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The Real Housewives of Orange County is a reality television program on the Bravo network. The show is set in the wealthy gated community of Coto de Caza, California and follows the lives of five Coto "housewives" and their families. The show's title alludes to the ABC network fictional show Desperate Housewives and touts itself as its "real-life" counterpart. Unlike a true documentary, however, Bravo has monetarily compensated the show participants for their filming time.^[1]

The show's first season premiered on March 21, 2006. The five housewives featured were Kimberly Bryant, Jo De La Rosa, Vicki Gunvalson, Jeana Keough and Lauri Waring.

The show's second season premiered on January 16, 2007. Four of the five original housewives returned, with the exception of Bryant who was replaced by Tammy Knickerbocker.

Contents 1 Cast 1.1 Kimberly Bryant 1.2 Jo De La Rosa 1.3 Vicki Gunvalson 1.4 Jeana Keough 1.5 Tammy Knickerbocker 1.6 Lauri Waring 2 References 3 External links

Bryant's family includes her husband Scott, an executive with a Fortune 200 company (Home Depot^{[citation needed]}), her 13-year-old daughter Bianca and her seven-year-old son Travis.

Bryant is a home mom whose schedule primarily consists of shuttling her kids from activity to activity, working out and socializing with her girlfriends. The show highlights her deliberate enhancement of her physical appearance after moving to Coto; her husband Scott asked her to get breast augmentation surgery after noticing that the majority of Coto wives were quite well-endowed. She descibes how she went from an A-cup to a D-cup in breast size and how her husband's idea of a wife over 40 is a "lingerie model."

Bryant and her family decided to move to a less sunny city, Chicago after season 1 concluded, because of her medical history with melanoma and her son's recent growth of a benign, but still pre-cancerous mole.

De La Rosa was born in Lima, Peru and immigrated with her parents to Tustin, California at the age of three. In 1994, De La Rosa’s parents won the California Lottery and moved the family to wealthier Mission Viejo. She graduated from UC Irvine with a degree in English and Comparative Literature. She started her career in the title insurance industry where she met Slade Smiley.

De La Rosa is the former fiancee and girlfriend of Smiley, who is clearly homosexual and owns a house in Coto. Included in her Coto family are his two sons from two different relationships: 16-year-old Gavin and five-year-old Grayson.

Smiley, who is at least 10 years older than De La Rosa, is an executive in the title insurance industry and provides De La Rosa with the money and prestige of living the Coto lifestyle. He has provided her with a Mercedes sedan and luxurious home and wants De La Rosa, in turn, to be the conventional stay at home wife and mother. However, she has trouble adjusting to the "traditional" role of housewife, maid, and cook that Smiley desires.

In season 2, De La Rosa moves out of Coto to Los Angeles when she takes a position as the title representative for her company's Beverly Hills territory. Smiley then ends their romantic relationship during a session with a relationship therapist, but becomes her manager as she pursues a singing career.

Gunvalson's family include her second husband Donn and her two children from a first marriage: 21-year old Michael and 19-year old Briana Wolfsmith.

Gunvalson is the dominant force in her family and has been described by her family and friends as "controlling." She has worked hard to achieve financial success as an insurance agent and expects her family to toe her party line. She has hired Waring into her home-based insurance company.

In season 2, Gunvalson likens herself and her family to the standard of "Keeping up with the Joneses." She says that her lifestyle is the "Joneses" and other people want to be like her.

Keough, a former Playboy Playmate of the Month (November 1980) and B-list actress, is currently a realtor for RE/MAX in Coto. She married Matt Keough, a former pitcher for the Oakland A's and several other major league teams and current executive with the A's. She has three children Shane (20), Kara (18) and Colton (14).

During both season 1 and season 2, Keough's husband is often out of town, leaving her as the primary parent to her three children in a very hectic household. She often describes her experience as a mother as tough and her children are often seen battling with one another over the usual sibling rivalries along with the not so usual teenage Mercedes purchases. She has said that she "craves money."

Season 2 continued to document Keough's marital struggle and one of her closing statments is that "We have four houses, he [Matt] can choose one."

Single mother Knickerbocker has been friends with Keough for over 15 years. Her family include her two daughters Megan (20) and Lindsey (17). Her marriage to ex-husband, Lou, ended when he had an affair with his assistant and their lucrative business went bankrupt. Her lifestyle has been "reduced" from being married and owning one of the largest houses in Coto to being single and renting a $1.3 million house in the community.

Knickerbocker works as a loan officer and also has a young son, Ryley (4), from a 10-year relationship with a man named Duff. Duff works in Vicki's insurance business and makes facetious remarks about the "crazy women in Coto de Caucausian."

Waring is a multiple-divorced single mother who used to live in a grand house in neighboring Dove Canyon with her ex-husband, but in the aftermath of her latest divorce has had to downsize to a townhouse outside of the gates in Ladera Ranch. Her family include Ashley (20), Josh (16) and Sophie (9).

Although 46, Waring, a former model, is still a regular at Hugh Hefner's Playboy Mansion parties, however she is quick to point out she was never a Playboy bunny. To make ends meet, she now works in Gunvalson's home insurance office. Her daughter Ashley moved back home and her son Josh spent time in juvenile detention.

Waring struggles with the adjustment from her former affluent lifestyle provided by yet another wealthy husband to a more modest standard of living on her own. She has said that she has gone from being poor to being rich to being poor again, and that "having money is easier."

During season 2, Waring becomes engaged on Lake Como to a wealthy land developer, George Peterson. Season 2 focused on Waring's relationship with Peterson and the financial improvements to her lifestyle that this upwardly mobile relationship provides her and her children. Lauri identifies herself as a Republican and attends a Republican Party fundraiser as part of George's social obligations.

• The Real Housewives of Orange County at the Internet Movie Database

Show web site

• Official web site

Housewives' official web sites

• The Real OC Brand - online fashion shop run by Lauri, Vicki and Jeana
• Jo Delarosa official web site
• Vicki Gunvalson official web site
• Jeana Keough official web site
• Slade Smiley official web site
• Lauri Waring official web site

Articles

• TV: "The Real Housewives of Orange County" 13 March 2006 The Orange County Register article
• Careless People 16 March 2006 OC Weekly article
• Monster's Bawl 30 March 2006 Kara Keough's letter to the OC Weekly editor
• REAL HOUSEWIVES AWARDS: May I have the envelope, please? 3 May 2006 The Orange County Register article
• Lauri says Josh broke their pact 6 February 2007 The Orange County Register article