S04.E01: Of Friends and Frenemies

[Natalie68]

15 hours ago, Sage47 said:

Brandi is a redhead with blue/light eyes which is very common. It seems less common to me to see redheads with brown eyes-although I do have a young cousin with this coloring. But she is the only cousin with red hair in a huge extended (and half Irish) family! 

So red hair/brown eyes is quite uncommon, yet...Brandi just happened to get a baby boy with that exact coloring-like her husband’s and daughters-right when she wished for it. Hmm...

i agree that no wife would raise an affair partner’s baby. But I can definitely believe it’s a surrogate baby. Maybe Brandi didn’t want to admit that the baby has Brian’s DNA but not hers. 

Travis just *seems* like a cheater. But I hope not because Stephanie is so sweet and she already suffers from depression.I hope he never hurts her! 

Actually no, it is the other way around per my googling:

The combination of having both red hair and blue eyes is so rare because blue eye color is also a recessive trait, meaning both parents must carry the gene for a child to have it. Red hair occurs naturally in one to two percent of the human population, while just 17 percent of the world's population has blue eyes

The traits for both red hair and blue eyes are recessive, so the chances of these two coming together are very rare. Only 1 to 2 percent of the population has red hair and only 17 percent have blue eyes. ... Redheads most typically have brown, hazel or green eyes.

Red hair by itself is uncommon.  I didn't know about the eye color rarity of blue eyes/red hair

5 hours ago, amarante said:

What middle aged couple don't have $60,000 at least in savings and investments? If you don't have those kinds of assets, a new car and fugly designer clothing shouldn't be a priority. 

D'Andrea is definitely counting on the Trust to fund her retirement - i.e. after Mama Dee dies and she doesn't have to suck up for whatever money Mama gives her, all of that money will be hers to squander as she wants. Certainly living up to the adage - first generation makes it - second generation spends it and third generation loses it. I am not even completely sold on Mama's company being this highly profitable company that in any way supported Mama's lifestyle. 

I would guess most.  There are always reports that most people cannot come up with $400 for an emergency.

[heatherchandler]

3 hours ago, janie2002 said:

The more we are seeing into Dandra and Mama Dee, the more I think they are broke.

There is a reason why Dandra got so upset regarding the $200 rumor, I think there is more to it than she wants to let on.

If Mama Dee cared about her company and legacy why not give Dandra money from her trust fund to make the new product. I wouldn't be surprised if that trust is empty or low on funds at this point.

I am getting that feeling too.  People with a lot of money don't continually repeat "I've got A LOT of money!" like Dee does.  It make me wonder...

That's why I want to know just how much was/is in that trust fund.

3 hours ago, RealHousewife said:

Ditto. I don't condone everything she says and does, but I don’t think LeeAnne is the monster Brandi makes her out to be. 

Brandi is the monster!  She is always up to some mean girl bullshit.

2 hours ago, Sterling said:

I flip/flop on D'Andra and the business.  If the core customer was the older Dallas Christian lady, the MaryKay slap-a-bucket on woman, then she has 2 options:  go back to advertising on those channels, or reinvent the business with a younger, hipper, trendier customer in mind.  But to sit and wallow in it, and be upset that Mama didn't leave it in good shape, does nobody any good.

I also wonder why they don't go back to christian tv.  Were they kicked off or something?  I don't think Dee or D'Andra can compete "millenially" (is that a word?) and sell the stuff on instagram.  They wouldn't know what they were doing and their client base is not clicking through it. 

[Marley]

How come D’andra can’t have any of the money until her mom dies basically? This doesn’t seem fair if it was left to her too. I guess that’s how it was set up tho. Like others tho I think there’s not much left in the trust since Dee was being pretty defensive about it and kept going on about how much money she has. Seems like something is going on and she’s blown thru a lot of the money.

