'Real Housewives of Orange County': Vicki Gunvalson's Boyfriend Brooks Ayers Allegations Retracted By ABC's '20/20'

On June 29, the ABC news show "20/20" did a segment about Brooks Ayers, the boyfriend of "Real Housewives of Orange County" star Vicki Gunvalson, portraying Ayers in an unflattering light.

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After Ayers threatened to sue the network, the show retracted their statements that portrayed Brooks Ayers as a "deadbeat dad."

His ex-girlfriend, Nicolette Cantanzarite -- who Ayers has a three-year-old son with, was interviewed by "20/20."

According to RadarOnline, during the on-air interview, she said, "He has not supported his child. He bailed on the hospital bill, the pediatrician bill, and left me with all of it."

However, in the ABC retraction, it states that Ayers did, in fact, pay the medical bills that came with their son Joey's birth and that did communicate -- or tried to communicate -- with his child.

"We want to clarify that Ayers' insurance paid for most of Joey's medical expenses arising from the birth, although not Catanzarite's; that Ayers provided rent money and certain other expenses to Catanzarite for a time after Joey was born; and that Ayers saw Joey a number of times after their break-up in May 2009, the last being July or August 2010 when Joey was 19 or 20 months old. We also wanted to clarify that Ayers and Catanzarite have communicated periodically since that time, and that when Catanzarite was in California in January 2012, she met with Ayers and his girlfriend."

In Ayer's legal letter (directed toward the show), which was obtained by Radar Online, Ayers' lawyer, Alexander Rufus-Isaacs, accused ABC of practicing "irresponsible journalism."

In the legal letter, Ayer commented: "ABC never gave me a reasonable opportunity to tell my side, and therefore the story, which is based on an interview with an ex-girlfriend, contains many mistakes. I am outraged that ABC should behave in this manner."

In the retraction, Ayers made a statement to ABC, claiming he "hopes to resolve his disputes with Nicolette soon."

But on Twitter, Ayers explained that the reason he had not seen his son in two years is "because of an uncooperative 'baby mama'.... truth always comes out!!"

The status of Gunvalson and Ayers' relationship is yet to be determined. He has been spotted on a date with another woman.

It seems that the couple is determining whether or not they've split up. On Sept. 23, Gunvalson tweeted, "I didn't dump Brooks. We are both taking time for ourselves right now."

On Oct. 5, Ayers retweeted Gunvalson's post, "Don't make permanent decisions based on temporary emotions."