The Real Housewives cameras stop rolling, but the drama doesn't,
and plenty of dirty laundry gets aired off camera. So get ready to channel your inner Andy Cohen,
because we're about to break down the craziest off-camera Real Housewives moments.
Lisa Rinna's lips were made for talking, and that's just what they'll do. The Real
Housewives of Beverly Hills star went out with a bang after Season 12. And her final season
was riddled with controversy and she said/she said scenarios. During a girls' trip to Aspen,
the Housewives went bar-hopping without the cameras. Sources dished to Radar that Kathy
Hilton supposedly lost her cool at a club when the DJ refused to play her request.
After being told to "go back to L.A.," Hilton and Rinna left the club in a sprinter van.
Since cameras weren't rolling, we only have the ladies' word for what happened. According
to E! News, Rinna claimed Hilton bashed her castmates, Bravo, and her sister Kyle, saying,
"I have to do everything around here. This is my show, by the way. I have big deals
over at NBC. Everyone is protecting me. And I will f---ing ruin Kyle."
"It's very high school."
"Stupid and trivial, classic Mean Girl stuff."
Hilton fessed up and apologized on camera for saying cruel things and having a temper tantrum,
but she denied being the villain Rinna painted her to be, telling Variety,
"I don't even talk like that! I love those girls. [...] That's
how she talks. I don't talk about 'I'm gonna take somebody down.'"
It's not a good look when a Real Housewives star's husband disses his wife — especially
when his mic is still on. While this moment was technically featured on the show,
Joe Giudice's infamous Season 4 phone call wasn't caught on camera. Rather,
it was the hot mic moment heard 'round the world.
In the middle of a cast dinner in a Napa vineyard,
Teresa Giudice's then-husband took a call from a mystery person. Again, we didn't see the call,
but everyone heard Joe's suggestive tone. When Teresa started toward him, he hissed,
"Here comes my b---h wife. She's such a c---."
At the reunion, Joe insisted he was just talking to his friend, Albie.
"If I was talking to a girlfriend I probably
would have ripped my mic off and threw it in the bushes."
Though Teresa stuck by her man, she was gutted by the scene, confiding to InTouch Weekly,
"If this continues, I will leave. [...] I am not stupid."
The couple filed for divorce in 2020.
Finding out your husband is in a full-fledged relationship with another woman through the
tabloids isn't the way Luann de Lesseps envisioned her marriage ending. But The
Real Housewives of New York City star found out the hard way, along with the rest of the world.
De Lesseps married French entrepreneur,
Count Alexandre de Lesseps in 1993. It seemed like love at first sight.
"After the fifth day, he said, 'Marry me. I lived in a fairy tale, too good to be true."
But in 2009, after 16 years of marriage and two children,
the pair called it quits after a shocking scandal that broke Luann's heart.
Alexandre started another relationship while they were separated but still technically
married. Then he broke the news to Luann over email. She told People magazine,
"It said that he had met someone and they were serious."
She was rocked by the news, admitting,
"I knew that we were kind of separating, but I was hoping that things were going to work out."
The Countess went on to marry Tom D'Agostino in 2016 only to split a year later.
There's nothing like trading Bravo cameras for prison bars. In 2014, The Real Housewives of
New Jersey star Teresa Giudice and her former husband Joe both pleaded guilty to conspiracy,
bankruptcy fraud, and tax evasion. The former couple's crimes include conspiring to commit
mail and wire fraud, concealing assets, and failing to file tax returns. While Teresa
filmed the Bravo series amidst the allegations, even allowing cameras to capture the moment she
told her children, media wasn't allowed in the courtroom during her sentencing.
"I didn't know I was committing a crime. The government saw it differently."
During the sentencing hearing, Judge Esther Salas said,
"I know — not the whole world — but a lot of people are watching and I need to send a message.
It doesn't matter who you are, how famous you are, I believe general departure is necessary."
Judge Salas gave Teresa a 15-month sentence. Then, after sentencing Joe to 41 months, she stated,
"Your mother said in the letter that you needed a slap on the wrist. I don't agree. You showed
direct disrespect to the court with all of your actions. If you don't have it, don't spend it."
After serving nearly a year of her sentence, Teresa was released on good behavior. Joe
was released from prison in 2019 and deported to his home country, Italy.
Drew Sidora and Ralph Pittman were married for nearly a decade, but their relationship crumbled
after they joined The Real Housewives of Atlanta. The couple met in 2013 and tied the knot the
following year, with Pittman adopting Sidora's son in 2015. The couple debuted on the show in 2020,
sharing the ups and downs of their life together. Many fans accused Pittman of gaslighting his wife,
and there were rumors of infidelity on both sides of the relationship.
While viewers got a front-row seat to their tumultuous marriage, production wasn't there
to capture the couple's rush to the courthouse to file for divorce in 2023. According to TMZ, Sidora
arrived just 61 minutes before Pittman. On an episode of Watch What Happens Live, she clarified,
"I got to a point where enough was enough,
and once he caught wind that I was planning to file, then it became a race."
In court documents obtained by People, Sidora accused her husband of being a "serial cheater
and adulterer," and alleged that he'd gotten physical with her at times. Pittman denied the
accusations in his filing and requested that Sidora leave their shared Georgia mansion.
"You constantly ice me out. You constantly throw dirt on my name.
And you think it's a joke. You think it's a game."
While the pair may be living separate lives, they're doing so under the same roof,
at least for the time being. During the September 2023 reunion episode,
Sidora said they had yet to break the news of their divorce to their children.
