A successful music career, a booming reality TV stint, drama and glamour make Real Housewives of Beverly Hills (RHOBH) cast member Erika Jayne’s net worth a sizeable figure. She joined the Real Housewives franchise in 2015 for RHOBH season 6 and has become a noted television personality.
Although the latest instalment of RHOBH, season 13, aired on Bravo TV in 2023, the drama and prattle are far from getting over. A three-part season 13 reunion is underway with the first part already released on 28 February 2024. Ahead of its release, Jayne grabbed attention when she asked host Andy Cohen to ‘eviscerate’ fellow housewife Kyle Richards over her separation from Mauricio Umansky.
Now, with the second part slated to roll out on 6 March 2024, know who Jayne is, her foray into the reality TV show, net worth, lavish lifestyle and assets, business ventures and personal life.
Erika Jayne’s net worth: All about the Real Housewives Of Beverly Hills cast member
What is Erika Jayne’s net worth?
According to celebrity wealth tracker Celebrity Net Worth and other media reports, Erika Jayne has a fortune of USD 5 million. However, a 2023 Prestige Online article noted her net worth to be USD 8 million in the same year of publishing.
According to a New York Times report of 2021, Jayne made around USD 600,000 per season. This is higher than the other Beverly Hills housewives on the show — according to a 2022 report by The Sun, Richards and Lisa Rinna make USD 500,000 each. Erika Jayne’s RHOBH earnings are expected to have increased.
Erika Jayne’s music career
Before she joined the Real Housewives bandwagon, Jayne was known for her outstanding singing career and the “XXPEN$IVE” star is in no mood to slow down. She developed a flair for music at a young age as her mother Renee was a classically trained pianist and piano teacher.
When Jayne was 18, she shifted base to New York to follow her passion and dropped her first single “Roller Coaster,” which reached No. 1 on the Billboard Dance Club chart in 2007. Two years later, she released her debut album Pretty Mess, for which she collaborated with a talented team who have worked with the likes of Madonna, Britney Spears and Cher.
She has released several singles and extended plays (EPs), of which many have taken over the Billboard chart. For instance, “Stars”, “One Hot Pleasure”, “Pretty Mess”, “How Many F***s” and “PAINKLLR” have soared to the apex position. In all, she has nine No. 1 songs on the Billboard Dance Club Songs chart. Her latest single “Bounce” will release on 8 March 2024.
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In August 2023, she started a Las Vegas residency, aptly named Bet It All Blonde. Jayne hosted 20 shows at the House of Blues inside Mandalay Bay before wrapping it up on 16 December. While filming for season nine in 2018, she embarked on a 13-city headlining tour, Pretty Mess, and performed for crowds in Dallas, Miami and Los Angeles.
Although earnings from these tracks are not clear, such chart-topping songs and scintillating performances contribute to her net worth immensely.
Erika Jayne’s Broadway role and other acting stints
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Her love for music and acting led Jayne to play Roxie Hart in the Broadway production of Chicago the Musical in 2019. However, she could only be on stage for three months as her time was cut short due to the advent of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Expressing her gratitude for the team, Erika Jayne wrote on Instagram, “Well this is not the way I wanted to say goodbye to Roxie and my Chicago family but I have no choice. THANK YOU from the bottom of my heart to everyone who came to the shows. I leave NYC feeling like my mission is incomplete but I will treasure this time always.”
In her early days before launching her music career, Jayne starred in the first season of Law & Order (1991- ). Following this, she appeared in some more films and shows, including Alchemy (1995) and The Young and The Restless (1973- ).
Giving fans another glimpse of Jayne on screen, Bravo TV announced in November 2023 at BravoCon, that a two-part documentary, will be released based on her Las Vegas residency. Slated to premiere on 6 March 2024, the two-hour documentary will depict her struggles, behind the scenes and finally landing the residency shows.
Did you know she has penned a book?
