Why Does Karen Hate Charrisse? The 'RHOP' Drama, Explained

June 30, 2024

The Real Housewives of Potomac’s resident grande dame Karen Huger can never be “duplicated, imitated, or intimidated,” but she’s certainly had to watch her throne in Season 7. After appearing alongside her fellow OG in the first three seasons of RHOP, Charrisse Jackson-Jordan returned in a friend role, and Robyn Dixon swiftly declared that she — not Karen — might actually be Potomac’s “real grande dame,” since she introduced several of the women in the group. Her assertion seemed to carry an extra sting, given that fellow OGs Karen and Charrisse haven’t been friends for five years following their public falling out.

Still, Karen insisted at her premiere spring kickoff party that she and Charrisse were “cordial.” As the weather grew warmer though, their longtime feud also began heating up. The drama finally burns hotter than a three-wick candle in the Jan. 8 episode, with the promo showing the women trading expletives in a heated argument during a cast dinner in Riviera Maya, Mexico, that ends with them on their feet — and even a near-table flip, a la The Real Housewives of New Jersey’s Teresa Giudice. Another clip in the RHOP midseason trailer also appears to show Charrisse telling the other women that Karen was “f*cking the help in the bathroom.”

It was rumors and accusations that started Karen and Charrisse’s feud in the first place. As Bravo has shown several times in a flashback clip from the RHOP Season 2 reunion, Charrisse left her co-stars slack-jawed when she publicly repeated the rumor that Karen, who’s been married to Ray Huger for more than 25 years, was having an affair with a “boyfriend” she referred to as “Blue Eyes or whatever his name is.” In the same exchange, Karen also blasted her fellow cast member for referring to Ray as a “broke Bill Gates.”

So when Season 7 kicked off, Robyn wasn’t sure if Karen was “harping over old rumors that Charrisse brought up” or if there was a different issue. As Karen explained herself, they haven’t been friends since the time the reunion aired in 2017. “Five years ago, Charrisse had some questionable behavior,” she said on the show. “I haven’t been friends with her in five years. That bridge has burned down.”

As Charrisse announced to the group in Miami, she was still trying to understand what issue Karen has with her. “People grow apart all the time. I have evolved. I’m in a different place, Charrisse, and that is it,” the La’Dame founder responded, adding that she had already explained her position five years ago. “That disappointment in the past, I’d rather leave it in the past. I don’t go backwards. I go forward.”

However, as subsequent episodes have shown, the discord wasn’t going to end that easily (or at all) — and there certainly doesn’t seem to be any love lost either. Addressing her tumultuous friendship with Charrisse in an October 2022 interview with Entertainment Tonight, Karen had a Mariah Carey “I don’t know her” moment. “Who?” she joked when Charrisse’s name came up. “When you bring old dust bunnies around, recycling old dust bunny news, you’re going to get old news, you know?”

As for Robyn’s comment about Charrisse deserving the “grande dame” title, Karen had something to say about that, too. “It’s silly to me,” she added to ET. “I’m very grateful for the fans for that title, I don’t take it lightly. I am who I am, and other people are who they are. Hence, I'm the grande dame.”

Get Even More From Bustle — Sign Up For The Newsletter

From hair trends to relationship advice, our daily newsletter has everything you need to sound like a person who’s on TikTok, even if you aren’t.