There have been many unforgettable ladies to pass through the shiny gates of Bravo's
Real Housewives franchise over the years.
While the network is known to conduct cast shake-ups, several stars have left the series
on their own accord.
Let's dig deeper into why these Real Housewives quit.
The infamous Lisa Vanderpump was a fixture on The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills since
its inception.
The Vanderpump matriarch decided to leave Real Housewives behind after a drama-filled
Season 9, with her exit stemming from an argument with co-star Dorit Kemsley over a puppy named
Lucy Lucy Apple Juice.
In a nutshell, Kemsley adopted a pup from Vanderpump's business, Vanderpump Dogs, but
gave the dog away after it allegedly bit one of her kids.
While Kemsley didn't realize the person she gave Lucy to was going to take her to a shelter,
Vanderpump felt she should have been returned to Vanderpump Dogs.
The drama-filled "puppygate" ordeal wound up in an article published by Radar Online,
leading several of Vanderpump's castmates to accuse her of leaking the story.
"If you believe I gave the story to Radar Online, we don't have a friendship."
Vanderpump went to the extent of taking a polygraph test to prove her innocence, but
the Real Housewives of Beverly Hills ladies weren't having it.
In true housewives fashion, the fight snowballed into enough drama to fill the season.
Clearly fed up with the situation, Vanderpump skipped out on the show's reunion and later
announced she was quitting during an interview with Daily Mail TV in June 2019.
When a reporter asked if she would return to the show, Vanderpump claimed the cast members
have made it "impossible" for her.
The Real Housewives of Orange County star Heather Dubrow quickly became a solid cast
member when she joined the show in Season 7.
The buttoned-up wife of plastic surgeon Dr. Terry Dubrow left the show after just five
seasons in 2017, telling The Daily Dish,
"I have decided to go in another direction and do what's best for my family and career."
Apparently, Andy Cohen told Heather "the door is always open" if she ever decides to come
back.
While Housewives fans may miss seeing the Dubrows, it doesn't seem like Heather's had
to miss her old housewives friends too much.
In 2018, she revealed on Watch What Happens Live that she'd been texting with Tamra Barney
and Meghan King Edmonds, and also ran into Vicki Gunvalson, all in the same week of her
appearance.
Sure, Heather didn't mention any getaways or dinner parties, but it sounds like these
ladies have remained pretty close off camera.
Plus, it doesn't seem like Heather really needed the Real Housewives series in her life
anyway.
Her hubby Terry has picked up a few extra side gigs since his family got into the Bravo
spotlight.
In addition to launching Oxygen's License to Kill, which investigates murderous medical
cases, in 2019, he also landed E!'s long-running reality show Botched.
There's no question The Real Housewives of Atlanta star NeNe Leakes left her mark on
the Bravo show.
The unapologetic, original Georgia peach said goodbye after an eight-year run in 2015, telling
People magazine,
"This is my opportunity to spread my wings and do different things."
Referencing her previous quarrels with her housewife co-stars, she added,
"There were times when I was a target.
I won't miss the negativity...I feel a weight has been lifted off of my shoulders."
After Leakes quit, Andy Cohen tweeted that the door would always be open, writing,
"We love [NeNe Leakes] & she is always welcome back to the house she helped build!
She's a Real Housewife forever!!"
For her part, Leakes clearly didn't forget that offer.
In September 2019, Bravo shocked fans when the Real Housewives alum was shown in the
Season 12 promo trailer.
According to Entertainment Tonight, Leakes previously announced her return in a since-deleted
Instagram post, in which she wrote,
"Season 12 SIGNED!
Nay Nay will see you in NYC Sunday!
Let's go [Real Housewives Of Atlanta]."
While she was left out of the first two episodes of that season, which premiered in early November
2019, Leakes told People that this was because she'd kept, in her words, "one foot in and
one foot out" during contract negotiations.
However, everything apparently worked out to her liking.
Kim Zolciak-Biermann shocked fans of The Real Housewives of Atlanta when she left the show
in 2012.
The lady who loves her wigs had a much more shocking departure than former co-star NeNe
Leakes, though.
After being an Atlanta housewife staple for five solid years, Zolciak-Biermann left straight
in the middle of filming Season 5.
In all fairness, she was eight months pregnant at the time.
She wrote on her Bravo blog,
"The fighting.
The stress.
The gossip.
The drama.
I reached my boiling point.
Bravo and [Real Housewives Of Atlanta] have been beyond good to me, and I will be forever
grateful for some of the moments that occurred on the show, but I couldn't deal anymore.
I handled my s--- for five seasons, from fights, to arguments to the tears, but being pregnant
puts a whole new spin on everything, and what happens on the outside affects what happens
with the baby on the inside, and that was my priority!"
Zolciak-Biermann had already been hired by Bravo to star in the spin-off show, Don't
Be Tardy, featuring her kids and NFL star husband Kroy Biermann.
Clearly, filming with family was way less stressful than fighting with a bunch of grown
women every week!
The Real Housewives of New Jersey alum Caroline Manzo decided to hang up her housewives fedora
after five seasons.
