Getty RHOBH veterans Lisa Rinna, Kim Richards, Lisa Vanderpump, Kathy Hilton and Denise Richards.
Lisa Rinna announced her departure from “The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills” in January 2023, but there has been some confusion on exactly how her exit went down.
In a May 2023 interview with The Evening Standard, Rinna revealed that it was her late mother, Lois Rinna, who guided her to step away from the Bravo reality show after a volatile eight seasons.
“She came to me,” Rinna said of her mom, who died in November 2021. “It’s so wild, because half the world will believe this, half the world will say: ‘That’s so weird.’ I was sleeping and I heard her say to me: ‘It’s time for you to go.’”
Rinna added that she later relayed the story to her psychic who told her that she too received a message from Lois. “She said: ‘Oh yeah, she’s come to me and told me that. She wants you to be happy and follow your dream, but she says it’s time for you to go,’” Rinna claimed the psychic told her.
Lisa Rinna Said She Knew it Was Time to Go
GettyLisa Rinna
Rinna’s final season on RHOBH ended with a blowout with Kathy Hilton. At the RHOBH reunion, Hilton even called Rinna “the biggest bully in Hollywood.” At BravoCon in October 2022, Rinna was booed as she walked onto the stage.
In the Evening Standard interview, Rinna revealed that the way reality TV fans have changed since she first joined RHOBH in 2015 was another factor in her decision to quit the show.
“Eight years of that kind of show… The way the fan base reacts to the show now is not how it was when I first started,” she said. “I mean, we were getting death threats. Some of the most horrible things I’ve ever seen in print in my life, and it’s a reality show! It’s a stupid show! I thought: “It’s time to go.’”
Rinna made similar comments about the change in how fans receive the show when she spoke with Interview magazine just after she announced her decision to leave RHOBH in early 2023.
“Something has gotten to the Housewife Universe because of what’s going on in the world, and it’s reflected in the way the fans react to the world of Housewives,” she said at the time. “And I just think it’s unhealthy. It wasn’t working for me. It wasn’t right for me.”
Andy Cohen Claimed Lisa Rinna Quit RHOBH Right After the Season 12 Reunion Taping
BravoThe RHOBH cast at the season 11 reunion.
The timeline for Rinna’s exit decision is not clear. In his book, “The Daddy Diaries: The Year I Grew Up,” Bravo host Andy Cohen claimed that after the RHOBH reunion taping in the fall of 2022, Rinna texted him in the middle of the night to say she was quitting the show and he agreed that was the right decision. But he added that a few weeks later he was told that Rinna wasn’t quitting.
“I think [Lisa] should go on pause but absolutely come back. Feels like she has a toxic relationship with the show at this point, and taking a breath away could do everyone good,” Cohen wrote in his book, per Hollywood Life. He later wrote: “We mutually agreed with Rinna that she should take a break from the show (this is a real pause).”
But Rinna has been adamant that she was never put on “pause.” She told Interview: “It’s time for a break. Not a pause, I don’t go on pause. You don’t put me on pause. I go bye-bye. You know what I’m saying?”
And in May 2023, a rep for Rinna told E! News that there was “never a discussion” about the concept of putting her on “pause.” “Her contract ended, and the parties mutually agreed not to engage on a new one,” the rep said. “She felt her time on the show had run its course and she was more than happy to move on. And she still does not regret it.”
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