Erika Jayne, also known as Erika Girardi, is currently splashed across numerous gossip columns for her association with soon to be ex-husband Tom Girardi. For those of you who might not know him, he is one of the partners at the legal firm, Girardi & Kees, that took a chance when hiring Erin Brockovich, and we all know how that turned out thanks to the movie with the same name that starred Julia Roberts.
Erika Jayne is a singer, dancer and all-around performer and currently features in the reality TV series The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills. Prior to joining the reality TV series she was making a name for herself with some provocative songs that were charting on the club scene. Some believe all of this was financed by her successful lawyer husband Tom Girardi.
None of this is particular shocking or news worthy, as there are a number of people who financially support their spouse early on in the career as they try to make a name for themselves and land that elusive break, which The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills would have been the perfect platform to provide this exposure.
But earlier this year news broke that Erika and Tom Girardi had filed for divorce after 20 years of marriage, again not too shocking, as many people unfortunately go through divorces in life, but because of The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills platform news of the divorce did make morning papers, gossip columns and was trending on social media.
As filming for the recent series of Real Housewives had commenced and it isn’t surprising news of their divorce features heavily and gossiped amongst many of the cast members on and off the screen.
Here is what we know from the discussions Erika Girardi has had with cast mates from the reality TV series. There had been troubles in the marriage for a long time, there were allegedly mistresses of Tom Girardi that Erika had known about for many years, clearly there were long periods of time where they were apart and like every marriage, a good marriage is a lot of work and sometimes things can just fall apart and as it seems and you can see both parties are hurting as they navigate this well publicized divorce.
Tom Girardi was a very successful attorney wining some ground breaking cases for his clients including the notable case, against Pacific Gas & Electric, for the residents of Hinkley California. The company agreed to pay the vast sum of money, $460 million to the residents affected by contaminated water from a gas pumping station.
With tremendous success at that level it isn’t surprising that Girardi & Kees went on to win a number of prolific cases of victims including representing family members of the crash victims of Lion Air Flight 610.
As we witnessed from the TV series Tom and Erika were living the highlife from the legal wins by Girardi & Kees. They lived in a sprawling Beverly Hills mansion that looked like it was once the home of an old Hollywood star. They had two private jets, expensive cars and jewelry and really were enjoying the success of Tom’s incredible legal career. But appearances can be deceiving.
Recently there is a dramatic twist in the divorce proceeding as a number of legal challenges have been filed against Tom Girardi and Girardi & Kees for allegedly embezzling clients funds. This is sad and shocking to read, but the legal woes have also spilled over and are trying to attach themselves to Erika Girardi.
Marriage is a difficult beast at the best of times, so when one person is incredibly successful and influential quite often a spouse member might not be privy to every detail surrounding decision making in business, especially when Tom Girardi’s legal career had been well established long before he married Erika.
So the ongoing speculation around whether Erika Girardi knew of the exact details of the legal woes of Girardi & Kees and the alleged embezzlement of client funds, is cloudy, at best. Erika has expressed on the reality TV series, many times, she didn’t know, which given the magnitude of the legal cases fought by Girardi & Kees, it wouldn’t be surprising that she was unaware of every move and decision made by her soon to be ex-husband.
Life is really hard sometimes. As much as social media and the gossip columns continue to tarnish Erika Girardi’s reputation and character, some consideration needs to be given to the woman who is trying to find herself during a messy divorce, seeing the relative successes of her performing career be put on hold, having to downsize her life and now trying to comprehend the behaviors of her ex-husband is a lot for anyone, but while trying to maintain appearance commitments to The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills series.
But at the end of this I do think that Erika Jayne will make a phoenix return, emerging from the ashes with some tremendous dance songs that can encapsulate this incredibly difficult time in her life and we all know the gays will love it, myself included.
Erika Girardi currently features in the reality TV series The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills airing on Bravo.
