Lengthy earlier than she gained actuality renown underneath a distinct final identify in Southern California, Victoria Steinmetz spent her youth in Illinois dealing with the books for her father’s development companies. The self-described “math freak” took care of invoicing and receivables, manually inputting accounting figures for William Steinmetz’s a number of ventures, together with Steinmetz Interiors in Elk Grove Village, about 20 miles northwest of Chicago.
However when requested what she actually wished to be rising up, the girl now often known as the “OG of the OC” doesn’t hesitate.
“All I wished was to be like my mom—a housewife,” she says. “Isn’t that loopy? I look by my diaries from center faculty, and that’s what I wrote about. My mother had 5 children [two adopted], she labored within the residence, she had dinner prepared each evening. She was an unimaginable mother. And that’s who I aspired to be.
“Watch out what you want for, proper?”
At this time, when folks hear the identify Vicki Gunvalson, housewife is precisely what involves thoughts. A Actual one. And an authentic.
For the preliminary 14 seasons of The Actual Housewives of Orange County—the primary franchise in an idea (televised on Bravo in america) that has landed in additional than a dozen international locations across the globe—Gunvalson was the one mainstay on a present that rotated in additional than 20 different forged members throughout her prolonged run.
Beginning in 2006, viewers got here to know Gunvalson by her youngsters (Michael and Briana), her second marriage and subsequent divorce (to Donn Gunvalson), her emotional outbursts, her meme-worthy expressions, her memorable quotes (she in contrast her failing marriage to Donn to a fuel tank, which she famously labeled an “empty love tank”)—and numerous interactions with fellow forged members which might be ceaselessly etched in Actual Housewives lore.
However typically misplaced amid the truth TV drama is the truth that Gunvalson has run her personal profitable enterprise—Coto Insurance coverage & Monetary Companies—for 3 many years. An admitted conservative investor, she’s been principally prudent in relation to her funds and investments.
“I by no means get hit from a significant market correction, I don’t spend greater than I make, and I don’t do bank cards,” says Gunvalson, who turned 60 in March. “Money is king. So, I’m debt-free aside from a small mortgage on my fundamental home [in Coto de Caza, a private community in Orange County, California]. The opposite homes I personal [both in Puerta Vallarta, Mexico] are all paid with money.”
It’s the connection to monetary wellness—which occurs to be the title of a cash issues web site she hosts (FinancialWellnessWithVicki.com)—that piqued the curiosity of a South Florida enterprise now working with Gunvalson.
This spring, she formalized a partnership with Debt.com, the Plantation-based firm that focuses on debt-relief options. In her position as an envoy for its numerous providers, Gunvalson filmed instructional movies round insurance coverage and smart-money recommendation, in addition to broadcast commercials for Debt.com that can air nationally this fall.
However as Gunvalson is the primary to confess, it’s not all the time straightforward to observe what you preach. Particularly when the guts is uncovered.
The Actual Deal
To be clear, Gunvalson didn’t search out the truth highlight. Her son did.
Michael was residence for the weekend from Colorado College within the mid-2000s when he got here throughout a narrative within the native paper a couple of present tentatively titled “Behind the Gates,” which sought to discover the privileged lives that households within the space have been main. He wrote a two-page letter, campaigning for his mom to be on the collection. Not due to her glamorous way of life—however somewhat as a result of she managed to run a profitable enterprise, present up at each soccer recreation and cheerleading competitors, and have dinner on the desk for the household. She did all of it.
Scott Dunlop, the author/producer who got here up with the Actual Housewives idea, took discover. He met with Gunvalson and her then-husband.
“I keep in mind Donn saying to me after the assembly, ‘We’re not doing a actuality present; {couples} who do this get divorced,’ ” Gunvalson says with fun.
When the present premiered in March 2006 as The Actual Housewives of Orange County, Gunvalson was a part of a forged that included 4 different ladies, amongst them, Jeana Keough, who stays the forged member with whom she’s closest. (She’s socially good with different RH alums, she says, however they don’t name one another and get collectively.)
The rapid success of the present, and the movie star that accompanied it, took Gunvalson by full shock. “I had no concept that individuals could be so invested in my life and my love tales and my mother dying [in 2015] and my children transferring away,” she says. “They fear about what’s taking place to you [in the moment]—they usually care about what your future holds.
“To start with, when folks approached me in public, it was attention-grabbing however awkward. At this time, ladies will stroll up and hug me. They’ll say, ‘You impressed me to open my very own enterprise. Or, ‘You impressed me to break up.’
“Once I hear that, I really feel like I did my job by displaying my genuine self.”
At the least the components of herself that made it to a RH episode.
Actuality present contracts usually state that, within the enhancing room, producers can spin footage any means they need—even when it purposely portrays a participant in a less-than-flattering mild. Although she owns all the things she’s performed and mentioned on digicam, it’s the moments past her management that, at instances, have pushed Gunvalson to the brink.
“In fact, I’ve felt unfairly portrayed. Many instances,” she says. “The reality, I all the time imagine, will come out. It often does. However they will twist something—something—to be a wow second. That’s what delivers scores.
“However even in case you’re cautious about what you movie or say, you by no means know what different forged members are saying about you. Not till you see it. … Loads of forged members lied about me over time. And that’s not cool. That wasn’t what I signed up for.
“That’s after I get mad and scream.”
Portrait pictures by Eduardo Schneider
