Vicki Gunvalson and Andy Cohen Hash Out RHOC Reunion Drama Following Her Firing

Vicki Gunvalson's final appearance on "Real Housewives of Orange County" before being fired will be remembered as an explosive one. She unloaded on both the show and production during the reunion special and now, in a new interview with Andy Cohen himself, she's explaining what set her off.

The RHOC star's former Bravo boss was Gunvalson's big guest this week on her "Whoop It Up with Vicki" podcast, where the two candidly discussed her exit, her televised blowup and how Bethenny Frankel gave Vicki some sense of perspective after she was let go from the series.

During the reunion, Vicki went ballistic backstage, complaining about the fact she was not on stage for the entire taping. After being told she would be on the show for about 80% of the time, she grew frustrated and downright angry the longer she sat in her dressing room. After going out for her portion of the taping, she was then told to go backstage again, which infuriated her.

"The reunion, everyone thinks I went Looney Tunes for no reason," she said to Cohen on her podcast. "[Fiance Steve Lodge] was in the dressing room and I said, 'I can't believe they're removing me.' You texted me after saying, 'If I knew you would be so be upset, I would have left you on the couch.' I felt very alienated, I felt very insecure, I felt very sad, but Steve was in the dressing room saying you did everything you could do, shouldn't have probably lost your cool but I couldn't help it.'"

"I was so sensitive to the fact that I was part time. I thought I was going to be on the couch until the very end and we would have fun together," she continued. "Some people, they're like why did you get so upset? People don't know really what happened."

Cohen then told her his reasoning for not including her in certain segments of the reunion, saying there were "two things we were talking about that didn't involve you that I thought you were not going to really want to be a part of." He explained that, because of her contentious history with Braunwyn Windham-Burke, he didn't think she would be into talking about her relationship and "all that stuff you felt was not lifting the show up." He also didn't think she'd want to be there for Gina Kirschenheiter talking about domestic abuse.

"There was a part of me that thought, also, we don't have to put Vicki through this," he told her. "I think that was also part of the decision, that I don't know if we ever talked about that. Just so you know. I wish that had gone down differently. The funny thing is Vicki, Bravo, you are such an integral part of everything we've built. Bravo is going to ask you to go to BravoCon and I'm gonna keep asking you to come on 'Watch What Happens Live.'"

Vicki kept bringing up how Andy "fired" her throughout the interview, before he asked how her children Briana and Michael reacted to her exit.

"She actually was sad for me, she knew how much I loved it and she said, 'Mom, I'm sad for you but thank god you have your business, thank god you saved money," Gunvalson said of Briana. "Many people in my situation may have sold their business, then get fired from Housewives like I did -- thank you Andy -- and they don't have anything."

She also said Bethenny Frankel, who recently quit "Real Housewives of New York," reached out to her after news of her exit broke and the two have spoken on the phone "multiple times" since.

"She said, 'Listen girl, you're gonna be fine. You're a smart woman," said Vicki. "She also emailed me on some advice on how to look at it through different glasses. She also said one thing I found very profound, she said, 'You always want to leave the party before it's over.' I keep thinking about that."

Pointing out that the next season of RHOC is currently filming, Vicki said it was a "hard" realization to come to. "I don't want to be forgotten," she said. "I'm super sad, I hope the legacy I started will carry on."

Speaking about Vicki's time on the show and her evolution -- or lack thereof -- overtime, Cohen said he thought she was "great" on the series. "The thing I love about you is you actually have not changed," he told her, "You are still the same person you were when you were cast."

Prefacing that he didn't want her to take it the wrong way, he also said her behavior didn't get "more sophisticated" season to season. "I think it's part of the reason you remained on the show for so long," he told her. "A lot of people go on the show and they totally change who they are and they become someone different. I think it's good you have remained so organically who you are. Tamra was really good with that too. It might be an Orange County thing, but I think it speaks to your longevity on the show."

Looking ahead, Cohen said he doesn't see an endpoint for RHOC just yet. "If we continue to take care of it, hopefully it will keep going and going and going," he added. It just won't keep going with Vicki.