“Life isn’t all diamonds and rosé, but it should be,” is one of the most iconic taglines by Lisa Vanderpump during her time on The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills. When viewers met Lisa back in 2010, they were told that she was a lady who was crazy rich and obsessed with her dogs, and she also had a bit of a naughty but fun side to her. No one knew that Lisa Vanderump would end up having an extensive falling out with ex-best friend Kyle Richards, but she would also go on to create and produce one of the best reality shows, in Vanderpump Rules, which, ten years after its premiere, would have a scandal that breaks the internet.
Throughout her time on The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills, Lisa showed her true self without faking a storyline; everything about her life was interesting, and everyone in the cast always had something to say about her. Whether it may have started as a good friendship and ended as frenemies, every single person who has been a part of that cast has had something against Lisa. Is it jealousy or genuine dislike of her? The world may never know, but Lisa always kept every one of the ladies on their toes. Even though the way she left RHOBH may not have been the best since she departed the show without going to Season 9, it didn’t stop her from creating her empire and making a name for herself outside RHOBH.
Vanderpump: A Force to be Reckoned With
What many housewives fail to do after their careers end on the show is what worked for Lisa Vanderpump because she was such a strong presence on the show that her leaving left a void that she hasn’t been able to fill. Many housewives who have also left their respective shows are quickly forgotten, but that is not the case for her. Her snarky/funny remarks about any of the ladies always brought joy to viewers, and it may not have been something they all liked or couldn’t take the “British humor,” as Lisa always put it.
Lisa did not stop after leaving RHOBH; if anything, leaving the show opened many opportunities for her because she had been established as a fan favorite, and many networks were interested in working with her. She went on to create Vanderpump Rules, Vanderpump Villa, and Vanderpump Dogs and to star in Season Two of Food Stars with Gordon Ramsay. She is brilliant when creating reality TV shows. She has an excellent eye for the hospitality business with restaurants like Sur, TomTom, Pump, Wolf by Vanderpump in Tahoe, Vanderpump à Paris, and The Vanderpump Cocktail Garden in Las Vegas. Lisa Vanderpump has shown no signs of slowing down, and with all of her new success, she will continue to be popular and become the Queen of Reality TV.
Her Beginnings on RHOBH
“Throw me to the wolves, and I’ll come back leading the pack.” Lisa Vanderpump is right; she did not have an easy journey while on The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills. At the beginning of the show, it seemed like she would be the lead of the show, and out of all the ladies in the first season, she was the one that had the most intriguing storylines and the most spark that would attract an audience. It could be seen from some of her cast members, like Adrienne Maloof, that some showed some signs of jealousy and were trying to take her down, like when Adrienne said that Lisa was calling reporters to release stories about her and creating ways to take her down and even recruited
Lisa’s best friend Kyle Richards, starts doubting Lisa as a person. Sure, Lisa had her moments where she was shady, but an exciting factor during this time was that everyone in the cast would get a pass for being shady. Still, when it came to Lisa, they all had to judge her for what she was saying and sometimes exclude her from the group. Lisa may not be an easy pill to swallow and can be a blowout, which makes her likable. She is not afraid to express her real feelings and not sugarcoat things. Many ladies tried to go against Lisa, but they all started as her genuine friends, like Brandi Glanville, Yolanda Hadid, Lisa Rinna, Dorit Kemsley, and Kyle Richards. All of these ladies tried to make Lisa run and hide, but she has a strong personality that she wouldn’t stand down from a challenge; her friendship with Kyle changed her perspective on the show and her friendships.
Lisa and Kyle Became Friends and Rivals
When thinking of iconic friendships for the show, one always comes to mind: the one between Kyle and Lisa. They were best friends at the show’s beginning, but someone would try to brainwash Kyle every season into going against Lisa. It always seemed it was easy for Kyle to throw away their friendship whenever an argument started. Still, she also began to become the person to brainwash people on how they felt about Lisa, just like she did with Dorit Kemsley, who was introduced on RHOBH because of Lisa Vanderpump. Dorit came on to the show as a friend, and during this time, Lisa was already having a hard time with the ladies, since this was after Lisa Rinna said that LVP was the one who told her to start the rumor about Yolanda Hadid having Munchhausen Disease. It was a perfect way for her to have an ally to back her up against Kyle and newcomer Teddi Mellencamp, but what Lisa didn’t see coming was how close Dorit was getting to Kyle, which meant she was switching her alliance.
It wasn’t until Season 9 of RHOBH that Lisa became tired of always being portrayed as the bad guy, especially also after the ladies put all the blame of #Puppygate on Lisa Vanderpump, saying she had leaked the stories about the dog that Dorit and PK Kemsley adopted and gave away again. This situation made Lisa decide to leave RHOBH and always not show up to the season’s reunion after all of her friendships ended during that season. This might have made someone not want to continue with their work or even be a part of reality TV, but for Lisa, this gave her the necessary fire to keep going with her ideas.
LVP The Queen of Reality TV
When Lisa was a part of The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills, she introduced audiences to her restaurant, Sur, where most of the events she would be in charge of would be hosted. When Lisa saw her staff, she noticed there was something about them that would be interesting to follow. At the time, Scheana Shay, one of Lisa’s staff from Sur, had an affair with Brandi Glanville’s ex-husband, who would be an excellent way to connect the worlds of RHOBH and Vanderpump Rules.
This show started the spark for Lisa to create reality TV shows in the future. No one could have expected the success of Vanderpump Rules; it has now had 11 seasons, and most of the cast members are still OGs from the first season. Viewers have followed the lives of this cast from when they all worked at Sur with Lisa to now being business owners of their restaurants with Lisa, like TomTom, who is owned by VPR’s Tom Sandoval and Tom Schwartz. The first created one of the biggest scandals in reality TV history after he cheated on ex-girlfriend Ariana Madix with Rachel Leviss. The “Scandoval” ignited a fire on Lisa to keep her work on reality TV shows and her hospitality business knowledge.
After the success that “Scandoval” brought VPR, Lisa Vanderpump started thinking of her next venture. She came up with the concept of buying a chateau in France and bringing in her handpicked staff to work on managing the house and servicing their guests with many events. This is where Vandepump Villa was created. This show is only her second stint at making a reality TV show, and she knows what she is doing since the show has now been renewed for a second season. It brought the drama and the old-school feel from Vanderpump Rules that viewers loved. This was only the beginning of her next journey, as she is now on the second season of Food Stars with Chef Gordon Ramsay.
Vanderpump Rules airs every Tuesday on Bravo and is available to stream the next day on Peacock.