The friendship of Denise Richards and Lisa Rinna effectively ended when the cast circulated an accusation that Denise had a sexual relationship with former castmate Brandi Glanville.
Rather than putting a stop to it, Lisa, who introduced Denise to Real Housewives of Beverly Hills and has known her for 20 years, seemingly led the charge against her. Denise then quit the show unceremoniously and refused to attend the reunion.
In an interview for Jeff Lewis Live, however, Denise confirmed that she would consider coming back to RHOBH. When asked if anyone from production has spoken to her, Denise responded, “Not after I left, so I don’t know where the rumors come from.”
Denise admitted to being friends with “some” of the cast, and she said Garcelle Beauvais “possibly” told producers that she was interested in coming back. “I don’t know if she did… I mean we definitely talked about it.”
She also addressed the rumor that she wouldn’t return until Lisa was removed from the cast.
“That’s not true .. Definitely, I would be fine with working with Lisa and filming with her. I never said that I wouldn’t go back because of her.”
When the host noted that her friendship with Lisa seemed “strained” at the end, Denise responded, “That’s to put it mildly. I think that, I will say this: Lisa Rinna, she plays dirty, and she can be really nasty. So I think that’s just something to know about with her being on the show.”
However, Denise expressed that Lisa recently “reached out to me. She sent me a text apologizing… ’cause there was also a rumor that I never responded, but I did respond. I responded right away.”
Denise said it was only a text conversation (not a phone call), and “we’ve never seen each other” since she left the show. The actress explained it was unfortunate because “it’s a 20-year friendship.”
Though she’s open to the idea of working out their differences, Denise expressed, “I don’t think I would ever be, I could never be close friends with her after [what happened].” Denise also has noticed “how [Lisa’s] been” on the latest episodes and social media, sharing, “I just don’t agree with it, so it’s hard to be friends with someone like that.”
When asked if Lisa is accountable when she knows she’s wrong, Denise answered, “I think sometimes some of the women will apologize when they get backlash, you know, if they do something, that’s something that I’ve noticed, but as far as Lisa, I think if you apologize, which she apologized to me while we were actually filming, but then she just went back to the same behavior. So that was, it was hard for me to really believe that the apology was genuine.”
Where does Denise currently stand with Kyle Richards? “I actually ran into her two days ago. It’s fine,” she said. “Actually I sent her a text saying, ‘it was great running into you and we should get together and catch up.'”
Later in the interview, Denise explained, “Some of the women were different off camera, and then once the cameras were there I’m like, ‘Why are they acting like this?’ Why are they, it was very strange to me, and I think that’s been the experience with some of the others too.”
The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills season 12 airs Wednesdays at 8/7c on Bravo.