The Housewife and the Hustler, the documentary about Erika Jayne and estranged husband Tom Girardi’s legal drama, is getting a sequel.
“This story was a nuclear explosion,” an announcer says in a new trailer for ABC News’ The Housewife and the Hustler 2. “Today, several victims will get a chance to finally meet Erika Girardi.”
Erika, 52, filed for divorce from Tom, 84, in November 2020, one month before they were both named in a fraud and embezzlement lawsuit and were accused of misusing $2 million in settlement funds meant for the families of Lion Air Flight 610 crash victims. Erika was also accused of having prior knowledge of Tom’s actions as his law firm handled her finances for a decade. The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills star, however, has continued to assert her innocence.
“I’m at a loss for what to say,” Erika claims in the first look at The Housewife and the Hustler 2, noting that she “did” watch the first documentary about her legal woes.
While meeting with Erika, one of the alleged victims asks why it took the Bravo personality “so long” to agree to a sit-down.
“I was never asked to do this,” Erika replies. “No one was really interested in my side of the story.”
Those impacted by the Lion Air scandal initially told their sides of the story in the 2021 ABC News documentary The Housewife and the Hustler. Erika, meanwhile, has been opening up about her involvement — or lack thereof, according to her — and divorce proceedings on the latest seasons of RHOBH.
“I’ve moved past the last three years, but I don’t know if others will let me move past,” she exclusively told Us Weekly in October 2023. “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.”
Several of Erika’s fellow Housewives have questioned her about the scandal on camera — and about the infamous $750,000 earrings she had to turn over. (Tom allegedly paid for the jewelry with money from the settlement funds.)
“I can’t change the fact that I was reactive and that I felt so very cornered every day that I came to work. I can’t change the fact that I started out very calmly explaining my position and I was not heard. And then I raised my voice and I still was not heard,” Erika told Us. “It is what it is. I mean, there was no playbook. There was no one here to walk me through it. I was walking through it alone. Yes, I had lawyers, but they don’t hold your hands. … What I kept telling myself was, ‘You’re right.’ And to hold on and don’t quit.”
The Housewife and the Hustler 2 premieres on Hulu on Monday, February 12.
