'Icy' Erika Girardi Breaks Down In Emotional Tribute To Late Grandparents

Erika Girardi finally opened up in front of the Bravo cameras and let fans learn a little more about her personal life.

The entertainer took a trip down to her hometown of Conyers, Georgia to visit her mother and reopened some old wounds she's been trying very hard to keep closed.

To back track, the other wives (and PK) repeatedly call Erika cold and distant. They say she's extremely guarded and doesn't reveal anything about herself.

At lunch at Lisa Vanderpump's house, Dorit Kemsley repeated to Erika how she can't connect with her and implies she's an ice queen.

The singer explained, "I just grew up very controlled. It doesn't mean I'm not empathetic or sympathetic or I don't hear you or I don't relate. It just means that when it comes to me sharing back, I watch and I measure."

Back in the South, Erika broke her silence about her mother and grandparents, who helped raised her.

She was particularly sensitive about her grandmother, Ann Peek, whom she was very close to until her death in November 2014 — "She was somebody that you could to go with any problem and she would listen."

Ann sadly suffered from Alzheimer's disease and it affected Erika greatly: "It's the most slow, most agonizing, most heinous disease ever. She started forgetting where you are. And then it went down to not being able to write, not being able to walk, not knowing anyone."

In her confessional, the performer broke down and shared how the two used to talk on the phone everyday and how losing such an important figure in her life was incredibly hard.

When Erika and her mother, Renee Chahoy, visited the gravesites of her grandparents more tears were shed and Renee finally admitted she was a hard mother.

"My mother always told me she loved me, always gave me hugs, but she never bullsh***ed me," Girardi admitted. "She never really cut me any breaks. I wasn't allowed to be shy, I wasn't allowed to be a baby."

The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills airs Tuesdays at 9pm ET on Bravo.

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