The bigger the cast, the higher the tension! The Real Housewives of Orange County will return later this year with all of its current cast intact, plus two more additions, a source close to the cast confirms to Us Weekly.

The new women, Meghan King Edmonds and Katie Chadwick Hamilton, are not only residents of the plush West Coast community, but they also happen to be married to pro athletes. Edmonds is the wife of former MLB player and current Fox Sports announcer Jim Edmonds. Other newcomer Hamilton, meanwhile, is the wife of MLB player Josh Hamilton.

They will join regulars Vicki Gunvalson, Tamra Judge (nee Barney), Heather DuBrow, as well as season 9 newbies Elizabeth "Lizzie" Rovsek and Shannon Beador. Gunvalson has impressively been with the RHOC — the very first installment of the entire Housewives franchise — since season one.

While the rookies are likely to bring fresh drama to the mix, a memorable former housewife from the franchise will also make her return as a "friend" in season 10. Original RHOC Jeana Keough, who made quite the splash in the first five seasons of the series back in 2006 to 2011, teased her role reprisal via Twitter last week.

"Thinking about doing a little work on the OC Housewives this season," she wrote. "What do you think?"

Veteran Orange County Housewives Gunvalson and Judge, meanwhile, reacted to new cast additions while speaking to Us Weekly on separate occasions last fall.

"We have three newbies and they don’t know what the f— they’re doing" Judge told Us at the Girlfriend's Guide to Divorce premiere last November. (It remains unclear what's happened to the third.) "They’re gonna come on and go, 'She's a liar!" Joking, Judge quipped: "'Bitch, I told you exactly what it was going to be.'"

Gunvalson, for her part, said new cast members were a necessity for the sake of the show's success. "I definitely think we have some room for some new cast members," she told Us last November. "I think every season when we have brought somebody new in, it definitely has shifted it up a little bit. Because people, although they want to follow your story, they also want to see new stories, and how we react to those new stories. So I think we’ve got room for some more."

As for what it takes to be a Real Housewife? "Somebody that definitely is strong-minded, not weak in any level," the original Housewife told Us. "This a tough, tough business. People want to shoot you when you’re down, and they want to shoot you when you’re up. So it is not for the weak-hearted, weak-minded, you definitely have to have some tenacity, some spunk, you have to have a purpose, why people would want to watch you. So for those of you who want to be on this show, be careful for what you wish for."

The new season of Bravo's Real Housewives of Orange County will return later this year. The network, meanwhile, has not confirmed to Us who will be returning or joining the cast in season 10.