Lisa Rinna Says Lisa Vanderpump Fueled Her Worst RHOBH Moment: ‘I Took the Bait’

Lisa Rinna and Lisa Vanderpump

Getty Lisa Rinna poses with Lisa Vanderpump.

Days after Lisa Rinna announced her departure from “The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills,” she slammed her former co-star Lisa Vanderpump’s earlier exit and accused her of being the main instigator on the show.

While speaking with Interview magazine in a tell-all published January 13, 2023, Rinna said Vanderpump ran away from RHOBH when she no-showed at the season 9 reunion and then announced her exit from the show nearly four years ago.

“What a p****,“ Rinna said of Vanderpump. “She didn’t show up to the reunion, boo-hoo. She caused herself much more [trouble] than needed, if you ask me.”

Rinna also gave an update on the status of her relationship with the SUR restaurant owner, saying, “There’s zero there. There’s zippo, zip, zilch.”


Lisa Rinna Said Lisa Vanderpump Fueled Negative Narratives About her on RHOBH

BravoLisa Vanderpump and Lisa Rinna

In a 2017 RHOBH episode, Rinna made a joke about a “pill bag” she carried with her and suggested putting Xanax in a smoothie. The joke spawned a storyline that she had a drug problem. Rinna clarified her pill situation during the season 7 reunion.

“I travel with [my bag] and I always have it with me,” she said, according to People.  “I know everything in here. …Advil, Tylenol, Multiclear, Vitamin D, Replenish, Essence, Relaxed Wanderer, Calcium Magnesium, Green Tea, Alieve, Digestive Enzymes, Benadryl, Protonix, Estrogen.”

In the 2023 interview, Rinna revealed that after she cracked her Xanax joke, she knew her co-stars “were behind the scenes talking about me being a drug addict.”

“It was Vanderpump who wanted this narrative out there that I was a pill head, or whatever,” she claimed.


Lisa Rinna Said Her Co-Stars Said ‘Ding Dong’ When Lisa Vanderpump Left RHOBH

RHOBH Cast

GettyReal Housewives of Beverly Hills stars.

In January 2023, hours after Rinna announced her exit from RHOBH, Vanderpump posted the phrase “Ding Dong” to Twitter. The post appeared to be playing on the famous “Wizard of Oz” line “Ding Dong the Witch is dead” in reference to Rinna’s departure.

“Well, that’s what everybody said when she left the show,” Rinna said of Vanderpump’s ‘Ding Dong” post.

Rinna also revealed that she always played “a really great cat and mouse game“ with Vanderpump. “And then once I really got caught onto what she does, I wasn’t having it,” she added. “You don’t get to not have your hands dirty. I really saw what she was doing and she liked that.”

The Rinna Beauty founder also claimed that some of her most controversial storylines, including her suggestion that an ailing Yolanda Hadid had Munchausen syndrome, a mental disorder in which someone feigns illness for sympathy – instead of debilitating Lyme disease — was a storyline fueled by Vanderpump.

“It was Vanderpump and a little bit of Kyle [Richards],” Rinna said. “I was too new at the time to realize that that’s the story they wanted to push and I took the bait. …And I didn’t realize it at the time because they’re so f***ing good at it. So I just jumped right into it. Vanderpump would call me in the morning for days and feed… They feed you. It’s like a f***ing brainwashing. I’m not even kidding. And I took the bait.  I did exactly what they wanted me to do.”

In 2018, Rinna told The Los Angeles Times that she almost quit RHOBH in the aftermath of the Munchausen storyline. In November 2022, she posted to Instagram to say that she has ”only one” regret from her eight seasons on the show. “Yolanda,” she wrote. “I would change that. That was very wrong. On all levels. That never should have happened.”

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