Erika Jayne is finding the lighter side of her legal troubles.
“Nobody let me touch any money because the tax authority will say I owe it to them,” Erika, 52, joked during an episode of Real Housewives of Beverly Hills season 13 which aired on Wednesday, November 8.
During the episode, the women went to a Magic Mike Live show in Las Vegas to celebrate Crystal Kung Minkoff’s 40th birthday. Sutton Stracke showed off a stack of dollar bills (“I got a lot of ones! Remember these?” she joked), which prompted Erika’s comment.
RHOBH viewers have seen many of Erika and her estranged husband Tom Girardi’s legal troubles unfold on the show, as she was named in various suits surrounding his law firm’s alleged misuse of client funds. Though she was never charged with a crime in those cases, Erika came under fire last season for keeping a $750,000 pair of earrings Tom, 84, bought her with allegedly stolen cash. Some RHOBH castmates claimed that by holding on to the earrings, Erika wasn’t showing empathy for those impacted by Girardi’s illegal activity.
After a judge ruled in July 2022 that the jewelry was purchased with stolen money, Erika surrendered the earrings. However, she appealed the ruling and won this past summer.
Erika crowed about her victory last month on the “No Filter With Zack Peter” podcast, responding to comments Jon Hamm had made about the controversy.
“You just want to shake her and go, ‘Honey, they were never yours — give them back,’” the Mad Men star said to Howard Stern in September 2022. “And then I can’t quite get … are they $750,000 earrings? Or is it $750,000 per earring? … Give ’em back.”
Erika slammed the actor, saying, “F–k you. …You don’t know what you’re talking about. You know, ‘Those were never yours.’ Really? Appellate judge said they were. Or at least said you can’t prove that they weren’t. So that made me happy.”
While the RHOBH cast isn’t talking about Erika’s legal battles anymore, her relationship with Tom is still a topic of conversation.
“I’ve moved past the last three years, but I don’t know if others will let me move past,” she told Us Weekly exclusively last month. “I still have legal things that are tying up, and they will take time because that’s the legal process. But I want to move on. … Every time someone asks me about Tom Girardi or something like this, you realize you’re cutting open a healing wound and you’re stabbing around in it, and that hurts.”
The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills airs on Bravo Wednesdays at 8 p.m. ET.