Joanna Krupa and Brandy Glanville got into a legal battle over — of all things — comments
about vaginal odor. The controversy began in 2013 when Glanville not only accused Krupa of
playing a role in Yolanda Hadid's split from Mohamed Hadid, but made a foul comment about
The Real Housewives of Miami alum's body odor. On an episode of Watch What Happens Live, Andy
Cohen mentioned Krupa had tweeted something snarky about Glanville's relationship with Eddie Cibrian.
"She said 'No wonder her husband left her.'"
"Oh! Boo!"
"Okay. Well, Mohamed did tell me that her p---y smelled."
After the episode aired, Krupa clapped back by filing a lawsuit against Glanville,
accusing her of slander and intentional infliction of emotional distress. The
suit was settled in 2017, and the outcome wasn't released to the public.
Porsha Williams made a splash when she joined The Real Housewives of Atlanta cast in 2012.
From her epic fights with Kenya Moore to not knowing what the Underground Railroad was,
the reality star has had quite a few memorable on camera moments.
"There has to be an opening for the railroad at some point,
because somebody's driving the train. It's not electric like what we have now."
When she joined the show, she was still married to former pro football player Kordell Stewart,
and their tumultuous marriage played out on television. Many of her co-stars
called the marriage controlling, with Williams' career aspirations clashing
with Stewart's view of his wife as a stay-at-home mother to his son.
The two eventually went their separate ways, but the cameras weren't rolling to capture
Williams' reaction to Stewart filing for divorce. Williams told ABC News that she
learned the news along with the rest of the world when it hit social media, recalling,
"I literally was lying in bed and I looked at Twitter and it was going
crazy. I saw on Twitter that my husband has filed for divorce."
Just steps away in another room,
Williams confronted Stewart in a moment that never made it to air, revealing,
"He said he thought about it and we'll talk about it later
and he left for work. I had to call my attorney to find out."
The divorce was finalized in 2014. Williams went on to marry entrepreneur Simon Guobadia in 2022,
but filed for divorce from him in February 2024.
Tamra Judge's marriage to her second husband, Simon Barney, unraveled on The
Real Housewives of Orange County. By Season 5, the cracks in their relationship were obvious,
with Barney criticizing Tamra's form-fitting outfits and her active social life.
"I have this dress that you probably will hate. It's totally backless."
"That looks like something a 20-year-old would wear."
It was clear to viewers that it was over when
Tamra admitted on camera she was afraid of her husband.
Judge and Barney split in 2010 after the latter filed for divorce. According to court documents
obtained by People, Barney accused his then-wife of being "verbally abusive and [committing]
acts of disloyalty and adultery," which she denied. Barney was arrested later that year
for reportedly throwing a retractable dog leash at his wife, but the charges were dropped. He
also accused Judge of neglecting their children and filed for full custody, which was denied.
Tamra found love again with her third husband, Eddie Judge,
whom she married in 2013. In 2020, Barney revealed he was diagnosed with throat cancer,
and he and his former wife reached a truce. She shared with People,
"It's kind of like a new beginning for me and my
family. It's really brought everyone closer together."
There are many terms one could use to describe an affair,
but "fairy tale" isn't one of them. But that's the exact term Michaele Salahi
and Neal Schon used when opening up to the Daily Beast about their whirlwind
romance. The reality star left her husband, Tareq Salahi, for the Journey guitarist in
2011 — just months after the first and only season of The Real Housewives of D.C. aired.
Michaele and Schon had dated before she married Tareq.
She described her reasoning to the Daily Beast, saying,
"I chose Tareq over Neal because I thought life would be less stressful
living on a vineyard in Virginia. Life on the road with a rock band — well,
I thought I might not have been able to keep up."
She eventually changed her tune. In 2011,
Schon invited Michaele and Tareq to a Journey show and ended up disappearing with Michaele.
After not hearing from his wife for ten days, Tareq worried she'd been kidnapped.
"She wasn't being herself,
as if somebody was standing over her. As if somebody was right there."
Then he learned she was leaving him for life on the road with Schon. As Michaele put it,
"I was going crazy. Because when you want to be with someone that bad,
you start to go crazy. He sent someone to come get me. I got
on a plane by myself and I just went. I just walked away from everything."
Brandi Glanville's ex-husband, Eddie Cibrian, wasn't exactly Mr. Faithful
when they were together. At one point during their relationship,
he struck up a romance with future Vanderpump Rules star Scheana Shay.
"I lost my family. I lost everything that I
have. So if anyone's gonna cry here, it's not gonna be you."
And after that, he connected with country superstar LeAnn Rimes while they were filming
the 2009 Lifetime movie Northern Lights. When Cibrian's affair with Rimes came to light,
Glanville filed for divorce, and, in 2011, Cibrian and Rimes tied the knot.
Glanville, who shares two kids with Cibrian, didn't sweep the scandal under the rug. Rather,
she regularly dragged her ex and his new wife on social media and in interviews.
Rimes occasionally fired back, but her retorts only fueled Glanville, who told Daily Pop,
"I think when the 10-year mark [of their marriage] comes and he leaves her and takes half her stuff,
we'll all be good together because they won't even be related. If she
doesn't have a kid with him, then we don't ever have to see her again."
It took almost a decade, but the seemingly impossible happened: Glanville not only made up
with Rimes and Cibrian, but she and Rimes became friends. In 2021, she explained to Hollywood Raw,
"I think we both grew up a lot. [...] I think our kids had a lot to do with it. My friends
are still mad [at] her, and I'm like, 'If I can deal with this, you guys need to get over it.'"