Lisa Vanderpump is happily moving on after leaving The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills, her pal Lance Bass tells Us Weekly.
The former boybander, 40, who’s set to appear in episodes of Vanderpump Rules in the upcoming season, gave Us an update on the restaurateur, 59, at the 2nd Annual Environmental Media Association Honors Benefit Gala in Pacific Palisades, California, on Saturday, September 28.
“We just had dinner a couple of weeks ago. You know, we have our weekly dinners. Vanderpump dinners, like, one of the best things ever because it lasts about five hours. And, you know, we get a little wine down us and we just laugh the whole time,” he told Us. “But she’s doing great. I mean, for the last year, she’s been very down. I mean, it’s been a hard year for her, her family situation. Of course, the girls turning on her, but it was nice to see her smile again and you know, she’s back to Lisa.”
Vanderpump officially confirmed in July that she was exiting the hit Bravo series after nine seasons, sharing a video on Instagram along with the caption, “The Pump has left the building.”
A month earlier, she’d told Us that she had made the decision to leave after skipping the taping of the show’s season 9 reunion, because “it was a very difficult year for me, personally and professionally.”
Vanderpump’s brother, Mark, died of a drug overdose in May 2018, followed by her mom’s death in June 2019, and the most recent season of RHOBH saw her embroiled in PuppyGate, which saw her at odds with many of her costars, including Kyle Richards, Lisa Rinna, Dorit Kemsley, Teddi Mellencamp and Erika Jayne.
The scandal involved a puppy that Kemsley adopted from Vanderpump Dogs. After claiming that it nipped at her husband and children, the dog ended up at a kill shelter instead of being returned to Vanderpump’s rescue. She was then accused of leaking a story about the dog to the press, which she denied, even taking a lie detector test.
Vanderpump told Us in April that she was dealing with her “very, very, very tough time this year,” with the help of grief counseling and antidepressants.
“I’ve never taken anything in my life, you know, I’ve never been to therapy in my life,” she admitted, “but I think slowly I’m in a lot better place than I was.”
With reporting by Emily Marcus
