Karen Huger Reacts to Arrest Bodycam Video, RHOP Costars Call It ‘Performative’

On Sunday night’s reunion — which Karen Huger herself did not attend after she was found guilty of DUI — her costars watched footage of her reacting to bodycam video of her arrest. Huger, 61, was convicted of driving under the influence in connection to a solo car crash in March 19, 2024.

She was sentenced last week to two years behind bars, with one year suspended, as well as $2,900 in fines and 5 years of probation.

The video shown to her costars was filmed on December 27, 2024 — one day before entering rehab — and showed Huger speaking with her husband Ray about her trial.

“Dots are being connected for me. You know I didn’t watch the tapes before the trial,” she said, as costar Gizelle Bryant spoke over the video saying, “I don’t believe that.”

“So I’m sitting there, in the court room, like I have to finally watch it. I kept saying, ‘Surely they made a mistake, right?’ Because everything’s not connecting to me,” she continued. “And I watched and I’m telling you, I didn’t recognize that woman. I didn’t know her. But it helped me to hear that because I blacked out before the impact, according to testimony.”

“So when I hit the tree, I was blacked out already,” she said, as her husband pointed out there was new construction in the area the night of the crash. “There’s construction, too, a new construction, but baby, it’s my fault,” she responded.

She then opened up about starting to use antidepressants seven years prior, after her parents died.

“When I started taking anti-depressants, it would help, but then I need more and more as life kept life-ing. And so instead of going back to the doctor, I adjusted my medication. I self-medicated,” she explained.

“That night, what I do remember is going to a friend’s house. Having, opened a Stella, didn’t like the beer. I said, ‘No, I’m just going to do a champagne.’ So I started drinking champagne,” she continued. “But I had forgot I had taken the medication and not only just taken it, I had upped the dose.”

As the video kept playing for the other women, Gizelle told Andy Cohen, “You can just turn this off. Please turn it off. This a mess.” Ashley Darby added, “This is performative.”

“What happened to me was self-inflicted. I drove. I put people in danger. I’m going away; not court ordered, I’m doing this for me,” Huger said of her rehab stint in the video. “I think I’m going to retire the Grand Dame and give the world a dose of Karen. I think she’s enough. In fact, I know she is.”

After the footage played, Gizelle said it was “a lot” to watch … before adding that she felt there was a lack of “accountability,” as well.

Andy, meanwhile, addressed Huger’s prison sentence Monday on his SiriusXM Andy Cohen Live show.

“We haven’t been on since Karen was sentenced, and I don’t have much to say. I will say, I am thinking of Karen every day,” he said on his show. “I’ve been thinking about her a lot and I’m so sad about this. I’m so sad about how this entire thing has played out.”

“I am a Karen fan. Drunk driving is no joke. It’s so bad, so that this was her fourth situation was tough to hear and I’m not surprised that the judge was not playing, you know?” he continued, bringing up how this was Huger’s fourth drunk driving-related arrest in 17 years.

“I’m not surprised at all, and then hearing what I heard on the reunion last night from Gizelle, who said that she heard that she was offered a plea and home confinement for six months,” he continued. “Who were her lawyers that were recommending to go to trial on this when they knew there was body cam footage like that?. I mean, it’s so sad.”

Season 9 of RHOP is streaming now on Peacock.