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Amanda Frances is clapping back after Bozoma “Boz” Saint John suggested on Thursday’s episode of Real Housewives of Beverly Hills that she built a cult.
As Boz, 49, said the newbie may be in need of a “rebranding,” Dorit Kemsley, 49, suggested she wasn’t a “real businesswoman,” and Kyle Richards, 57, came to her defense, Amanda, 41, reacted to the cast’s inability to understand her business, accusing some of pretending not to understand.
“[I’m] dumbfounded, shocked, like, bewildered [at the criticism]. That’s insane. It’s a cult cuz people love me? It’s a cult because people who are in my work appreciate the work?” Amanda wondered on the March 19 episode of the RHOBH: After Show. “For it to be a cult, I would have to, like, have some way to control them. If people are interested in a course, they go to a sales page, and they buy the course. Later, if they want another course, they go get another. We don’t even email people saying, ‘Here’s the next course.’”
According to Amanda, it’s “not that hard to understand” what she does for a living.
“[But] what was more frustrating than anything [was that] I didn’t know they were questioning it. I’m asked in Sedona. I thought I cleared it up. So there’s a whole gap of time where apparently they’re questioning and talking, but I don’t know about it,” she explained.
That said, Amanda isn’t convinced that everyone is as confused as they’ve led on.
“Some people are pretending not to understand. Some people are not listening, but none of that is my fault,” she noted. “[And] even if these women don’t f*cking get it, can they not respect that a lot of people clearly do?”
After Kyle mentioned that Amanda had purchased her home in Bel Air, confirming she “made that money,” and was a “self-made” woman, Sutton Stracke, 54, said she should be better “at articulating what she does for a living.”
“When she does talk about what she does … it’s kind of hard to follow,” Jennifer Tilly, 67, agreed. “But I don’t think there’s anything wrong with peddling inspirational messages to people that are willing to pay for them.”
Boz also said there wasn’t anything wrong with “selling feel-good tactics.”
“When we first met, that’s what she told me she was doing, which I actually thought was very noble because you want people to have a good relationship with their money,” she reasoned.
“However,” Boz continued, “if you’re going to tell people that by doing these steps, you’re going to make money, I think she just needs a rebranding.”
While Dorit said she understood Amanda being sensitive about her business, she suspected Amanda lacked confidence in it, as Boz agreed.
“If you’ve got confidence and you believe in what you’re doing, then,” she began, as Boz interjected, saying, “Then you wouldn’t be sensitive.”
“Exactly,” Dorit replied. “If you want to be a real businesswoman, you’ve got to be okay with a little bit of criticism. Now, she’s in a different stratosphere. She’s gonna have to deal with and be okay with [people asking questions].”
Elsewhere on the After Show, Rachel Zoe, 54, recalled offering Amanda some advice.
“I do remember saying to her, ‘Just be honest about who you are and what you do, and stop giving us numbers and statistics. That doesn’t describe who you are and what you do,'” she shared.
The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills season 15 airs Thursdays at 8/7c on Bravo.