It’s the end of the line for reality show star Monica Garcia. The high-spirited fan favorite on The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City, who made her debut in the fourth season, won’t be returning for the start of the fifth season next month.
Producers of the reality series confirmed Garcia’s exit with Variety. “The women just need a cooling off period, and I think it’s just too soon,” showrunner Lori Gordon said. “They’ve articulated it. It’s too soon for them to reenter into a friendship – a trusting friendship. Not enough time has passed.”
Fans of the series were shocked during the season 4 finale when it was revealed that for the past three years, Garcia was trolling her castmates anonymously on an Instagram account called Reality Von Tease.
Heather Gay was the RHOSLC cast member who confronted Garcia with the accusations, which all turned out to be true. The entire RHOSLC was able to dive deeper into the crazy situation during their three-part reunion, which ended Tuesday night (January 23).
During the final episode of the reunion, Garcia admitted she wrote some of the posts but said she did not create the Instagram account. She said the account was initially made to expose former RHOSLC cast member Jen Shah as a bad employer. Shah is currently serving prison time for wire fraud.
“We were trying to get out how awful [Jen] was,” Garcia told her castmates. “I am sorry that that ended up hurting you.”
None of the other housewives seemed to accept Garcia’s apology, especially since she undercut it by bringing a Mean Girls-type Burn Book to the set as a “joke.” The Burn Book included printouts of all the nasty Instagram posts she helped spread.
When asked if Garcia would ever return to the RHOSLC cast, Gordon told Variety, “Never say never.”