The Real Housewives of Orange County newcomer says the breakup happened months before she revealed it publicly, and that something "gravely inappropriate" pushed her out.
Carmella Garcia is done. The Real Housewives of Orange County star told Page Six's Virtual Reali-Tea on Thursday that she and longtime boyfriend Danny Hampel split months ago, closing out a relationship that ran ten years.
"I feel a range of emotions," the 44-year-old said. "I feel sad. It was a 10-year relationship. It was somebody that was around my children. But, I needed to put myself first."
Garcia, who joined the franchise this season as it hits its 20th run, has never hidden the rough patches. She's already told viewers that Hampel, a general contractor, cheated on her four years back. This time around, she says something happened right after filming wrapped that she's calling "gravely inappropriate," without spelling out what exactly that means.
"It was a very difficult situation because it was somebody that I loved very deeply," she said, "and I truly did want to get to a place of forgiveness, but I oftentimes ignore my intuition and there was just something deep down that I felt like I just didn't trust." The dishonesty, she added, kept going. So she walked.
Her kids didn't take it well. Garcia shares sons Jason, 17, and Jax, 15, with ex-husband Jeff Garcia, the former NFL quarterback she married in 2007 and separated from publicly in 2020, though the two remain legally married. She also has daughters Presley, 18, and Faith, 14, with him. The boys, she says, were close to Hampel and have struggled with him being out of the picture.
But Garcia isn't backing off the call. "I have to be enough for myself and for him and for my children, and I was never enough for him," she said. "That's an issue that I feel like is his issue." She followed it with a line that's going to end up in every recap of this episode: "The ship was sinking and I needed to save myself."
Watching the relationship play out on air, after already living through the end of it privately, has been the roughest part, she said. She's leaned on what she called a "team of therapists" to get through it, telling Page Six, "I needed to walk through it, and the only way through it is straight through it."
Hampel hasn't said anything publicly since the interview aired.
What this means for the current season is the real question now. Garcia's storyline with Hampel has already been a focal point of her first year on RHOC, cheating allegations included, and the show tends to time its own reveals to whatever's landing in the tabloids. New episodes air Thursdays at 8pm ET on Bravo, streaming the next day on Peacock. Whether the finale catches up to what Garcia has already confirmed off-camera is the thing to watch for.
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