Elizabeth Lyn Vargas is opening up and getting vulnerable about the demise of her almost 20-year marriage to her ex-husband, Bernt Bodal.
During a chat with Heather McDonald on an episode of the Juicy Scoop podcast, Elizabeth took the opportunity to discuss the impact that her marriage had on her self-esteem and how she regained her ‘self-respect’.
Elizabeth feels remorse for beginning her relationship while Bernt was married
While discussing her marriage, Elizabeth claimed that her ex-husband had multiple mistresses, who reached out to her over the years.
“Women from London, women from San Francisco, from NorCal,” Elizabeth explained. “When he started banging girls in New Port Beach, that’s when I drew the line and divorced him. I’m like, ‘Now you’re in my backyard. You can do it in Norway, you can do it in New York, you can do it in San Francisco, you can do it in Seattle, you can do it wherever you’re doing it. Don’t do it in New Port Beach.”
Elizabeth carries on by explaining that Bernt had brought his affairs into their home at the Madison Club, a fancy country club where the couple had built a family home, and that helped her make the decision to leave.
When Heather asks if maybe Bernt felt “duped” because Elizabeth insisted on commitment and monogamy after they got married, Elizabeth agreed and expressed the guilt she felt.
She explained that she was embarrassed that everyone knew about these other women and when he would take her to the same places he took his first wife, it was “karma.”
“I should have left him the minute I found out he was married, four to five years after I was with him,” she said.
Heather then questioned Elizabeth’s claim that she didn’t know he was married.
Elizabeth responded, “I knew he had some other girl. I thought it was just some floozy from Seattle. I didn’t realize it was a family. So, technically, he made me the bad guy.”
Elizabeth claims Bernt got ‘sloppy’ with his affairs
Heather pointed out that it often seems to be the case with overtly-wealthy or celebrity couples to have an agreement that affairs are alright as long as their wife remains number one.
“As long as I’m number one and not number five,” Elizabeth agreed. “Now I’m number five. F**k you.”
Elizabeth claims that she and Bernt would go to the country club and she would get looks from the other women.
Heather then inquires about what that look means and Elizabeth dishes that it was an uncomfortable look she would receive from the country club ladies who had seen her husband walking around with other women.
“It was so uncomfortable at the end of our relationship that I said to myself, ‘I am building my brand. And this is not part of my future.’ And I, I had to hire a law firm and I had to divorce him in order for me as a woman to actually respect myself,” she said.
“I lost respect. I gained a bunch of weight. I was depressed, I was drinking all the time. I was going out. I was trying to bang everything in New Port,” she confessed. “So, I was really destructive and it’s not healthy. So, I divorced him so I could be who I am today.”
The Real Housewives of Orange County airs Wednesdays at 9/8c on Bravo.