I called Jaid and I go, ‘What is swatting?’ And he’s like, ‘Mom, they do it to YouTubers or streamers or somebody calls and says there’s something crazy at your house so FBI shows up.’ I have video of like rifles with lights on them,” Garcelle shared.
Looking back, Garcelle admitted she was extremely grateful that she and the teenagers weren’t home when the FBI showed up.
“If somebody just pulled out their phone to videotape. All night long, I kept on saying, ‘Thank you, God. Thank you, God. God, thank you, God. We weren’t there,’” she stated.
