- Erika Jayne finally talked about why she filed for divorce on last night's new episode of "RHOBH."
- Jayne said she felt "pushed further and further out" by her 82-year-old husband, Tom Girardi.
- She revealed she "struggled for a long time" and ultimately left without saying goodbye to Girardi.
After filing for divorce last November, Erika Jayne finally opened up about her decision to end her 21-year marriage to Tom Girardi.
"Let's discuss the elephant in the room," the 49-year-old reality star announced to her costars on Wednesday's episode.
"My life drastically changed this week. I let go of my Lamborghini. I let go of my 16,000-square-foot home. I let go of my marriage. I let go of everything. I literally made a decision that I had to," Jayne said.
In a later confessional, Jayne elaborated on her decision to file for divorce.
"I left because he pushed me further and further out," she said of her estranged husband. "I just kept walking around that house and knowing that this marriage was headed down a really s---ty path. I had to make a choice to do what was right for me. I couldn't live that way anymore."
Jayne said she left her costars in the dark about her divorce on purpose
The couple, who wed in 2000, met in the 1990s, when the reality star was waitressing at Chasen's, a Hollywood restaurant where Girardi was a regular.
"I struggled for a long time knowing that I had to leave [him]," Jayne admitted during a confessional. "I cried every day."
And for much of that time, the "Real Housewives" star said she was suffering in silence.
Jayne also disclosed to her "RHOBH" castmates that she intentionally kept them in the dark about her divorce, and the legal drama surrounding it, because it would have put them in a "bad position."
"None of you knew on purpose because it would put you in a bad position if I were to give you information that you had to hold and I didn't want to do that and that's the truth," she told the group.
"It doesn't serve me to talk a lot about what is happening legally — or will happen legally — because I am married to somebody who is very good in that area," the star continued.
Girardi, 82, was a superstar in the legal profession and famously won the lawsuit that the 2000 movie "Erin Brockovich" is based on.
Jayne also said Wednesday that she filed for divorce on Election Day in 2020 in an effort to bury the story. Ultimately, that didn't work. The divorce filing was a major news story and was subsequently followed by lawsuits alleging that the divorce was a "sham" to hide embezzled money from plane-crash victims' families.
Later in the episode, Jayne spoke to castmate Lisa Rinna about the difficulty leading up to deciding to divorce, saying she "really tried" to make it work, but that Girardi "left me no room."
"I drove him to work and I told him I loved him. And he said, 'Thanks, hun,' like I was an employee," Jayne said. "I drove off, went to my new place, spent the night there, and he was served the next morning."
"That's the last I've seen of him," she added emotionally.
Legal troubles have swirled around Jayne and Girardi for the past five months
An ABC News/Hulu documentary revealed the behind-the-scenes story of Jayne and Girardi's marriage and their legal drama.
The documentary highlighted court documents that allege Girardi gave Jayne $20 million in loans from funds taken from his law firm, and showed Jayne was subpoenaed twice to give depositions on her and Girardi's assets.
Jayne's attorneys filed to drop her one day after the new documentary premiered.
"The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills" airs Wednesdays at 8 p.m. ET on Bravo.
