The Real Housewives of Potomac is no stranger to controversy. Katie Rost left the series after the first season, and shortly afterward developed an addiction to alcohol and Adderall. Robyn Dixon was voted off the series after the fanbase grew weary of her transparent lies about her relationship with her former NBA star husband, Juan Dixon. And who can forget when Ashley Darby‘s now ex-husband, Michael Darby, was charged with sexual assault for grabbing the buttocks of a cameraman while filming scenes for the series? When Karen Huger was first on the series, her husband, Ray Huger, was in the middle of a tax scandal, allegedly owing millions of dollars in back-due taxes, while the Grande Dame admitted when she first began the series that she had a previous history of being caught driving while impaired.
Karen has the reputation of a socialite, but there have been many times on RHOP when she has allowed herself to sink to the same level as some of her messiest cast mates. If there is one thing Karen cannot stand, it is someone attempting to disparage her reputation. When Mia Thornton came for Karen on the series, the Grande Dame outed her secret boyfriend in Season 8. When Charrisse Jackson-Jordan accused Karen of being unfaithful to Ray, Karen attempted to ice her out of the group, and when Charisse reappeared in Season 8, Karen lost her cool and cussed her out. When the Grande Dame of Potomac feels personally attacked, her behavior on the series tends to get just as messy as her less regal co-stars.
Although she has become a staple of the series, there are obvious reasons Karen should have taken a pause from filming Season 9. As Andy Cohen once infamously quipped, “Don’t come on Housewives if you have something to hide.” In the past, Housewives have come onto the series with skeletons in their closet they would rather have left buried. Robyn’s impromptu dismissal from RHOP is one example of viewers and online sleuths refusing to live with an obvious lie. All things considered, when there is something as serious as prison time on the line, it seems pretty clear that the Grande Dame should have skipped Season 9 in light of her current legal troubles.
What Do You Mean This Isn’t Karen’s First Offense?
Karen’s DUI arrest earlier this year certainly shocked her co-stars, but viewers who remember how quick she was to deflect blame for her original DUI might have felt differently. In 2016, Karen was just gaining notoriety for the premiere season of RHOP, when she gave an interview to BOSSIP about the original DUI she received in 2006. Almost the first piece of information Karen offered in the interview was that she was technically not even driving, as she had pulled over already in a “parked area,” before what she described as “teddy bear cops” arrived and gave her the DUI.
In the first season, Karen claimed that the incident was eye-opening and would not be repeated. As befits a top-tier Housewife, Karen never expects her own indiscretions to weigh as heavily with the group as she makes out the heft of the other ladies’ baggage to be. And although the Grande Dame may be Miss Manners within the group, so far this season she has shown that she is not willing to listen to any outside opinions on her own behavior. If Karen learned from her first DUI, as she has claimed to have done, it does not appear to have been a lesson that lasted.
Karen has already made clear in Season 9 that she will not be admitting guilt or speaking about her arrest, as the case has yet to be adjudicated. But news from the courts doesn’t bode well for the Grande Dame, even with her silence. In July, the prosecutors in Karen’s case opposed her lawyers’ efforts to have the case thrown out over her Miranda rights allegedly not being read to her. Prosecutors are arguing that Karen’s statements were freely expressed to the paramedics on site and overheard by police, and were therefore admissible.
The truth of the matter is that Karen should not be making excuses for her behavior — excuses like the grief from her parents’ deaths caused her to be disoriented, a fight with her husband had her emotional, and there was a vehicle that swerved but did not stop. Police reports indicated there was alcohol on Karen’s breath when they arrived and bottles of beer in the vehicle at the site of the crash, and they described Karen swaying on her feet and slurring her speech at the time of her arrest. She is, of course, innocent until proven guilty, but if Karen wanted to play innocent and keep silent after such a public incident, she should not have agreed to film Season 9 of RHOP.
