D’Andra Simmons was brought to tears on Wednesday’s all-new Real Housewives of Dallas over her money issues, after admitting to her friend LeeAnne Locken that she only had $200 in one of her bank accounts.
“It is very humiliating and embarrassing,” the beauty-industry businesswoman, 49, told her RHOD castmates in an emotional scene. “It’s humiliating to be at this position at my age. I wish I would have made some different decisions, but there’s nothing I can do now. I am where I am. … Everything in my life is falling apart right now.”
“I don’t think these women know the amount of stress I’m under,” she confessed to audiences. “Their husbands are all successful. Mine is retired from the military. I’m the primary breadwinner in my family. I don’t have the option of failure. … It’s a scary time for me.”
The scene came after months of mounting stress for Simmons. Born and raised in an affluent Texan family, she’s been open about wanting to break away from the pressures of living up to the “Simmons” name and gain control over her business, which sits under a brand her mother runs.
At the same time, Simmons is aware that starting her own company will mean having forgo a personal salary and fuel a lot of her own fortune into her dream. That’s money she may never get back, given the risk of failure involved and how long it often takes new businesses to gain a profit.
“I’m at a real crossroads,” Simmons explained earlier in the episode. “My mother is the executor of my step-father’s estate. He provided for me for the rest of my life. Jeremy and I could live off it but I can’t fuel a company and pay for all the things it takes to run a business and live off that too.”
It’s not just the chance of losing money that scares Simmons. She said she was also afraid of losing friends.
“In the society world, as long as I could write a check, I was a valuable member,” she said. “One of my really good friends lost her money and was basically ostracized and alienated because she doesn’t have any money anymore. And I said to her, ‘You’re going to lose all your friends’ and I was right. The other people scattered away like little cockroaches and they’re gone.”
One friend who was sticking by Simmons was Locken, though Simmons struggled to see that.
The former carny kid, 51, tried to give Simmons tough love on Wednesday’s episode — mimicking the way Simmons had questioned Locken’s relationship weeks earlier.
“What are you thinking? You need to have plans now. This is a company, it has to run,” Locken said. “You’re lazy. You like your princess lifestyle and it’s your own damn fault. Period, the end.”
Of course, Simmons didn’t like the advice and claimed that Locken was being “condescending” and lecturing her instead of listening.
She was even more upset when she found out that Locken had repeated some of her private financial concerns to fellow Dallas Housewife Cary Deuber — including that aforementioned $200 that was left in one of her bank accounts.
Simmons had learned of her balance after an expensive shopping trip in Beaver Creek, Colorado. She put a smaller amount of money in a “shopping account” –– one of five that she said she had — in an effort to curb her spending.
“I didn’t want to shop because I’m trying to save money for my business, I’m trying to start over,” she revealed. “I’m preparing for the rainy day.”
“Growing up I had a silver spoon in my mouth. It’s hard to give up a lifestyle that you were brought up in since you were 4 years old and change course completely,” Simmons continued. “All of these kind of things I have to make allowances for and I have to be able to pay those bills when they come in and cut out major expenses.”
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Though Locken insisted she had only told Deuber about the $200 in an effort to help protect Simmons, Simmons didn’t care.
“Somebody who has been my friend for over 10 years wouldn’t go to another person and would say ‘D’Andra came back from shopping and she’s so upset that she has $200 in her bank account,’ ” Simmons screamed at Locken. “What were you doing? Because that is not helpful on any level to me. I know things about you I would never say to anyone. We have a loyalty. I don’t do that to you and you do not get to do that to me. You know that I have your back and you do not have my back.”
“I told you as a confidante and a friend,” Simmons said. “I am so angry at you because that hurt my feelings. … I feel like you just betrayed me. I will keep your secrets because that’s the kind of person I am, but you owe that to me.”
By episode’s end, Simmons appeared to accept Locken’s apology. But while she was forgiving, she wasn’t forgetting. “I’m still going to be pissed off at you,” she said.
“You can be pissed off all you want,” Locken said. “I’m still not going to leave you.”
The Real Housewives of Dallas airs Wednesdays (9 p.m. ET) on Bravo.
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