[Natalie68]

37 minutes ago, Marley said:

How come D’andra can’t have any of the money until her mom dies basically? This doesn’t seem fair if it was left to her too. I guess that’s how it was set up tho. Like others tho I think there’s not much left in the trust since Dee was being pretty defensive about it and kept going on about how much money she has. Seems like something is going on and she’s blown thru a lot of the money.

I suspect you are right

[amarante]

1 hour ago, Marley said:

How come D’andra can’t have any of the money until her mom dies basically? This doesn’t seem fair if it was left to her too. I guess that’s how it was set up tho. Like others tho I think there’s not much left in the trust since Dee was being pretty defensive about it and kept going on about how much money she has. Seems like something is going on and she’s blown thru a lot of the money.

It's not uncommon at all for someone to have an Inter Vivos Trust for estate planning purposes even if you don't have millions and millions of dollars. It is a way to avoid having to deal with probate because when you die all of the assets in the trust automatically go to the designee.

Also it is very common to have one with the "owner" as a Trustee and having another Trustee who can only use the money in the Trust to benefit the "owner". This is in case the "owner" is too incapacitated to handle finances, the other Trustee can take over - again the money can only be used for the benefit of the "owner". My parents had this kind of Trust. When my mother died, I was named as another Trustee along with my father. Towards the end of his life, I took over his finances and so it was very easy as I could immediately write checks and deal with his broker. Since I was the sole beneficiary, when he died there was no probate and so I only had to deal with other administrative aspects of which there were plenty.

In Mama Dee's case, she would be the Trustee of the Intervivos Trust and would probably have another Trustee which could be D'Andrea. D'Andrea could only use money for Mama's benefit and any other use would be embezzling. Mama Dee has the ability to change the beneficiary of the Intervivos Trust at any time during her life just as someone can change their will.

This is very different from the kind of Trust that people think of in terms of being a "trust fund baby". In that case Papa Simmons would have taken a certain amount of money and put it in a trust for D'Andrea and typically the corpus of the Trust would be payable to the beneficiary when they reach a certain age. This is typically done when you want to leave money to a child but don't want the child to be able to spend the money until they reach a certain stage of maturity.

Since D'Andrea is now 50, we can safely assume that Papa Simmons did NOT leave any significant amount of money for D'Andrea. I would suspect he left all of his estate to Mama Dee but in an Intervivos Trust. Therefore Mama Dee can spend it all or leave it to her favorite dog. Until Mama Dee dies, D'Andrea has no right to the Trust anymore than any child has a "right" to the assets of their parents.

Edited September 6, 2019 by amarante

[Starlight925]

4 hours ago, heatherchandler said:

I also wonder why they don't go back to christian tv.  Were they kicked off or something? 

My guess is that they simply didn't have the cash flow to support it.

TV advertising is super expensive, even on lesser-watched channels like Christian TV.  If you want to get the most viewers, you advertise at peak times (Sunday services), which can be exorbitant.

[MinorL]

On 9/4/2019 at 6:18 PM, Keywestclubkid said:

Omg Travis was so kind and warm and smiley 

I know! This episode made me really like him! I guess I should have known Stephanie would pick a good one. 

[RedInk]

D'Andra looks like a fool. All that whining about how her mother won't trust her to run a company, how she has great business acumen...that was her entire storyline. And now the company is hers and it tanked. Even if it was falling apart before she got her hands on it, shouldn't she have known that? Also... rich people don't have to tell you they're rich. They definitely don't have to INSIST that they are.

Edited September 7, 2019 by RedInk

[Kiss my mutt]

Stephanie is way to good for that swarmy fat ass meat head. 

[amarante]

8 hours ago, Natalie68 said:

Actually no, it is the other way around per my googling:

I would guess most.  There are always reports that most people cannot come up with $400 for an emergency.

At 50 I would hope someone doesn’t have such warped priorities that they are living in Highland Park and driving a leased expensive car if they lack the means to afford them and only have $200 in the accounts  

Her Bravo salary for the season means she is making more than most Americans and people at her income level generally have more than $200 in their bank accounts when they are 50. 

