By Debbie Emery - Breaking Celebrity News Reporter

Brooks Ayers was catapulted from the Real Housewives of Orange County to primetime TV last month when ABC's 20/20 aired an interview with a former girlfriend alleging that he was a "deadbeat dad," and Breaking Celebrity News can now exclusively reveal that Vicki Gunvalson's boyfriend is planning to sue the network.

The 45-year-old businessman from Mississippi has now hired leading Beverly Hills attorney, Alexander Rufus-Isaacs of Rufus-Isaacs, Acland & Grantham, to fight both ABC and ex-girlfriend, Nicolette Catanzarite, claiming that they made "numerous defamatory statements" about him on the special that aired on June 29.

"On July 11, Mr. Rufus-Isaacs wrote to ABC demanding a retraction of the story and threatening to bring a lawsuit seeking damages for the injury to Mr. Ayers' reputation," said the attorneys in a legal letter obtained by Breaking Celebrity News.

The statement contained a comment from Brooks claiming: "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 m