Erika Jayne: Tom Girardi ‘sometimes thinks I’m someone else’ on the phone
Erika Jayne claims her estranged husband, Tom Girardi, “sometimes” has trouble remembering who she is during phone calls.
“I take his call and it’s never more than 10 seconds,” the “Real Housewives of Beverly Hills” star, 50, tells Page Six exclusively, while promoting the new season of the Bravo reality show.
“And sometimes he thinks I’m someone else … so there’s a lot of that,” she adds. “Tom reaches out to me from time to time.”
Girardi, 82, is currently residing at an assisted-living and memory care facility in Burbank, Calif., after a late-onset Alzheimer’s disease and dementia diagnosis. The disbarred lawyer has also been placed in a conservatorship that is overseen by his brother Robert.
“Look, Tom is in a state of decline. He’s living in a memory care facility and this is the way life goes,” Jayne says of the “very sad” situation.
“It’s … hard to deal with, but it’s here,” she continues. “Looking back, it’s hard to disconnect from someone you’ve been with for over two decades — especially when you know that they are struggling.”
The “Pretty Mess” author says that when she communicates with Girardi — whom she says was “fun, bright and intelligent” throughout the majority of their 21-year marriage — he sounds like a different man on the phone these days.
“Tom, his energy was very bright,” she points out. “So his star has just been a little dimmed.”
Jayne filed for divorce from Girardi in November 2020. One month later, the exes were sued by Edelson PC for allegedly embezzling settlement funds meant for the victims of Lion Air Flight 610.
The “XXPEN$IVE” singer — who denied the charges against her — was dismissed from the fraud lawsuit in January, but she is now facing a $50 million racketeering lawsuit and a $2.1 million “aiding and abetting” lawsuit.
Jayne tells Page Six that she believes her public setbacks have only made her a “stronger” person.
“I think that I really found out just how strong I was,” she says. “Just how much perseverance I have and just that I refuse to give up.”
“The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills” Season 12 premieres Wednesday, May 11 at 8 p.m. ET on Bravo.