The statistic on assets of Americans doesn’t generally include people in her zip Code unless they are fronting it and squandering their assets.  

[Misslindsey]

Does anyone know how D'Andra's company is doing now? I am assuming this was filmed months ago, so I just wonder how the company was actually doing. 

[Hiyo]

Quote

Like others tho I think there’s not much left in the trust since Dee was being pretty defensive about it and kept going on about how much money she has. Seems like something is going on and she’s blown thru a lot of the money.

I think there is money there, but Dee seems to be a control freak who wants to keep her daughter on a tight leash, so to speak.

[HahYallDoin]

6 hours ago, Misslindsey said:

Does anyone know how D'Andra's company is doing now? I am assuming this was filmed months ago, so I just wonder how the company was actually doing. 

Spoiler

D’Andra said in an article this week that  she’s ‘invested’ in her company and it is rocking right along. D’Andra mentioned new investors and a new product. It wasn’t very specific, what I read, but it did confirm the business is still around. She said what we are watching took place 7 months ago.

Edited September 7, 2019 by HahYallDoin
It’s D’Andra not DeAndra.

[Kiss my mutt]

Wow, Dee’s makeup sure is glorifying God. Kinda like Tammy Faye 

[Kiss mah grits]

Found out that Dee and D'andra have a podcast called "I Don't Give A Rip". Give it a listen. You'll really hate D'andra a lot. Spoiled rotten her whole life.

[65mickey]

On 9/5/2019 at 6:32 PM, biakbiak said:

Did LeeAnn’s wedding planner take all the black die she isn’t using on her hair and use it in his?

Steve Kemble was a Dallas wedding planner on Whose Wedding is it Anyway? I used to watch that show years ago. Loved it. 

[zenme]

On 9/6/2019 at 8:25 AM, cecehe said:

Brandi seems thrilled to have that little boy and I seriously doubt she is forgiving enough to knowingly and lovingly adopt the child her husband created with another woman.  I don't know any women who would for that matter.  

Well, maybe she doesn’t know it’s his. 

[CloseThisAccount]

Oh, Stephanie, Travis looking so happy & relaxed while your face looks strained, the repeated over-the-top talking-head assurances that things are great, the recreational manscaping. Are we really supposed to pretend we don't know how this ends? Throw in the vow renewal & just move Travis into the casita already. Cos Steph deserves the house & Travis deserves the casita only on his way to an unfurnished squat a la OC's Gina (I know he's the one with money, but I can dream)

[dosodog]

15 hours ago, Kiss mah grits said:

Found out that Dee and D'andra have a podcast called "I Don't Give A Rip". Give it a listen. You'll really hate D'andra a lot. Spoiled rotten her whole life.

I'm not sure I could dislike D'Andra anymore than I already do.

And I really liked her the first season.  Now i believe she was being phony. 

[Bossa Nova]

On 9/4/2019 at 9:45 PM, TexasGal said:

Wow, Brandi’s daughter is even more out of control than she was before.  Good luck with that.

Wow, that is one unlikeable brat. And she's only 10.

While the kid may have been hamming it up more for the camera, I got the sense that Brandi (and husband) is lax on discipline and correcting that bratty disrespectul behavior. Lazy parenting. Brandi, how about a "young lady, change your tone. Do not speak to your mother that way. " Most likely they (she , her husband, other family caregivers) have laughed along with the kid. Thus encouraging it. 

And whats up with the dangly earrings on a 10 year old? I suspect the kid gets her way. 

[zenme]

28 minutes ago, Bossa Nova said:

Wow, that is one unlikeable brat. And she's only 10.

While the kid may have been hamming it up more for the camera, I got the sense that Brandi (and husband) is lax on discipline and correcting that bratty disrespectul behavior. Lazy parenting. Brandi, how about a "young lady, change your tone. Do not speak to your mother that way. " Most likely they (she , her husband, other family caregivers) have laughed along with the kid. Thus encouraging it. 

