Lisa Vanderpump admits that times have been “pretty dark” for her and her husband Ken Todd amid the pandemic and the closure of her restaurants, but she does have a bit of good news.
The Vanderpump Rules matriarch recently revealed that she has had an extremely tough time dealing with the state of her businesses. As fans likely know, she announced in July 2020 that Villa Blanca would be closing its doors for good after 12 years, and just this week, it was reported that her beloved restaurant PUMP had been suspended indefinitely by the California Franchise Tax Board due to alleged ‘tax problems.’
However, it seems Lisa has worked something out with the state tax board because her rep told The Sun that PUMP is set to reopen just in time for St. Patty’s Day on March 17. Though the hotspot is reportedly still listed as “suspended” for now, she has already hired workers to get the restaurant back in tip-top shape for patrons.
On March 10, the star stopped by The Talk to promote her two new reality shows just hours before her rep spoke with The Sun. The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills alum explained that she and Ken have fortunately been able to maintain a sense of humor about it all.
“You’ve got to have a sense of humor, especially since this last year,” she shared. “We’ve got to laugh at something because everything got so heavy.”
Lisa added, “So to have all my restaurants shut down, and everybody suddenly on unemployment, you know, it’s our livelihood and it’s been our life for so many years. So to have that shutdown, we needed a sense of humor to get through it.”
Prior to the pandemic, Lisa even had a rather large staff at her home, but she was forced to lay off most of those employees as well. However, the star is trying to make the best of her situation as she joked about her laundry skills and having to take care of Villa Rosa on her own.
“I was doing everything I possibly could trying to keep our lives at home together,” she explained. “So there I was even ironing Ken’s underpants [but] I was useless at laundry. I didn’t realize the dryer had a filter until there was smoke coming out of the laundry room. So we do have a sense of humor and we laugh at a lot of things, but life has been really serious as of the last year, and even now.”
Lisa shared that filming her new shows, Pooch Perfect and Overserved, was the perfect distraction for her before admitting that getting their restaurants back up and running is going to be a huge challenge.
“[It’s been great] for me to do two shows for this feel good factor in times where they’ve really been pretty dark, and life’s been pretty stressful I have to say. And even now, trying to get the businesses back together is gonna be a challenge.”
Though SUR has been open since February 11, the future of Vanderpump Rules is still up in the air as filming on season nine has yet to begin, and it’s unclear if Lisa would even be interested in another season considering the challenging times.