Viewers may remember Steve Lodge as Vicki Gunvalson’s boyfriend-turned-fiancé from seasons 12 to 14 of The Real Housewives of Orange County. The couple began dating in 2016 after meeting at a charity event a year after Vicki broke up with her longtime boyfriend, Brooks Ayers. Vicki and Steve immediately hit it off, and she believed she finally found the love of her life. The pair got engaged in April 2019 after three years of dating and had plans to wed in 2020.
However, less than a year after they got engaged, the COVID-19 pandemic spread across the world and forced everyone into lockdown. While the couple planned to have a small wedding with just their families, they decided to postpone their nuptials further until the pandemic subsided. After a brief split before the summer, the couple decided to completely call off their engagement. Vicki is not doing well after the split, which will be discussed on the upcoming season 2 of The Real Housewives Ultimate Girls Trip set to air next year.
Steve was born on August 3, 1958, and is currently 63 years old. He grew up in Southern California, where he joined the Santa Ana police force in Orange County. Steve has a brother named Rodger Lodge, who is a popular game show host and radio personality. Steve worked as a police officer during the 1990s and surprisingly had a very shady past. The former reality star was accused of assault and battery twice in 1991 and 1997, though the allegations were later dismissed. According to WIKI, a Santa Ana police officer believed to be Steve used excessive force on a jaywalker by throwing him to the ground and beating him with a baton. The jaywalker was later rewarded more than $600,000 once the case went to trial. Steve also faced a restraining order in 2012 after he was reportedly in a physical altercation with a man who was having an affair with his now-ex-wife Karla.
Karla and Steve filed for divorce in 2005 and requested joint custody of their two children: Amanda and James (via Reality Tea). At the time of their divorce, Steve was working as a police detective and listed his monthly income as $6,801, plus an additional $3,631 of monthly overtime pay. Since then, Steve has left the police force and began a new career as a city government consultant. In 2012, he attempted to run for city councilman as a Republican. However, he failed to secure an official party endorsement. Steve failed in politics largely because of his checkered past in the police force. Most recently, Steve ran for the governor of California over the summer, but he lost. Steve only received 12,000 of the more than 5 million votes, meaning he received less than one percent of the state’s vote.
Even though Steve was known as Vicki’s boyfriend on The Real Housewives of Orange County for her last couple of seasons, viewers didn’t get to see who Steve was outside of the show. While he may have treated Vicki with respect, judging by his personal and professional background, Steve doesn’t respect others around him. Not only was he a shady cop, but he may have been a shady governor if he was elected. It seems Vicki dodged a bullet now that he called off their engagement.
Sources: WIKI, Reality Tea
-Featured.jpg)
