If we could Freaky Friday-style swap bodies with any reality star for a day we'd have to choose The Real Housewives OG of OGs Tanya Bardsley.
Not only is she an untouchable icon, but she potentially has the best reality telly gig going right now; she's a part-time Housewife on the ITVBe show and basically only shows up for swanky parties, lunches or lavish girls trips.
As such, she tends to stay out of the firing line of any serious drama going on, instead opting to just sit back and sip champers and make hilarious/sarcastic comments on certain storylines/characters while the cameras roll. It's the dream reality telly job and we want it.
But to be fair to Tanya, she's definitely worked for such privilege. The legendary WAG joined the reality show at its inception in 2015 and was giving main character on the show for 14 series, eventually quitting in 2021 - before joining again part-time in 2022. She's earned that crown, queens, so show some respect.
As such, she also knows the ITVBe series back to front and inside out, so when Closer online learned that Tanya would be joining Lauren Harris and Ashley Stobart (who also guest starred on Housewives in 2022) on their podcast, Nip, Tuck, Not Giving A…, we just knew Housewives tea would be spilled.
And tea WAS spilled.
Not only did Tanya reveal that her daughter, Gabriella Bardsley, had recently been approached by Love Island producers (and she turned it down, despite Tanya's wishes), but she spoke openly about the infamous arguments on the show; namely, are they real or staged by producers?
We all know reality telly drama is hammed up for entertainment to some degree, but over it's ten years on the telly, RHOCheshire rows, well, they've been something else – so surely they're staged, right, Tanya?
That's the question the Nip Tuck girls put to Tanya during their most recent ep and the Housewife confirmed once and for all, "Oh yeah, it's real."
Tanya then went on to reflect on the early arguments between her and her fellow OGs, adding, "It was so bad."
We can see why Tanya's enjoying a well deserved break from all the drama these days, in that case. We'd be exhausted, too if we'd been going up against Dawn Ward for the best part of a decade.
Oh, and if you're wondering who Tanya still speaks to from her Housewives glory days, she revealed on the podcast that she's still friends with Leanne Brown and is obviously still in touch with Lauren Simon and Ampika Pickston as they're also on the show. But what about Dawn? We know you were thinking it.
Closer online actually asked Tanya that very question a couple of years ago and she simply told us, "No". So there you have it, Dawn and Tanya are definitely no longer pals.