Vicki Gunvalson

Victoria Gunvalson (née Steinmetz) is an American reality television personality and businesswoman. Born on March 27, 1962, she is best known as an original cast member of the Bravo reality television series The Real Housewives of Orange County (RHOC). She is also the founder and chief executive officer of Coto Insurance and Financial Services.

Gunvalson is one of five children born to a mother who was a housewife and a father who owned a construction company. At five years old, she underwent surgery to remove a benign inner-ear tumor called cholesteatoma, which resulted in a 50 percent hearing loss in her right ear. By age 25, after five additional surgeries, she completely lost hearing in that ear. At age 32, the tumor recurred, wrapping around her facial nerve and reaching toward her brain, but she fully recovered following a final surgery.

At age 21, she married her first husband, Michael J. Wolfsmith, with whom she had two children. Following their divorce when she was 29, she worked part-time at her father's construction company. After her father passed away from Alzheimer's disease in 1991, she entered the health insurance business. She obtained her insurance license in California and co-founded Coto Insurance after marrying Donn Gunvalson in 1994. The couple later divorced in 2014.

Gunvalson joined the cast of The Real Housewives of Orange County for its debut in 2006. She served as a full-time cast member for the first 13 seasons before shifting to a friend role in season 14 and departing the franchise in January 2020. She subsequently returned in a guest capacity during seasons 17 and 18, and in November 2025, it was announced she would return as a full-time cast member for the show's 20th season. In total, she has appeared in 17 of the show's first 20 seasons.

Beyond the flagship series, Gunvalson starred in the second season of Peacock's spin-off series The Real Housewives Ultimate Girls Trip in June 2022 and was set to star in its fifth season planned for 2024. In 2020, she hosted the podcast Whoop It Up with Vicki. In 2025, she began co-hosting the podcast My Friend, My Soulmate, My Podcast alongside Christian Gray Snow with the Hurrdat Media Network.

In her personal life, Gunvalson dated Brooks Ayers during the tenth season of RHOC in 2015, during which it was revealed that Ayers had fabricated documents regarding a cancer diagnosis. Gunvalson was later engaged to Steve Lodge from April 2019 until September 2021. In November 2021, she publicly shared that she had recently had cancer. She continues to own and operate her insurance agency located in Coto de Caza, California.