Jennifer Pedranti laughs now at how naïve she was when the producers of “The Real Housewives of Orange County” called her to talk about joining the show – even though her friend Tamra Judge had appeared for years.
“When they called me, you know for this, for season 17, I said, ‘Oh gosh, you know, I’m going through a divorce with the kids’ dad, and he’s dating someone and I’m dating someone,’” she says. “And then they were like, ‘You know what? We actually would love to talk to you.’
“I laugh now, like, they’re probably just like like, ‘She’s ready for it,’” Pedranti says.
Because, of course, Pedranti’s life and relationship fit the template of “The Real Housewives.” A complicated personal life? Check! Friendship with a current member of the cast? Check! The ability to talk, cry, fight, and otherwise emote on camera? Check!
Pedranti, 45, is from Orange County by way of Oklahoma, and owner-operator of the Devi Rebel Yoga Studio. She and her ex-husband Will share five kids between the ages of 9 and 18 in a house in Ladera Ranch that is also home to two dogs, two guinea pigs, two fish, and five cats.
Pedranti lives there with the kids and menagerie while he’s in Oklahoma working for her family’s business; when he comes to Orange County to spend time with the kids, she moves over to boyfriend Ryan’s place.
And, of course, there’s her friendship with Tamra.
“I’ve known Tamra a long time,” Pedranti says of Judge, who returns to “The Real Housewives of Orange County” this season after two years away from the show. “Tamra was my girlfriend who did this show. And she would talk to me about it and tell me about the women.”
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Pedranti also went to Cut Fitness, the gym owned by Tamra and Eddie Judge; Eddie, Tamra’s husband, was Pedranti’s personal trainer.
“She was telling always me about the girls that she works with, and then one day I get a call,” she says of how she came to join the show. “This was actually a couple of years ago and I was married to Will. I went through the whole thing but that one didn’t work out.”
Flash forward to the end of Season 16 when “The Real Housewives of Orange County” said goodbye to cast members Noella Bergener and Jennifer Armstrong, and Pedranti found herself interviewing again for the show, and this time – mid-divorce, now in a relationship with a man she met at Cut Fitness – she got the gig.
Pedranti, of course, knew the show well. When her kids were younger, she’d put them to bed and settle down in front of the TV to watch the series. Later, as life got busier, she kept up with it through her friendship with Tamra.
Still, somehow, she wasn’t quite ready for what it was like to actually be on the series.
“I’ll be honest, I think I was a bit naive,” Pedranti says. “I think I went into this thinking, I spent years, you know, in this house raising these kids. And I made this massive change in my life. And when this presented itself, it was kind of like, I’m tired of my head in the sand.
“When this came to me, I thought, ‘You know what, I can’t wait to meet new women, I can’t wait to share my story,’” Pedranti says. “People can judge it all day long. But there is my story to this and I don’t think I’m alone in in the experience and the journey.
“It just felt like for me, ‘Yeah, you know what? I’m making some changes. I want to meet some new women and I’m OK with this.’
“I didn’t realize, I will say, the twists and turns and all the things that we went through in filming and the real ups and downs,” Pedranti says. “You know what my friendship with Tamra went through. But that was kind of my thought process when it was like, I’m gonna do this.
“My kids and I are in a new spot. I’m in a new spot. I’m 45 and I’m standing, and like it or don’t, this is me,” she says.
Her kids were mostly excited to be part of the show, Pedranti says, and quickly grew accustomed to the camera crews that followed them around at times.
Her family and friends back in Sand Springs, a small town west of Tulsa, Oklahoma, took a little more time to understand it all.
“I’m from a really small town in Oklahoma and they don’t, my family didn’t really know the dynamics of the show,” Pedranti says. “And then they were like, ‘Well, we jumped in and watched some old shows. Are you sure you want to?’ They were like cautioning me.
“And now I am telling you, it’s like my little town in Sand Springs is having a big watch party,” she says. “I’m getting all kinds of messages like, ‘I went to kindergarten with you.’ So I think it was the initial shock of you know, ‘You’re gonna go and fight? That’s not you. You’re gonna argue?’
“But now I feel like I had so much support from them.”
As for how things went once the cameras started to roll, Pedranti says again she wasn’t prepared for the kind of reality the show seeks to show.
“You know, I spoke about being a little bit naive to it,” she says. “I thought as women we were just gonna like get in and be, you know, super, like honest and raw.
“So you ask like, do I have any regrets?” Pedranti says. “You know, if I look back, I think I entered this group of women thinking I owe them my story. I’m willing to share my story. But on the flip side when everything kept coming at me, I think I took a little bit more than I should have. There are times I wish now I would have put my foot down and been like, ‘That’s enough.’
“Given the opportunity, if I’m ever given the opportunity for this again, I will tell you what I’ve learned is more backbone, more voice,” she says. “Because I think I looked at it at the time like, ‘I’m new. I’m the one who needs to share with them and I owe them all of this while.’
But what I didn’t have to deal with was to take all that crap and I did,” she says. “It’s hard to flip that and be like, OK, well now let’s just have drinks and have fun. You know, I feel like I was in the fire. So much of it that I’m looking forward to having more fun with it.
“It was a wild ride,” Pedranti says. “I’m excited for our viewers – and nervous for myself.”
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