Gretchen Rossi was one of two new “housewives” on the most recent season of The Real Housewives of Orange County. She was the youngest and the hottest, but was dating a man much older than she is which resulted in a gold digger stereotype from many of her castmates. Her fiance, Jeff, lost his battle with cancer in September, just a week after the final filming of the show. Gretchen recently spoke to People about the devastation of losing her man, some of the drama with the other housewives, and whether she will be returning next season. Here are some highlights:

How are you holding up?
Every day is a different emotion. I wake up and either I�m happy or I�m really sad so it really just depends on the day. It�s kind of like a moving river � there�s always something new that has come to the surface.

Do you have any regrets about doing the show during such difficult time?
Of course I do. When Jeff and I agreed to do the show, he was doing really well. We actually thought that he was going to go into remission. His doctors were very optimistic. Unfortunately, cancer has a mind of its own and a month after we started shooting, he got extremely sick. He got pneumonia and had to go back into the hospital. Then the cancer just really started to take over his body more quickly than we could get to it with chemo and everything else we were trying.

But I�ve also had a lot of opportunities to distract myself from what went on and one of those things is a huge honor � The Leukemia and Lymphoma Society as nominated me as one of the women of the year for 2009. It�s a fun competition between all of the candidates to see who can raise the most money. And I�m going to be starting a foundation in Jeff�s name. So that�s been something that�s really allowed me to keep Jeff�s memory alive.

What did you make of Vicki and Tamra�s comments in the finale?
It�s really disappointing. I feel like the women didn�t give me � in particular Tamra and Vicki � didn�t give me the opportunity to show them what was really going on between me and Jeff and the love we shared and what the true story was. Unfortunately, they just wanted to believe what they believe. At the end of the day, I know I can�t really help what other people are going to say about me and I�m just going to try and be the same person that I would be in any situation.

Are you still in touch with the other Housewives?
Jeana and I are very close and Lynne and I have become very good friends. She is misunderstood on the show on some points. She really is a good mom. She has a good heart. She would take the shirt of her back to help another person. Jeana is very much the same way. She�s like a mother hen. She tries to take care of everybody.

Have you been riding your bike?
It�s a really big, heavy bike so I�ve only ridden it up and down the driveway. My father is going to teach me how to ride. He said he wanted to do that because he knows that would be special to Jeff. I�m going to go take motorcycle classes and I plan on being on that bike.

Will you do another season of The Real Housewives of Orange County?
You�re going to have to watch and see what happens.

Our thoughts and prayers are with Gretchen and Jeff’s family. No matter what psycho Vicki and jealous Tamra say, Gretchen loved Jeff and she lost someone she loved. The end. Get a life, girls!

[image: Bravo]

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