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Credit: Instagram
Recently, on an episode of Real Housewives of Orange County, viewers were surprised to learn from Vicki Gunvalson‘s son, Michael Wolfsmith, that he hadn’t seen his sister, Briana Culberson, for eight years.
This revelation quickly set social media abuzz, with many assuming a rift existed between 41-year-old Michael and 39-year-old Briana.
Adding fuel to the speculation, Michael took to Instagram to clarify the situation, writing: “I was living in Hawaii and now in Spain. A couple years back, I mentioned visiting when I was relatively close to Oklahoma, but she said it wasn’t a good time due to her husband, whom I don’t get along with very well 🤷♂️.”
Michael did go on to clarify he’s in a group chat with Briana and Vicki, and they ‘have friendly personal convos.”
“I would prefer if we could see each other in person!” he added. “We were sending each other pugs we want a couple days ago.”
There was also chatter that sprang up about Briana’s husband, Ryan Culberson, with people suggesting she wasn’t in a good marriage.
Vicki, 64, spoke to Us Weekly about her daughter’s marriage to clear up the rumors.
“There’s some bad crap on the internet. Ryan’s a perfect husband. Briana is a perfect wife. They have a perfect family, so everybody needs to shut up,” the OG of the OC said. “I mean, it’s really made Briana upset. I just hope it all goes away because she’s got an online business and she’s very respected. And Ryan’s a great guy.”
“They have four children. They’re happy. I’m happy. My daughter’s happy. That’s all I could want for my children,” she continued. “I mean, there was a moment in time where he got back from war and he got angry at one person one time. But they’re now making something out of that. That was over 15 years ago.”
Vicki was likely referring to an incident on RHOC where Ryan got into it with Lydia McLaughlin‘s mother, yelling at her to take her feet off of Vicki’s couch in season eight.
Vicki also spoke to E! News about Michael and Briana’s relationship.
“Somebody went off on a tangent on the internet,” she stated. “They are not estranged! They talk all the time. They just haven’t seen each other enough. He lives in Spain, she lives in another state, and this internet stuff. They’re fine! And Briana’s husband’s perfect, and their relationship is perfect. So it’s these internet bloggers that lie! Oh my God, it drives me – I said, ‘Briana and Michael, just turn your… Instagram off, turn your Facebook, turn your Twitter, turn it off!’ Because the liars are going to lie till they get clickbait. And by the way, people get paid to click that bait. Stop doing that!”
“They’ve always been good!” she added of her kids’ relationship with each other. “I don’t know who created this. All he said was, ‘I haven’t seen her in eight years.’ I think it was seven or nine – doesn’t matter! They talk all the time. They love each other, we’re family, so knock it off!”