My pretties, we did it!!! #PrettyMess made it to the NY Times Best Seller! I couldn’t have done it without each and every one of you. 💖
If you haven’t purchased your copy of #PrettyMess get it now at https://t.co/ZGjpJxVMaT pic.twitter.com/rfYPnsxeMz
— Erika Jayne (@erikajayne) March 28, 2018
The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills alum wears many hats and one of them is of a New York Times bestselling author. In 2018, she published a memoir titled Pretty Mess. Sharing the news on X (formerly Twitter), Jayne said, “My pretties, we did it!!! #PrettyMess made it to the NY Times Best Seller! I couldn’t have done it without each and every one of you.”
The book chronicles her childhood, her tryst with music and television and her marriages. It also gives a peek into the life of the woman behind all the glitz and glamour and reveals who Erika Jayne truly is.
Speaking to The Daily Dish, she said, “Well, I think, if anything, the book is just my life. It’s a story, much like anyone else’s story, told behind the being [of] an artist. And if you go to class, if you’re inspired to go back to school, if you’re inspired to hit the gym — that’s what it’s all about. It’s an easy, fun read meant to make you laugh and smile.”
She is a Ted Talk speaker
Besides her successes as an entertainment star, Jayne is also a Ted Talk speaker. Her 2018 video touches upon one of the most poignant subjects of the hour — where does reality end and the virtual manipulation begins?
In the discussion, she speaks as Erika Girardi, who is soft-spoken and shy and hides behind the shadow of her wealthy husband. She then talks about her alter ego Erika Jayne, who is the bold blonde-haired star, ready to take over the world. The television star highlights how viewers are duped into thinking that everything they see on the screen is reality and how the transition between the two personalities affects her.
RHOBH‘s Erika Jayne has a string of social media endorsem*nts
The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills star has a strong social media game and her Instagram boasts a whopping 2.6 million followers. This implies a slew of lucrative brand deals and endorsem*nts boost Erika Jayne’s net worth.
She is often seen sporting Savage x Fenty lingerie and has launched several collections with ShoeDazzle that have sold out in no time. Paid promotions of Katy Von D’s beauty brand, Sugarbear Lash Care, Lily & Bean luggage and others have also added to her net worth. Besides these, Jayne has also posted images wearing labels like Alexandra Wang, Tom Ford and MCMWorldwide while attending events.
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Besides these brand partnerships, Erika Jayne’s net worth is also boosted by her line of hair extensions. The reality TV star launched Pretty Mess Hair in 2022, offering a wide range of products for all hair-related requirements. From different types of sewn-in wefts to tape-in extensions, there’s something for everyone. However, reports suggest the brand received backlash over its high prices (averaging about USD 500 to USD 600).
Erika Jayne’s personal life
The RHOBH cast member was born Erika Chahoy on 10 July 1971 in Georgia, Atlanta. Her father left shortly after her birth and Erika was raised by her single mother Renee. She attended North Atlanta High School before moving to New York.
Jayne was only 19 when she met her first husband Thomas Zizzo. They married in 1991 and share a son, Tommy Zizzo. Page Six states the latter is an officer at the Los Angeles Police Department and eschews limelight. In her memoir, she mentions that marriage and being a mother was tough for her. E! News cites an excerpt from the book which reads, “I feel like my marriage came apart because of me, not because of anyone else. I can take responsibility. I knew I was a good mom. I thought I was adult enough to be a wife and a mother, but really I wasn’t.” The couple called it quits in 1996.
After this tough episode, Jayne shifted to Los Angeles. It was here she met her second husband, Tom Girardi, a very powerful lawyer with his own law firm Girardi Keese. Despite a 32-year age gap, Erika (who was then working as a co*cktail waitress in West Hollywood) and Girardi hit it off. They got hitched in 1999 and she became Erika Girardi. However, over 20 years later, she filed for divorce.
According to StyleCaster, Jayne issued a statement in 2020, saying, “This is not a step taken lightly or easily. I have great love and respect for Tom and for our years and the lives we built together. It is my absolute wish to proceed through this process with respect and with the privacy that both Tom and I deserve. I request others give us that privacy as well,” she said in a statement at the time. Erika Jayne’s net worth plummeted post this separation as the couple did not have a prenup.