And whats up with the dangly earrings on a 10 year old? I suspect the kid gets her way. 

I’ll bet Brandi doesn’t reprimand the brat on camera because A. Doing so will reinforce to the viewing  public that the kid is indeed bratty, and B. She knows that once she really reprimands her all hell will break loose, and the bratty child will act even worse—and on camera. Better to act as though she’s cool and calm, while shooting daggers with her eyes. As a teacher, I can’t even imagine what a smartass that kid is to have in the classroom. Ugh.

[RedheadZombie]

On 9/5/2019 at 6:28 AM, Lizzing said:

Kam's voice when she was talking to her kid & packing seemed a little deeper than her usual helium sound, and not as air head-ish.  Then, in the confessional, she was right back to sounding like she did previously.

I really like Stephanie, so I hope I'm wrong, but Travis is cheating, right? Vow renewal + manscaping + working out a lot...just seems shady.

But I totally buy Jeremy stepping out on D'Andra.  I can't remember where, but I could swear I've read several blind items suggesting he has been.

Dee totally set D'Andra up to fail.  It's probably equal parts narcissism and story line creation.

To be honest, I wouldn’t even feel for D’Andra after she confronted Leeann on camera about Rich’s alleged cheating.  I wouldn’t mind seeing D’Andra being put on the spot in the same way. 

[princelina]

21 hours ago, Kiss mah grits said:

Found out that Dee and D'andra have a podcast called "I Don't Give A Rip". Give it a listen. You'll really hate D'andra a lot. Spoiled rotten her whole life.

Haha of course they do 😂  They're really milking their 15 minutes and I guess they don't give a rip if everyone who's aware they exist think they are awful!

6 hours ago, dosodog said:

I'm not sure I could dislike D'Andra anymore than I already do.

And I really liked her the first season.  Now i believe she was being phony. 

The first season was when she had her tea party that was supposed to mend fences amongst some of the women, but instead she had them play a version of "Truth - without the Dare" and pull cards with questions designed to cause fights.  While she sat there waving some kind of magic wand and clutching her pearls when they started throwing b and c and f bombs.  She was a creep then too!

[RedheadZombie]

On 9/7/2019 at 5:56 PM, Kiss mah grits said:

Found out that Dee and D'andra have a podcast called "I Don't Give A Rip". Give it a listen. You'll really hate D'andra a lot. Spoiled rotten her whole life.

I’ve disliked D’Andra from the beginning. She’s a spoiled, elitist snob. 

[iloveit]

I wonder if the dire straights of the company's financial situation were exaggerated for the story line or else accountant Esther would be high tailing it out of there for a new job.  I agree that it is odd that D'Andra didn't know the finances of the company but I think that either this situation is totally contrived or Dee is so controlling that she really wouldn't allow D'Andra is see the information (or let Esther show them to her) and D'Andra didn't want to prod her and piss her off further. 

D'Andra needs to think about Kary's comment of "why do care about what other people think so much?"

I'm interested in new Kary.  I will miss old Cary.  She and Mark could be super annoying but overall she is a smart, hardworking person and I somewhat liked her which is a high achievement for a housewife. 

Kam is boring.  Agree with all who said no one cares about your cruise.

Please no more footage of Brooklyn.  She seems awful but I do feel badly for her because she is probably that way because of lax parenting. I can't imagine how mortified she was/will be when she heard Brandi mentioning her "getting her visit from Aunt Flo."  I did have a small laugh with her when she demonstrated how orange Brandi's make up is. 

Stephanie still seems great.  It was cute how proud she was of Travis' work to grow his company. I really really hope Travis isn't cheating.  The manscaping gives me concern though.  Has a Real Housewives marriage ever survived a vow renewal???

