Jeana Keough Explains Edited Photo with Vicki Gunvalson (Exclusive)

Former "The Real Housewives of Orange County" star Jeana Keough has explained the harmless reason she had a photo of herself and Vicki Gunvalson edited.

Speaking to TooFab, the Bravo alum said a friend offered to edit a photo of her and Vicki and she gratefully obliged -- a choice that ended up sparking accusations of photo altering, something she doesn't deny.

It all started earlier this week when Jeana and Vicki went out to dinner together at Javier's restaurant in Irvine, California. The pals took a selfie together and both posted the photo on Instagram.

Although the pics were clearly the same photo, Jeana's post looked very different from Vicki's. (See the photos side by side, above.) This noticeable difference prompted many fans to point out the former reality star had obviously edited the photo.

But Jeana had a good explanation, one she unpacked quite thoroughly for TooFab.

"I said, 'Yeah fix us both up, make us look cute,'" she said of her response to a friend offering to do a free photo edit. "Because we had both just come home from work."

"She puts a little dot in your eye and she puts some little lipstick on you maybe she took wrinkles away who knows, but that's what Photoshop's all about," Jeana said of her friend's edit.

"Dr. Steven Ip did a mini facelift on me a couple of years ago and I’m really happy with the results," Jeana added. "I always looked 20 years younger than my age and I date guys in their 40s and so all is good with me. I don't care what people say."

Jeana said there are "always haters," but there are also people asking her to come back to "RHOC."

"People say hateful things, people say sweet things," she told TooFab. "90 percent of the time I get sweet people. So I don't care."

"Vicki and I had been friends for a long, long time and we're going to Mexico in May together so I just thought it'd be fun to post a picture of her," she continued, adding with a laugh, "I didn't know we'd get so much hate, man."

When it comes to selfies, Jeana said she usually prefers to stand in the back.

"The person who holds the arm up and actually takes the picture they don't always look as good as the person behind them," she said. "I always do that trick because I'm heavier than most of my girlfriends. So it's like, 'I'm not standing in front of you skinny bitches. I'll look like Shamu and you'll look like twigs, so no I'm gonna be back here.'"

Jeana also added that her daughter Kara told her to "stop with the FaceTuning" because some people have pointed out the two look similar in photos.

"[She said], 'That's not funny, Mom! Look your age and be proud of it,'" Jeana explained. "It's like, 'Alright, Kara. No more tweaking of my pictures.'"

Both Jeana and Vicki are two of "RHOC's" original members. The former was a cast member from Season 1 through 5, while the latter starred on the series up until Season 13.