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“The Real Housewives of Orange County” is having a major cast shakeup, and many fans are disappointed that Kelly Dodd will not be apart of the season. Dodd originally released a statement shortly after the announcement on June 14, 2021, tweeting, “The last five years have been an amazing experience. The next five years will be even better. I am so grateful for all the love and support and so excited about the future. #RHOC”
Dodd appeared on SiriusXM’s “Jeff Lewis Live” with her husband Rick Leventhal, where she claimed she was, “blindsided” by the decision. She added that the producers called her before the news went public and she responded, “I said, ‘Well, why? Was it political?’ and he said, ‘No. Bravo wanted to take a different direction than you.'”
Leventhal chimed in saying, “There’s no one more popular than her. Even if people hate her, they love to hate her. They love to watch her. She was the brightest spark on that show. I have to say, when that phone call came I was very surprised because even though she’s so controversial, she’s still great television.”
Lewis then asked Dodd if she thought the choice could have been “personal” or if she had “insult[ed] any executives.”
“I did,” she replied. “Listen, ultimately I got fired because of myself. I’m the one who got myself fired. I was like Howard Stern with WNBC. I had the executives calling me, and Emily’s like, ‘Who are they?’ and I’m like, well, they know me! I know them! But I was causing them a lot of grief. I was causing them a lot of trouble. And, you know, I’m sorry about that. I feel bad.”
Dodd first joined RHOC as a friend of Meghan King’s on season 11 in 2016. Braunwyn Windham-Burke and Elizabeth Lyn-Vargas will also not be returning.
Dodd Dished About Both Her Fans & Her Haters
The mom of one has never been afraid to speak her mind. In the past, has faced backlash and criticism from Bravo fans due to her actions during the coronavirus pandemic. In April 2020, Dodd said that the coronavirus was “God’s way of thinning out the herd,” and that “no one was dying in Orange County.” Dodd also posted a picture to Instagram of herself wearing a hat that read, “Drunk Wives Matter,” during her bachelorette party last October. Many found this insensitive and offensive toward the Black Lives Matter movement.
Dodd explained her fanbase telling Lewis, “I have a million followers and they are diehard like fans, and they love me. And then I have, then I have this little group of people that are the cancel culture that hate me. And so they’re the loud ones.” She then said the, “loud” group of her social media followers are “the woke, broke people.”
She continued saying, “So yeah, they love to hate me and that’s fine. You want that too, right? You don’t want fricking milk toast. Right? So anyways, I said to him, I said, ‘Uh, well, can you tell me my Q ratings?’ Because listen, this is a business we’re here to sell advertising. This is how we make the money. Right. I mean, pushing the needle. So I said, ‘Was it because I, I was a popular enough or what was it?’ And he said, ‘This is the first time ever that Bravo did not share your Q ratings with us. All of you guys.'”
Dodd Originally Blamed Another Cast Member for Her Firing
She has since accepted her Bravo fate, but Dodd wasn’t shy in calling out one of her former cast members. “This was your fault,” Dodd texted to Windham-Burke in screenshots she shared on Instagram on June 17. “We’d still be on the show if you didn’t make things so dark and ugly and brought all that political ‘woke’ BS. Your lies about me, calling me a racist and a homophobe were horribly destructive and your phony storylines didn’t help either.”
Windham-Burke replied, “Well, I’m still sober and still gay, like I said if you ever want to talk I’m here.”
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