The ex-husband of one of The Real Housewives of Orange County filed court papers asking a judge to bar his children from appearing on Bravo's unreal reality show on grounds they suffer “consistent embarrassment” due to their mother's behavior. Simon Barney claims Sidney, 15, and Spencer, 13, were subjected to “social ridicule” after scenes were aired last season depicting Tamra Barney's “head in naked strippers crotches, sex toys and sexual comments,” according to the documents filed Friday.
]
As reported first by Radar Online, Tamra Barney counters in her own court filing that under California's family code she should be able to act alone and permit her teens and 8-year-old daughter Sophia with Simon to participate in the show during her periods of physical custody. The couple has had joint custody since their split in 2010.
Simon Barney argues that such participation should be a parental decision both agree to, and he claims his two teens want no part of the original show in the Real Housewives franchise. In her counter-filing, Tamra claims Sophia expressed an interest to appear in future episodes, something Simon wants to stop.
“The show (has) started to become increasingly more about the alcohol, intoxication, sex and bad behavior,” he notes in his court declaration, which cites a number of X-rated scenes involving his ex-wife, including one with her “naked in a bath tub being intimate with her then boyfriend, current husband, Edward Judge.” She also had her “vagina waxed on camera, with several men, other than her husband-to-be, present in the room,” Mr. Barney reminds.
He has not been on the show since he and Tamra broke up in 2010 and claims to have constantly rebuffed requests by the producers to rejoin the cast “because I know the negative consequences and the impact it will have on my children's well being.” He added he will never sign a consent form allowing any of his kids to appear on the program.
Next to Vicki Gunvalson, who has been on the show since the beginning (March 21, 2006), Tamra Barney is the regular cast member to have lasted the longest, having joined the show in season three and appeared every season since.
She now goes by Tamra Judge.
Email: mc****@oc******.com. Twitter: @MatthewTCoker. Follow OC Weekly on Twitter @ocweekly or on Facebook!
OC Weekly Editor-in-Chief Matt Coker has been engaging, enraging and entertaining readers of newspapers, magazines and websites for decades. He spent the first 13 years of his career in journalism at daily newspapers before “graduating” to OC Weekly in 1995 as the alternative newsweekly’s first calendar editor.