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Lisa Rinna recalled being faced with a “crazed fan” during her days on The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills in her new memoir, You Better Believe I’m Gonna Talk About It, accusing Bravo and its executives, including Andy Cohen, of failing to intervene.
As she also reflected on the moments that followed the tragic death of her mother, Lois Rinna, claiming the network wanted her to film the funeral and pressured her into returning to filming just three days later, Lisa, 62, said that as she acted out amid her grief, she was met with a threat from an online troll.
“I went a li’l rogue on social media, bad-mouthing the show, my castmates, Andy Cohen, anyone in my line of sight. I posted a screenshot of a private text message I’d gotten from a crazed fan that said, ‘I’m gonna get you.’ It had his phone number on it. In retaliation he doxed me and posted a message of mine that had my phone number on it. I got thousands of phone calls and had to change the number I’d had for twenty-five years,” she recalled, via Bye Wig Hello Drama on Instagram. “I reached out to everyone at Bravo—Senior VP Kathleen French, Andy, Alex Baskin, all the producers—and begged them to help me with the stalking. ‘I’m in a tremendous amount of pain. Please, somebody help me.’ And none of them would.”
According to Lisa, Bravo and its team “tried to pacify [her] and said they would see what they could do.”
“But nobody ever did anything,” she explained. “I can see where it looked like I was going a little crazy, not only on the show but on the internet. I really was going through some scary, traumatizing stuff, and it felt like no one was listening or offering a helping hand. Maybe it was a cry for help, but I think that situation would drive anyone a little mad.”
At another moment in her book, Lisa shared how she was handled by production in the days that followed her mom’s passing, revealing that they hoped to capture footage from Lois’ funeral.
“Three days after my mom died, RHOBH producers asked me to go to Mexico to film the very first scenes of season 12 with the girls. Who am I kidding? It wasn’t an ask. Bravo should have said to me, ‘Lisa, don’t worry. I know we’re just starting this show, but you take as much time as you need.’ No, I was being pressured to not only film my mom’s funeral in Oregon, but to get my a** on that trip,” she wrote, also via Bye Wig Hello Drama on Instagram.
Although Lisa opted to go to Mexico, she noted that doing so was “insane,” and explained that she was “in shock.”
“I had so much logistical stuff to take care of. The business of wrapping up a life is a full-time job and a really traumatizing one. Thank God for my sister. She stepped in and did all that stuff you need to do because I couldn’t make a decision to save my life. And I felt like nobody from the show helped in any way,” she admitted.
Lisa went on to say that after arriving in Mexico, she received no sympathy from her castmates.
“Nobody said, ‘Oh my God, you just lost your mother and here you are.’ In their defense, when they went through traumatizing personal stuff, I wasn’t always there for them either,” she explained. “The attitude on the show was, Okay, we gotta get this done. We gotta be good girls, and we’re here to do the work. And I admit, I had played into that mentality, too, for eight seasons.”
While Lisa acknowledged that she could have waited to film, she said Bravo couldn’t afford to be without her.
“They could not have made the show without me. They had to have me, and they knew it. They had bajillions of dollars at stake and they couldn’t rely on those other women. That’s the truth,” she concluded.