Erika Jayne Speaks Out After Ex Tom Girardi's Prison Sentence

The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills star opened up on the June 13 episode of Diamonds in the Rough with Teddi Mellencamp, revealing she got the news just before taking the stage during her London shows earlier this month.

While reflecting on the moment, Erika admitted she was flying high professionally but emotionally shaken underneath it all.

"My performances were better than any sex you could ever have," she shared. "And then 10 minutes before the second show, I get the news that Tom is being sent to prison. … It just hurts."

"It reopens old healing wounds," she continued. "I had a sold-out crowd in a theater just for me and I was so grateful. My happiest place in the whole world to be is on stage. So while I was happy … there's a little piece [of me] that was like, 'Ugh.'"

The sentencing impacted her performance, with Erika, 53, admitting that the news was hard to shake.

"I was very disappointed because those people [in the audience] were there for me and I felt like five percent of myself was feeling sorry for myself," Erika explained. "I was 95 percent there and five percent of myself was feeling sorry for myself. This was the day that he got sentenced, my second show. My first show was flawless. And my second show was great, don't get me wrong. But there was that five percent I could have given the audience and instead I was feeling sorry for myself."

While she insisted that the crowd "loved" her performance, Erika admitted she was "fighting back thoughts and emotions" that distracted her on stage.

Girardi, 86, was sentenced to seven years and three months in prison on June 3, after being convicted in his California wire fraud case. He was also ordered to pay over $2 million in restitution to victims. The disgraced attorney was found guilty in August 2024 on four counts of fraud, with prosecutors revealing he embezzled more than $15 million from clients over the years.

"Tom Girardi built celebrity status and lured in victims by falsely portraying himself as a 'Champion of Justice,'" U.S. Attorney Martin Estrada said in a press release. "In reality, he was a Robin-Hood-in-reverse, stealing from the needy to support a lavish, Hollywood lifestyle. Today's verdict shows that the game is up – we can all now see this defendant for what he was and the victims he callously betrayed."

Erika filed for divorce in November 2020 after 21 years of marriage. The following month, Tom's legal troubles began as he was accused of stealing settlement funds meant for the families of plane crash victims. Though Erika was named in multiple civil lawsuits over the years, she has not been charged with any crimes.

"It'll be four years in two weeks that I left home and everything happened," she said during an RHOBH After Show in December 2024.

"In that four years, I've been able to accept a lot of things, heal through a lot of things, and I will continue to do that. I'm not completely out of the woods. I'm still being sued in a lot of places, but those things will resolve. It is what it is. I just try to maintain the healthiest attitude possible going forward."

On the recent RHOBH reunion, she also said divorce was on the back-burner -- saying, "that was like the lowest of my problems. What difference does it make? Divorcing an incompetent person, I don't know how that works."

When asked about possibly visiting him, she added, "I thought of visiting him, and this is going to sound cold, when he passes away."

"There's nothing to say to this person because he's not talking clearly," she added. "He's not there. There's nothing for us to say to one another. I'll never get answers to the questions that I still have."