A cast member of "The Real Housewives of Orange County" is engaged in dueling lawsuits with a man who claimed he was her secret beau, court documents show.
Gretchen Rossi has filed suit in Orange County (Calif.) Superior Court seeking damages for alleged assault, battery, defamation, stalking and other offenses, from Jay Photoglou, the Orange County Register reported Saturday. Photoglou, who claimed he was Rossi's boyfriend while she was engaged to someone else, is suing her in Los Angeles Superior Court for defamation and slander, the newspaper said.
Rossi's suit claims Photoglou threw her against a wall in 2008. The suit alleges Photoglou pulled Rossi's hair and threatened to kill her, and that he owes her $18,000 and has lied about her repeatedly to the media, the Register said.
The suit maintains Photoglou's alleged lies to the media have hurt Rossi's image and a business she has established, a line of cosmetics called Gretchen Christine Beaute.
"Rossi's reputation with her cast mates, and viewers of the Housewives show, and others has been tarnished, discredited and assassinated," her attorneys allege in the suit. "The harm is irreparable."