Ever since Lisa Rinna announced she was leaving The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills in January 2023, following eight drama-filled seasons, fans have wondered whether she quit or got fired. At the time, Lisa claimed she quit, but Bravo rarely reveals when they fire a housewife and they often let the exiting housewife lead the narrative, so either scenario was possible. But Andy Cohen seemed to set the record straight in his new book, The Daddy Diaries: The Year I Grew Up, and Lisa has since responded.
While promoting the book during an interview on SiriusXM’s Smith Sisters Live, Andy asked the show’s hosts Lauren, Mariah and Rachel Smith, “What did you think about the tea that I spilled about Rinna quitting the show after the Beverly Hills reunion?”, to which Lauren replied, “That was wild to me because I had understood the narrative as her having been fired and I was mind-blown when she texted immediately that night after the reunion being like, ‘I’m out,’ but then it was like, ‘Actually no I’m not,’ and then it’s like, ‘Well, now you’re on pause.’ It was so chaotic.”
In his book, which dropped on May 9, Andy revealed that after the season 12 reunion filmed in Sept. 2022, he and producers “ended the day wondering if there was a path forward for [Lisa]”. Lisa “made a federal case” about Kathy Hilton’s alleged Aspen meltdown on the show, and fans weren’t happy about it. So when she allegedly texted him in the middle of the night, following the taping of the reunion, saying she’d be leaving the show, he thought that felt “right” — he thought it was a “smart” move. He only wished she could’ve gone out on a “better note” and not amidst her fiery face-off with Kathy.
Then, just a few weeks later, “based on some correspondence with the team”, Andy learned Lisa wasn’t quitting anymore. So when the reunion finally started airing in late October, Andy wanted to see whether or not Lisa was “still in quitting mode”.
On Oct. 20, after some awkward exchanges with her at BravoCon, and watching her get booed at the Oct. 14 RHOBH panel, he wrote in his diary, “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”. Finally, in his epilogue, Andy wrote, “We mutually agreed with Rinna that she should take a break from the show (this is a real pause)”.
While Mariah thought Lisa must have “immediately regretted [telling Andy she’d be quitting]”, the actress’ rep told HollywoodLife the opposite, when we asked about the book reveal. “[Lisa] is not ‘ON PAUSE ‘ and there was never any discussion with anyone about that concept. Her contract ended, and the parties mutually agreed not to engage on a new one. 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,” her rep told us.
During Lisa’s initial exit announcement in Jan. 2023, she gave the following statement to HollywoodLife: “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 8-year run and I am excited for what is to come!’”
Days after the news broke, Andy said he hopes Lisa “will come back” to RHOBH in the future. On his radio show, SiriusXM’s Andy Cohen Live, he said, “I really do hope that this is a pause. I hope she will come back. I really do. I’ve talked to Tamra [Judge] about this a lot. Tamra, ultimately said to me before she came back to this, she said, ‘You know what? My time away from the show kind of helped me as a person.’ And she said, ‘I think it was actually really positive to leave and get some air and step back.’ So I just hope that Lisa will humor us and comes back.”