Erika Jayne’s divorce and lawsuits
Shortly after she filed for divorce, both Tom Girardi and Erika were slammed with several legal cases. The most noted of them is the lawsuit which claimed the divorce was an attempt to distract from claims that Tom was embezzling money from the “widows and orphans” of victims of the 2018 Lion Air Flight 610 crash.
StyleCaster cites court documents which state, that he “misappropriated at least $2 million in client funds that were due to the families of those killed.” Although Jayne wasn’t slammed, she was named in the case as plaintiffs claimed, he embezzled money “in order to continue funding his and Jayne’s lavish Beverly Hills lifestyles,” reported E! News.
Not just this, in February 2023, the New York Times reported that Tom had been indicted for “allegedly embezzling more than $18 million from his clients.” In July 2022, Jayne was served a USD 50 million lawsuit in a racketeering case right after she returned from a luxurious Hawaii vacation.
Tom’s law firm is embroiled in financial fraud, and it accounted for over USD 100 million in debt in 2021. Jayne was dragged in as it was alleged that the law firm covered USD 25 million of her expenses from the money it took from clients. She was named a defendant in a suit filed by a trustee looking into the bankruptcy case.
While more stories shroud the millionaires, it can be deduced that Erika Jayne’s net worth severely suffered because of her estranged husband’s financial woes; her RHOBH salary is just a fraction of all these expenses.
Real estate portfolio
After her divorce, Jayne moved into a USD 1.5 million Spanish-style home in Los Angeles. The 385 sq m (2,000 square foot) house comprises three bedrooms, two bathrooms, a pool and a garden patio. She calls it her home and intends on spending her single life here.
Previously, to pay off creditors’ bills, Erika Jayne and Tom Girardi had listed their La Quinta home for USD 1.25 million. Built in 2005, the 344 sq m (3,708 sq ft) condo featured three bedrooms and three-and-a-half bathrooms. The property has a main house, a guest house, an in-ground pool and a three-car attached garage.
The estranged couple also sold their lavish Pasadena, California in November 2022 after an initial listing price of USD 13 million. Tom Girardi had purchased the property in 1980 for USD 1.3 million. According to the New York Post, the 957 sq m mansion is spread across 8,093 sq m (10,300 sq ft) land, next to the Annandale Golf Club. It had four bedrooms and six baths, wooden corridors and an outdoor pool.
Other expensive things owned by her
In 2017, Bravo TV reported the real housewife owned a gorgeous Lamborghini Huracan. She confessed her love for some robust beasts and said, “I like cars. I like to go fast. You know, I was raised in a car culture down south, so I love fast cars.”
The sports car is powered by a 5.2 litre V10 engine and comes with many stunning features, making it a coveted item among celebrities.
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Erika Jayne also enjoys some luxury holidaying and her famous trip to Japan with Lisa Rinna or her trip to Hong Kong has caught major attention on RHOBH.
Speaking to The Daily Dish, she had said that one of the most expensive things she owns is a piece of jewellery. “I think one of my pieces of jewelry[sic.] would be my most expensive piece I own, yes.” However, she remained tight-lipped about it and added, “Yeah, I’m not gonna say. Oh my God!”
In 2007, Girardi bought her a pair of jaw-dropping diamond earrings for USD 750,000. But they ended up in judicial possession after the legal cases were filed against them.
(Hero and feature image: Courtesy Erika Jayne/ @theprettymess/ Instagram)
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
-Where is Erika Jayne now?
Erika Jayne is currently busy with her new single “Bounce” and the two-part documentary Bet It All Blonde.
-Does Erika Jayne have a baby?
Erika Jayne has a son Tommy Zizzo from her first husband Thomas Zizzo. Tommy is an officer at the Los Angeles Police Department and stays away from the limelight.
-How old was Erika Jayne when she met Tom Girardi?
RHOBH‘s Erika Jayne was 27 while Tom Girardi was 59 when the two met for the first time in Los Angeles.
-What is Erika Jayne famous for?
Erika Jayne is famous as a cast member of Real Housewives of Beverly Hills. She is also a wonderful singer.
