'RHOC' Spoilers: Did Elizabeth Vargas grow up in a cult? Here's why her brother called their childhood difficult
For the longest time fans had a hard time trying to get to know more about new 'Real Housewives of Orange County' star Elizabeth Lyn Vargas. Although the housewife mentions in passing her difficult childhood and dances around the subject of her divorce on nearly every episode of 'RHOC', it finally took Braunwyn Windham Burke's google investigation to crack open the new housewife.
When Elizabeth learned from her fellow housewives that Braunwyn did some background investigation on her and dug up dirt on her finances, the new housewife was far from pleased. But however, she decided to confront Braunwyn and understand what pushed her to launch an investigation into her. When Braunwyn explained how she was having a hard time getting to know Elizabeth better, and how she never revealed much about herself, the new housewife finally broke down and revealed why she is so guarded.
Elizabeth began by explaining how she grew up in a religious cult. She eventually starts to describe all the awful rules that the cult forced upon its followers and how the leaders controlled every aspect of the followers' life. Elizabeth also mentioned that she was the reason behind her family being kicked out of the cult, and continued to carry the guilt of her actions even after several years.
"I was raised in a very, very religious situation, where I was told to absolutely not open my mouth, or tell the truth about what was happening, and I have a very, very hard issue with stopping the compartmentalization because I grew up in this horrible situation," she said, opening up to Braunwyn Wyndham-Burke in the episode.
She also went on to admit that this is why she tends to throw her over the top parties, although none of the attendees know the real her, a fact Braunwyn agreed with. During her confessional, Elizabeth spoke about the trauma her childhood has left her with. "I grew up in complete fear, anxiety, anguish," she said. "It was very, very hard for me. I was always scared for my life because we were beaten so bad that I thought for sure I was going to die one day of it."
When Braunwyn and the other housewives heard about Elizabeth's traumatic childhood, they felt sorry for her, and finally began understanding her better. Unfortunately, it wasn't just Elizabeth who was the victim of the cult's abuse. In the preview clip released by the network for the upcoming episode, we see Elizabeth's brother- Andrew Vargas too detailing his harrowing time with the cult. We see the siblings sitting together and reminiscing about their childhood when Elizabeth points out how theirs was harder than most others'.
Andrew agreed with her and recounted how he was nearly beaten to death by the cults' followers due to his dyslexia because they believed he was possessed by the devil. "Because I was dyslexic, they beat me almost to death, thinking I was possessed," shared Andrew with his sister. Elizabeth has been very vocal this season about being a victim of religious abuse, which brought her closer to the other housewives.
'Real Housewives of Orange County' Season 15 airs every Wednesday at 9/8c only on Bravo.