[ShawnaLanne]

On 9/5/2019 at 10:34 PM, Sage47 said:

Brandi is a redhead with blue/light eyes which is very common. It seems less common to me to see redheads with brown eyes-although I do have a young cousin with this coloring. But she is the only cousin with red hair in a huge extended (and half Irish) family! 

So red hair/brown eyes is quite uncommon, yet...Brandi just happened to get a baby boy with that exact coloring-like her husband’s and daughters-right when she wished for it. Hmm...

i agree that no wife would raise an affair partner’s baby. But I can definitely believe it’s a surrogate baby. Maybe Brandi didn’t want to admit that the baby has Brian’s DNA but not hers. 

Travis just *seems* like a cheater. But I hope not because Stephanie is so sweet and she already suffers from depression.I hope he never hurts her! 

I'm a redhead with green eyes, but all the other redheads on my mom's side of the family have brown eyes. The redheads on my dad's side of the family have light eyes like me.

From my own personal experience it would be 50/50.

Genetically soeaking however, brown eyes with red hair is most common.

"Recessive genes are genetic markers that aren’t as common as more dominant ones. Red hair and green eyes are separate recessive genes, and incidences of both traits occurring together are even rarer.

Having this combination isn’t based on just one gene. For you to have red hair and green eyes, your parents would both need to carry at least one recessive gene for each. However, both your parents having these genes doesn’t guarantee you will have them.

One study found that the red hair-green eyes genetic combination is one of the rarest, at -0.14 correlation. Having red hair and blue eyes is even rarer. It may be more helpful to look at the odds of each trait separately."

Why would she take in her husbands love child?

Also, Brandi's daughters are prime examples of why many people don't like us gingers, they are. Um, unfortunate.

Edited September 9, 2019 by ShawnaLanne

[Anonysaurus]

I like D'Andra. Granted, I don't listen to her podcast, and have no interest in it, but just from watching the show, I much prefer her to Leeann. Leeanne is nuts and so fake. She was being so passive-aggressive in their little sit-down meeting. I wouldn't be able to handle it and would just wash my hands of the situation. And all that crap about doing so much for people in Dallas that they're just going to helo her pay for her wedding . . . uh huh, sure, Jan. 

I like new Kary so far but do find it kind of funny that Cary is a friend of and now Kary is a housewife. Like, there are no other names available??

[CharlizeCat]

Stephanie's husband is so cheating or getting ready to. 

Brandi's kids need to have their bottoms swatted a time or two. I agree, I am sure the atrocious behavior is due to terrible parenting.

I was confused why Mama Dee needs $60,000 a year from D'Andra. Well, then of course, she has money!

I was kind of leaning towards the Leanne side of the feud with D'Andra, but have changed my mind. I thought Leanne was being downright stubborn and hateful when D'Andra was trying to make peace. I can't say that either of their hair colors is an improvement. Yes, the stark black was too harsh, but the lighter color seems to have resulted in terrible damage. It's hard to make extensions look that bad, but somehow Leanne and/or her stylist managed.

I hope Cary 2.0 isn't going to constantly talk about her marriage and sex. We get enough of that from Denise Richards on BH.

[ava111]

On 9/6/2019 at 3:08 PM, Sterling said:

I grew up in Dallas, and most of my family still lives there, and none of us had ever heard of Dee Simmons or her company, or her products.    

D'Andra's house is owned by the family trust, so it's likely that if she cuts ties with her horror-mom (dreadful woman), she'll lose access to not only the future money, but the house she lives in.  At 50 years old (maybe older?), and having put up with so many decades of kowtowing to Dee, she's probably like, I'm thiiiiis close to just getting the money and telling Mommie Dearest goodbye.

I flip/flop on D'Andra and the business.  If the core customer was the older Dallas Christian lady, the MaryKay slap-a-bucket on woman, then she has 2 options:  go back to advertising on those channels, or reinvent the business with a younger, hipper, trendier customer in mind.  But to sit and wallow in it, and be upset that Mama didn't leave it in good shape, does nobody any good.

