Season 10 of The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills is upon us, its teaser promising another installment of high fashion, exotic cars, diamonds, and drama in the 90210. But even the high-stakes presented in the promotion of the upcoming season can't mask the glaring absence of its queen bee, Lisa Vanderpump. Is she really gone for good?
The short answer? Yes. She's not coming back anytime soon.
For context, we have took back at the events of RHOBH season 9, in which Vanderpump officially lost her standing as the franchise's undisputed head honcho. The restaurateur's already-shaky friendship with fellow Housewives Dorit Kemsley and Kyle Richards completely disintegrated amidst a controversy related to animal shelter Vanderpump Dogs. Kemsley accused Vanderpump of leaking a story to gossip site Radar Online about her abandoning the puppy that she and her family had adopted.
AdvertisementADVERTISEMENT
Vanderpump maintained her innocence — even going so far as to submit to a lie detector test — but it wasn't enough to convince her circle of friends, who remained suspicious of the Brit's intentions. To them, the Radar Online story had Vanderpump written all over it, down to its posh wording.
The accusations proved too much of a betrayal for Vanderpump to handle, especially amidst the personal issues that she was already dealing with. Thus, the tension boiled over in a massive, unprecedented way for the Bravo series: Vanderpump stopped filming and flaked on the the season 9 reunion.
Rumors about the entrepreneur stepping away from the show were made official after she broke the news to her two million fans on Instagram:
"The Pump has left the building," Vanderpump shared last summer. "Thank you to all of you for your support for 9 years.”
Fortunately, "the building" was only referring to RHOBH, not Bravo in general. She continued appearing on her other reality series, Vanderpump Rules, and is even rumored to be working on a second Bravo show based on her animal shelter. Those two gigs, in addition to her growing business portfolio, leaves little room for her to return to the Housewives franchise — even if her former friends were to ever apologize.
But the show must go on. RHOBH moved full speed ahead without the glamorous businesswoman, adding two new Housewives — actress Garcelle Beauvais and socialite Sutton Stracke — to the roster to replace Vanderpump in its tenth season. And from the looks of it, the cast won't be lacking in the drama department. Only this time, Lucy Lucy Apple Juice isn't at the center of it.