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The Denise & Brandi Situation Has Changed A Bit Since The RHOBH Premiere

Lia Beck
Last Updated July 16, 2020, 1:50 AM
Photo: Courtesy of NBC.
The time is finally here. After a hiatus in episodes, the reveal of home confessionals, and several perplexing speeches from Aaron Phypers, the moment fans have been waiting for has arrived. Brandi Glanville and Denise Richards' situation is starting to play out on The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills, beginning with Brandi's return in the July 15 episode. As with many storylines in the Real Housewives franchise — from "You stole my goddamn house!" to Lucy Lucy Apple Juice — the Brandi and Denise drama began outside of the show. And it's continued to escalate as season 10 has aired episodes.
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Here's everything that has gone down so far.

What Happened Between Brandi & Denise, Again? 

In January, the Daily Mail published a report claiming that Denise and Brandi had an affair. The report says Denise told Brandi that she and her husband, Aaron, were in an open relationship, which, supposedly, wasn't true, and led both Aaron and Brandi to be upset. The Daily Mail also reported that Denise stopped filming RHOBH when her cast mates confronted her about the rumor.

What Denise Richards Says Now About The Brandi Rumors

Denise has denied that she hooked up with Brandi, but Denise's most recent statement implored fans to keep watching the show.
"I love for things to play out on television instead of social media," Denise said on a recent episode of The Talk (via Us Weekly). "But the stuff that’s been out there, I have been through it in the media with different claims being made." She continued, "So for me, personally, this is like kindergarten. I’m, like, whatever. We’ll just let it play out on the show, it is what it is … I can’t speak for anyone else."
Denise also commented on the rumor that she stopped filming RHOBH. "We were pretty much wrapped actually in December, and I was asked to go to two events that we had," she told Extra in May. "I did not make it to those; that was the extent of me stopping filming… I did not quit the show… The only people that said I quit are some of the people on the show, and they never asked if that was true or not."
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Back when the Daily Mail report came out, Denise's rep denied the rumor that she had an affair with Brandi. And in a March interview with Entertainment Tonight, Denise said, "[T]he subject matter that seems to be in all the tabloids of late is...I don't know. I think it's kind of disgusting that they even talk about it. But that's something they choose to, and I've had worse things said, so you know, I can rise above it." She also confirmed that she and Aaron were still together and have "a very solid marriage," something she continually confirms on her Instagram with posts like this:

What Brandi Says Now About The Rumors

It will surprise no fan of RHOBH to hear that Brandi has been much more outspoken than Denise. In late June, Branti posted a photo to Twitter with the caption "#snack on this" that she claims shows her kissing Denise. Brandi alleged in a second tweet, "It’s 1millionpercent DR !!!NOT A DR look alike."
Brandi also recently commented on a video Denise posted on Instagram that showed her reenacting her famous line from this season, "I am fucking Denise Richards." Brandi, taking the obvious opportunity, wrote, "OMG ME TOO!"
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This wasn't her first public reaction though. The day after the Daily Mail report came out back in January, Brandi posted an Instagram of herself on Watch What Happens Live with the caption, "When you want to respond but are not 'allowed' to..." And about a week before the report was published she wrote a series of tweets in which she said, "I just got 'Denised,'" Seriously bitch???? You wanna play," and "1-blackmail is illegal 2-I have no skeletons in my closet (they’re all on the internet) 3-slut shaming is soooooo last year."

How The Story Has Changed Since The RHOBH Season Premiere

Well, one big way is that an RHOBH mid-season trailer was released in which the two women speak directly about the rumored affair:
"I fucked her, woke up the next morning, she said, 'Aaron can never know this. He’ll kill me,'" Brandi tells a group of the Housewives in the preview. Denise, in a separate conversation, says, "What the fuck? That is not true." She later says, "Please do not air this. It's very bad ... Bravo has a choice. If they ever want me to be on the show, they need to cut that."
All of this speaks to what we know so far out here in the real world: Brandi stands by her claims that they had an affair, Denise denies it, and Denise had some sort of issue involving the filming of the show itself.
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We also have to look at what we've seen on the season so far. The biggest pre-Brandi drama is between Denise and pretty much everyone else, except Garcelle Beauvais. The women initially felt that Denise was insulting them by being hung up on the fact that they talked about threesomes near her children. (That's Housewives for ya.) But now, the whole thing keeps getting further and further drawn out because Denise keeps walking away from conversations rather than resolving anything.
Knowing that this is the dynamic between the cast when Brandi pops up speaks volumes. If Denise is already on the ousts with the other women and has made a habit of walking out of scenes, then everything else just falls into place. Of course she's not going to want to film when they bring up something this salacious about her.
As far as the actual RHOBH episodes are concerned, we're just getting started. In the preview at the end of the July 15 episode, Brandi says she wants to have a threesome with Denise and Aaron, and then says that Denise "is not who she pretends to be."
Yeah, they're probably going to drag this one out.
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