The aftermath of the fight between The Real Housewives of Rhode Island’s Alicia Carmody and Liz McGraw almost looked very different.
“Normally, I would have never talked to her again,” Alicia, 41, said during the Thursday, June 25, episode of Jake Shane’s “Therapuss” podcast. “Since I’m on the show with her I’m like, ‘Well, I have to forgive her,’ which is good. Forgiveness is good.”
Alicia said she will often “run away from problems” and not address things, but the show helped a lot with that.
“I shut down and run. I just won’t answer phone calls. I avoid like the plague. But on this, you can’t do that,” she continued. “You have to face your fears and have to respond. I didn’t know how to do that before.”
She added, “It made me a lot stronger. A lot stronger. I didn’t realize I was that sensitive.”
Fans watched Alicia’s blowout with Liz, 55, during RHORI season 1. The two argued after Alicia claimed she was left “homeless” as a child when her father walked out on their family. Liz continuously claimed that Alicia was “never” homeless, which led to a screaming match between the women during a car ride to Boston.
“Listen, I never lived on the streets. I never said that,” Alicia clarified during Thursday’s podcast episode. “I just said my father sold our home, took all of our money and I had to move from house to house.”
She continued, “When she was questioning me, I felt like, ‘You know, my story.’ But we grew up very similar. … I was stuck in the car for two hours — two hours of the same story. I was having a severe anxiety attack.”
The first look at the RHORI reunion later teased that Alicia and Liz would address their car fight. Liz claimed she was ambushed in the car, while Alicia was seen having “nervous breakdowns.”
During Thursday’s podcast episode, Alicia told host Jake, 26, that the reunion was “very much needed” for the cast.
“I feel like a lot of things had to be said and answered for, too,” she said. “I didn’t know, going into the first season, [that] you have to talk about things over and over. You’re getting very emotional talking about things that upset you.”
Alicia continued, “I didn’t know how the world was going to react. You’re just trying to be yourself and just figuring it out as you go.”
