Heavy/Getty/NBCUniversal Lisa Rinna.
Lisa Rinna is happy that “Real Housewives of Beverly Hills” producers shared the real story of her exit from the Bravo reality show. In January 2023, the Rinna Beauty founder shocked fans as she announced her exit from RHOBH after eight seasons.
At the time, she issued a statement to People magazine to say, “This is the longest job I have held in my 35-year career, and I am grateful to everyone at Bravo and all those involved in the series. It has been a fun eight-year run, and I am excited for what is to come.”
The exit was described as a “mutual” decision between Rinna and Bravo, but many fans were convinced that she was actually fired. Rinna’s final season on the show was extremely volatile after a blowout with Kathy Hilton during a cast trip to Aspen.
In a January 2024 interview with Cosmopolitan, Rinna addressed an email she wrote that flashed onscreen during an RHOBH season 13 episode. The email seemed to prove that she quit the show on her own.
“This show has a way of always coming around and them showing that was a moment of them coming around and doing the right thing, I think,” Rinna told the outlet.
Lisa Rinna Had No Idea Producers Set the Record Straight
BravoRHOBH’s season 12 cast
Speaking with Cosmopolitan, Rinna confirmed she is not watching RHOBH this season. “ I’m not, no,” she said. “I think that when you leave a job that you’ve had for eight years, you have to really disengage, and I had to disengage completely for my own sanity. So yeah, no.”
So she also had “no idea” that producers inserted a pop-up of her exit email into a scene in which Erika Jayne notes she’s on her own this season because her friend left. The pop-up email read: “I will not be renewing my contract, and I will not be coming back to RHOBH. Thank you so much for 8 years!!!! All the best, Lisa.”
“Nobody gave me a heads-up,” Rinna told Cosmo. “I mean, a week before it aired, somebody sent it to me because Bravo had sent out a preview of the episode. So I thought, ‘Wow, look at that.’ Because, of course, everyone thought I’d been fired. But no, I made that decision. I sent text messages to the rest of the people. I sent an email to the head of Bravo, but I sent text messages to everybody else. It was the right decision to make, at the time, absolutely the right decision. “
“I didn’t regret it when I sent the letter, and I haven’t regretted it since,” she added of her exit.
Andy Cohen Wrote About Rinna’s Email in His Book ‘The Daddy Diaries’
Bravo fans famously booed Rinna at BravoCon 2022, but her decision to quit RHOBH actually came a month before that.
In his book “The Daddy Diaries: The Year I Grew Up,” Bravo host Andy Cohen spilled that Rinna quit the show after filming the season 12 reunion episode in September 2022. Cohen wrote that after the reunion taping, producers questioned “if there was a path forward ” for Rinna, as she didn’t resolve her issues with Hilton. But she made the decision for them when she sent a late-night text announcing she was quitting.
Cohen noted that he felt Rinna’s exit was a “smart” move. But he claimed a few weeks later she may have changed her mind “based on some correspondence with the team.”
After her BravoCon booing, Cohen wrote, “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.”
“We mutually agreed with Rinna that she should take a break from the show (this is a real pause),” he added.
According to People magazine, when Rinna publicly announced her exit three months later, Cohen spoke out on his Sirius XM show ‘Andy Cohen Live” and said he hoped it was just a temporary leave.
“She has been really a huge part of Beverly Hills,” Cohen said of Rinna. “I really do hope that this is a pause. …I just hope that Lisa will humor us and comes back.”
READ NEXT: Andy Cohen Makes Prediction About BravoCon