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Amanda Frances looked back on her comment about being “accosted” by Dorit Kemsley ahead of Thursday night’s first installment of The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills.
As she also opened up about the lingering confusion she had in regard to her interactions with Dorit, 49, discussed the friendships she made on the show, and revealed her “most naive” moment from season 15, Amanda, 41, spoke of how the series impacted her business and more.
“I was thinking there’d be some positive karma or energy with it being on that day,” Amanda told Bustle on April 23 after noting that the taping of the reunion fell on the same day as the 15th anniversary of her business.
But that wasn’t the case.
“And that’s really indicative of my whole experience, right?” she asked.
“I guess that’s the most naive moment I had,” Amanda continued. “My whole life is me celebrating my friends and entrepreneurial women and my clients and myself. It just made the show such a juxtaposition.”
In addition to being shocked by the lack of support from her co-stars, Amanda said she was equally disappointed by her back-and-forth with Dorit, which began after Dorit found out that she had commented on the criticisms she’d voiced about Paul “PK” Kemsley, 58, amid their divorce.
“They took that moment where I said two things in support of Dorit and then one that’s like, ‘She probably shouldn’t talk bad about the father of her children,’ which wasn’t really against her,” Amanda noted. “When Dorit brings it up at Rachel’s, you see me try to wrap my head around it.”
Amid a heated dinner table debate with Dorit, Amanda used the word “accosted” to describe her co-star’s behavior against her.
“People will probably never let me live that down,” Amanda admitted. “[But] if I’m in a conflict, the intention is to resolve it, and that’s not what [Dorit] wanted. That’s very confusing to me.”
Although a friendship with Dorit wasn’t in the cards, Amanda found solace in Kyle Richards, 57, Jennifer Tilly, 57, and Kathy Hilton, 67.
“I was at Kathy’s house a few weeks ago, and we had a delightful time,” Amanda revealed. “We talked about the show and life and handling scrutiny. I mean, think of what she’s seen her daughters go through. She’s very willing to be a friend and a girl’s girl.”
When asked about what she’s “always defending,” Amanda said it was “women.”
“I feel like I eat, sleep, live, and breathe female empowerment and financial empowerment, and I always have. It’s very disheartening to me that, because there’s a spiritual and energetic component to it, it’s all being reduced down to manifesting money,” she explained of the show’s impact on her career focus. “If you look at my work, there’s so much psychology and human behavior and neuroscience and metacognition behind it. I have really woven some beautiful concepts into teaching manifestation, and I do not like the way the Housewife rhetoric has reduced it down to, ‘She tells people she can help them manifest money.'”
Despite that, Amanda has seen growth within her business due to her role on RHOBH.
“Book sales are insane. If you go check almost any day of the week, I’m number one in women in business, which is a great category to continually be number one in,” she shared. “And what we’re seeing in the past couple of months is a lot of new people — Bravo people included — checking out a $5 offer, an $11 offer, a pay-what-you-feel offer [to preview entry-level money-manifesting trainings]. Of course, I’ll love it if some of these people end up in a $2,000 course. But my bigger intention is to bring these principles to the general population.
“That makes me feel like I’m really getting the assignment of the show right, despite all this stuff,” Amanda added.
The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills season 15 reunion continues with part two on Thursday, April 30, at 8/7c on Bravo.