Ever since Lisa Rinna announced she was leaving The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills, following eight drama-filled seasons, in January 2023, fans have wondered whether she quit or got fired. At the time, Lisa claimed she quit, but Bravo rarely reveals when they fire a housewife and they often let the exiting housewife lead the narrative, so either scenario was possible. But Andy Cohen finally set the record straight in his new book, The Daddy Diaries: The Year I Grew Up.
While promoting the book during an interview on SiriusXM’s Smith Sisters Live, Andy asked the show’s hosts Lauren, Mariah and Rachel Smith, “What did you think about the tea that I spilled about Rinna quitting the show after the Beverly Hills reunion?”, to which Lauren replied, “That was wild to me because I had understood the narrative as her having been fired and I was mind-blown when she texted immediately that night after the reunion being like, ‘I’m out,’ but then it was like, ‘Actually no I’m not,’ and then it’s like, ‘Well, now you’re on pause.’ It was so chaotic.”
In his book, which dropped on May 9, Andy revealed that after the season 12 reunion, Lisa texted him, saying she’d be leaving the show. We’re guessing she was pretty upset after her face-off with Kathy Hilton, but soon thereafter, he said she regretted her decision and tried turning things around. Unfortunately for her, Andy felt it was best to put her “on pause”.
Andy agreed that the situation was “chaotic”. Mariah then said, “I think she immediately, obviously immediately regretted what she had done and that’s something that’s like if you’re moving that erratically and that sort of moment, you needed to be on pause, fired, quit. Like, whatever word you want to use, that needed to happen. I’m also shocked she didn’t publish the text.”
Lauren thinks Lisa “wanted to be begged to come back or something.” She said, “I don’t know if it was like a move, I don’t know. I was so, so surprised by that BTS.”
At the time of her exit from RHOBH, Lisa gave the following statement to HollywoodLife: “This is the longest job I have held in my 35 year career and I am grateful to everyone at Bravo and all those involved in the series. It has been a fun 8-year run and I am excited for what is to come!’”
Days after the news broke, Andy said he hopes Lisa “will come back” to RHOBH in the future. On his radio show, SiriusXM’s Andy Cohen Live, he said, “I really do hope that this is a pause. I hope she will come back. I really do. I’ve talked to Tamra [Judge] about this a lot. Tamra, ultimately said to me before she came back to this, she said, ‘You know what? My time away from the show kind of helped me as a person.’ And she said, ‘I think it was actually really positive to leave and get some air and step back.’ So I just hope that Lisa will humor us and comes back.”
Click to Subscribe to Get Our Free HollywoodLife Daily Newsletter to get the hottest celeb news.
This story originally appeared on Hollywoodlife