Manzo was the resident matriarch of the Jersey clan and didn't appear one bit intimidated
by the strong personalities like co-stars Teresa Giudice or Danielle Staub.
Indeed, this reality star stood strong in her convictions, so it was surprising that
she decided to leave in 2013.
What was her reasoning?
For one, she was in the process of starring in another Bravo reality spin-off, Manzo'd
with Children, about her family.
According to a Bravo blog post, she admitted,
"I simply feel that my role has run its course and I have nothing more to give.
Over the past few years my outlook on the show has changed from something I couldn't
wait to show my future grandchildren to something I hope my future grandchildren never see.
I've always prided myself on being a good example for my children and my decision to
leave is based on advice I've always given them: 'Be true to yourself and be proud of
who you are, you are born with a name and you die with a name, don't dirty it up."
Manzo added that, quote, "peace and integrity cannot be bought with money or fame", and
how can you argue with that?
Lydia McLaughlin of The Real Housewives of Orange County didn't last long in the OC.
The reality TV starlet announced her decision to leave after just one season, telling Us
Weekly in 2013 that it was "bittersweet."
She explained,
"I want to build my brand outside of the Housewives, I've always been really honest with the producers
about that.
I knew that while I was filming it that I probably wasn't going to be doing it again."
That said, McLaughlin is one of many former housewives who made sure the media knew she'd
be flattered to be invited back to the show.
These housewives seem adamant about making sure the public knows they quit, and weren't
let go, and also appear to take Bravo's offer to come back quite seriously.
With several having come and gone more than once, McLaughlin also found herself on that
repeat list.
She later re-joined the Orange County cast, just in time for a magazine launch, but her
second go around also lasted just one season.
She wrote to fans on her blog,
"[God's] plan is always good and it was the perfect timing for me with the launch of NOBLEMAN
Magazine to return for season 12.
I feel it is now, the perfect twist to once again hang up my orange."
To say The Real Housewives of New York City star Bethenny Frankel got notoriety from her
time on reality television would be an understatement.
The cute brunette, who's technically been unmarried for most of her time as a housewife,
has parlayed her TV exposure into many side gigs.
We're talking about a multi-million-dollar Skinnygirl empire, a spin-off show called
Bethenny Ever After, and even her own daytime television show called Bethenny.
"I hope they don't get discouraged from watching two women who have an opportunity to put things
behind us, we have a chance to turn this thing around."
"No, we don't."
Frankel was one of the original New York ladies, and after exiting the show following the filming
of Season 3, she came back four seasons later.
However, Frankel announced she was leaving the show for a second time in August 2019.
On Instagram, she wrote to her fans at the time, in part,
"I am so grateful to you for sticking with me through everything.
You started this journey with me in my tiny apartment in my late 30's, wondering what
would happen to me.
I was broke, single, had no family and no idea what the future held."
She later expanded upon her reasons for leaving, stating to Variety that she was ready for
new things.
She explained,
"It's time to move on and focus on my daughter, my philanthropy and my production partnership
with Mark Burnett, producing and starring in shows which represent a shift in the conversation
for women."
It's highly doubtful fans have seen the last of this smart, business-savvy New Yorker.
The Real Housewives of New York City star Jules Wainstein left the reality television
limelight when her personal life got too much to bare on camera.
After announcing her split with husband Michael Wainstein, Jules decided she was done with
the show after just one season, with her rep telling E! News in 2016,
"Jules is going good through a divorce and is putting her family first."
Wainstein's decision to quit was somewhat surprising since she was very public about
some of her personal struggles on Real Housewives, including her battle with bulimia.
However, the divorce seemed to put the reality star over the edge, and like any mama bear,
Wainstein's new focus was understandably keeping her family out of the spotlight.
She told The Daily Dish,
"Now with everything going on in my personal life, I want to focus on my family, my children,
and make sure they are happy and healthy.
My children are young and with everything going on, the last thing I want is my divorce
to be public and I have to protect them."
After sharing her struggles with Lyme disease and announcing that she and musician husband
David Foster were splitting, The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills star Yolanda Hadid quit the
show in 2016 to focus on her health and personal life.
The Dutch-American mother to supermodels Gigi and Bella Hadid confirmed her exit after Season
6, telling her Instagram followers,
"I believe that every exit is a new entry and with that in mind I say goodbye to my
[Bravo TV] Family as I continue to focus on my recovery, my children and bring back the
privacy within our home."
Fans watched Hadid struggle with her illness on air, with Foster appearing to play the
role of a supportive husband, traveling to places like Switzerland for every kind of
experimental treatment under the sun in an attempt to beat Hadid's debilitating disease.
However, according to her 2017 memoir, Believe Me: My Battle with the Invisible Disability
of Lyme Disease, the music producer allegedly told his ex-wife,
"Your sick card is up."
Understandably, that didn't go over well and the two soon headed toward Splitsville.
However, it's possible we haven't seen the last of Mama Hadid.
Bravo spoke highly of the former model in a statement to People after she quit, saying,
"We wish her a full recovery and hope to see her again sometime on the show."
Will Hadid give Real Housewives Of Beverly Hills a second go around?
Stay tuned.
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