I have strong doubts that this company has been successful for the past 10 years or so, and that Mama-pull-back-face has kept her lifestyle going on what her husband left her.  Heck, that mink coat she wore to the cemetery is probably worth a car.

If I remember correctly their original business was some kind of supplements that was pretty successful (not that I ever heard of it) and then few years ago D'andra started the skin care line that was funded by her mom and is a part of the first business. I think that's how her mom lured her to come work with ber by promising her skincare line of her own.  So D'andra works on the skin care but mom is the cash cow and she has to approve any spending. D'andra wanted to make some new skin care products but didn't have mom's approval. Mom promised to give her the whole company and all the decision making so she didn't leave. I think last season she was thinking about separating the skin care company from the rest but didn't have enough money to fund it herself without giving up her luxury lifestyle plus seems like she would have to develop all new product line for it as mom wouldn't let her use the recipes as those are probably the original company's intellectual property even though D'andra developed those. 

[Sage47]

On 9/6/2019 at 3:19 PM, Natalie68 said:

Actually no, it is the other way around per my googling:

The combination of having both red hair and blue eyes is so rare because blue eye color is also a recessive trait, meaning both parents must carry the gene for a child to have it. Red hair occurs naturally in one to two percent of the human population, while just 17 percent of the world's population has blue eyes

The traits for both red hair and blue eyes are recessive, so the chances of these two coming together are very rare. Only 1 to 2 percent of the population has red hair and only 17 percent have blue eyes. ... Redheads most typically have brown, hazel or green eyes.

Red hair by itself is uncommon.  I didn't know about the eye color rarity of blue eyes/red hair

I would guess most.  There are always reports that most people cannot come up with $400 for an emergency.

All of the red hair/eye color combo stuff is interesting, thanks! I stand corrected, I honestly did think red/blue was most common. 

Brandi just smiling at Brooklyn’s terrible sassy behavior was infuriating. Both of the girls are godawful but especially Brooklyn. There is zero that is cute about her. 

Agree that D’Andra is an insufferable snob and just not a warm or sweet personality. More like a ball buster. Jeremy did not seem as into her as last season. He practically looked glum at the kitchen table. 

[Natalie68]

1 hour ago, Sage47 said:

All of the red hair/eye color combo stuff is interesting, thanks! I stand corrected, I honestly did think red/blue was most common. 

Brandi just smiling at Brooklyn’s terrible sassy behavior was infuriating. Both of the girls are godawful but especially Brooklyn. There is zero that is cute about her. 

Agree that D’Andra is an insufferable snob and just not a warm or sweet personality. More like a ball buster. Jeremy did not seem as into her as last season. He practically looked glum at the kitchen table. 

Me too.  I had NO idea it was red/blue = rare.  

[PhilMarlowe2]

On 9/6/2019 at 11:21 AM, RealHousewife said:

Ditto. I don't condone everything she says and does, but I don’t think LeeAnne is the monster Brandi makes her out to be. 

Brandi is guilty of every single thing she has accused LeeAnne of - I think Brandi cannot stand the mirror reflection of herself she sees in LeeAnne. I also think she's a true mean girl and needs someone to be "against" at all times.

[Stats Queen]

On 9/7/2019 at 2:45 PM, Kiss my mutt said:

Wow, Dee’s makeup sure is glorifying God. Kinda like Tammy Faye 

So behind on my reality TV viewing so still catching up.

This sentence is in the top of my list of all time laughs

[yourmomiseasy]

Brandi's kids are still the absolute fucking worst.  You'd think she'd have learned to at least keep them off TV by now, because I'm assuming doing some parenting and improving their behavior is off the table.

[ladle]

Just coming into this season now and oh man: MAJOR loss of respect for Jeremy and Rich for getting catty on texts and social media... Sigh. They both seemed so normal... 

Also LOL at Brandi as a relationship counselor.