Real Housewives of Cheshire fans won't need us to remind them that the series 17 reunion ended in utter chaos earlier this summer. Okay, to be fair, most of the Real Housewives reunions end in utter chaos, but this was something else. We can only assume production nailed down all the set furniture ahead of time, otherwise large objects would've certainly been thrown.
In their nine years on our screens, the Cheshire ladies have never been this divided - with Lystra Adams, Paige Chohan, Eleanor Egar and Sheena Lynch on one side, and Rachel Lugo, Lauren Simon, Nicole Sealey and Seema Malhotra on the other.
A few factors have led us to this frosty point in RHOCheshire history, but one of the major ones is the beef that has been sizzling between Lauren and Paige this series.
Towards the end of last series, Paige and the Celebrity Big Brother star came to blows over several scheduling conflicts – sparked by Lauren not reaching out to Paige following the birth of baby Nora – which resulted in an explosive row at Lystra's party for Paige's daughter, Nora, and some choice words being used at the reunion, with Lauren claiming that the co-stars were not friends and were a "four out of ten on likability," and Paige claiming that Lauren "disrespected Nora's name".
The phrase which stands out in our minds is: "Are you comparing Big Brother to the birth of my child?"
That all blew up in May, so where do the rivals stand now? Well, when we found out Paige was going to be at the National Reality Television Awards in London last night (where The Real Housewives of Cheshire won Best Reality Non-Competition Show), we knew we had to get to the bottom of things and find out where the ladies stand right now.
When asked whether she's spoken to Lauren since the reunion was filmed, Paige exclusively told Closer online, "Well, she might have text here and there, but we haven't seen each other, so we'll see. Maybe in the future I'll have a chat with her. For the moment it's left where it is."
Okay, so not the tale of heartfelt reconciliation we were hoping for, but very much the answer we were expecting.
After all, from the looks of the ladies' socials this summer the cast feud is still very much feuding (as the kids say). Just last week, Closer online reported that Lystra, Paige, Eleanor and Sheena were notably absent at an an off-screen OG reunion in Wilmslow - a reunion plastered all over social media.
Lauren, Nicole, Seema, Rachel and Hanna Kinsella all met at Browns Wilmslow over the weekend, with Hanna sharing several snaps of the ladies on her grid with the caption, "Reunited with my @officialroch girlies! Missed them so much ❤️ @lauren_simon_835 @nicolesealey74 @rachellugo1 ❤️ Thank you so much @brownswilmslow for having us."
While it's lovely to see these ladies smiling and laughing together away from ITVBe cameras, the missing newbies did not go unnoticed by fans in the comments – and Hanna's responses to them did not go unnoticed by us...
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Ben Pulsford is a digital writer for Bauer Media, writing for both Closer online and heatworld. When he's not getting paid to gossip about TOWIE, Love Island and The Real Housewives of Cheshire, he's storming the London LGBTQ+ scene as drag queen, Beary Poppins. Both Ben and Beary are awaiting an invite to join The Real Housewives of Cheshire for series 18. The budget's not there, but the drama is 💅