‘RHOSLC’ star Monica Garcia embraces villain status with Reality Von Tease photo shoot after finale bombshell
Monica Garcia is owning her newfound villain status.
The “Real Housewives of Salt Lake City” star, who was unmasked as the person behind a well-known troll account during Tuesday’s Season 4 finale, shamelessly leaned into her Reality Von Tease persona in a new photo shoot.
“You know you love me! Xoxo, RVT😘,” she captioned a series of snaps on Instagram of herself holding faux newspaper front pages likening her to “Gossip Girl.”
Garcia, 40, scrawled, “Warming my hands on the bridges I’ve burned” on one clipping, which went up in flames as she held it.
The Bravolebrity wore a black sweater with her show’s title emblazoned on it, along with bike shorts and white socks.
Garcia shared the elaborate pictures immediately after viewers watched her co-star Heather Gay expose her Instagram alter ego during the cast’s Bermuda trip.
The fan favorite “Housewife” gathered her fellow OGs Meredith Marks, Lisa Barlow and Whitney Rose on a beach to drop the bombshell before their final dinner.
“There’s something I need to tell you guys, and it’s big, and it’s not good,” she began.
“You guys, we’ve come a long way, us four. We have, and Monica is not who she says she is. She’s not our friend. She’s someone [who] has schemed and worked to infiltrate our friend group,” Gay, 49, went on.
Monica Garcia is owning her villain status after the bombshell “Real Housewives of Salt Lake City” Season 4 finale. Meredith Andrews/Bravo
“The name that you all know her as, the woman whose birthday we celebrated, who we’ve been trying to champion and support and defend, is Reality Von Tease.”
An emotional Marks, 52, responded, “I’m freaking out. I am so tired of people trying to hurt us. This is so f–ked up.”
In a confessional, Gay explained that the Reality Von Tease account was created over three years ago.
“She’s someone [who] has schemed and worked to infiltrate our friend group,” Heather Gay told her co-stars of Garcia. Gizelle Hernandez/Bravo
“It quickly expanded to troll all of us. Me, Whitney, Meredith, Lisa. These were character assassinations. They may not have created this content, but they made sure to repost every hateful thing they could find about us,” she said.
“But, we never knew who it was.”
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Gay told her co-stars that she made the discovery after her longtime hairstylist — who was a close friend of Garcia’s — “had a crisis of conscience and came clean” about their mutual pal’s social media activity.
Garcia joined the show this season, but ran the troll account Reality Von Tease for years. Getty Images
“Within minutes, my phone was flooded with screenshots, text messages, audio recordings, videos, photos, DMs. Volumes of evidence exposing Monica,” she continued. “I was devastated.”
At the ladies’ Bermuda Triangle-themed dinner, Gay delivered a biting speech directed at Garcia.
“The mystery for me with Monica is, ‘Who is the real Monica?’ … The real Monica is someone who really doesn’t want to be our friend, but wants to profit from our lives and our pain. I know who you really are, and who you really are is the cyberbully, internet troll Reality Von Tease,” she said.
Garcia did not deny Gay’s claim, only saying it was not “entirely” true. Presley Ann/Bravo
Garcia did not outright deny Gay’s shocking claim, instead saying, “That’s not true, entirely. Von Tease was never just one person.”
Fans were divided over the revelation, with some calling the series newbie a bully while others lauded her stellar performance as a reality TV villain.
“Monica, you carried this season!!! It was so boring before you, thank you!!” one person wrote in her comments section.
Viewers of the Bravo series remain divided over the scandal. Brett Colvin/Bravo
Another person echoed the sentiment, writing, “Standing ovation. Iconic first season. No notes. Carried this season on your back, looking flawless. We have no choice but to Stan.”
Others, however, were less complimentary.
“You’re the kind of woman that makes other women NOT TRUST WOMEN,” one viewer wrote, while a second added, “This is NOT iconic this is FAN girl behavior. You wish you had their lives and you never will.”
