Lisa Vanderpump was left staggering after NeNe Leakes claimed that the Real Housewives of Beverly Hills star stole the Real Housewives of Atlanta star’s idea for Pump Restaurant.
“It’s the first thing I’ve heard about it in six years, so it’s been a surprise,” Vanderpump, 58, told Us Weekly exclusively at the RHOBH season 9 premiere at Gracias Madre in West Hollywood on Tuesday, February 12. “It’s my 35th restaurant. It’s from the same landlord as the landlord at SUR. It’s 200 yards down the road.”
Leakes, 51, claimed during a February 1 interview on SiriusXM’s The Jenny McCarthy Show that she wanted to buy the space on Santa Monica Boulevard where the Vanderpump Rules star now runs Pump.
“She did some real foul s–t to me,” the actress alleged. “At the time, [my husband] Gregg and I were living in [Los Angeles] and I was working on Glee and New Normal. We ride down that West Hollywood area where all the gay bars are — and I have a large gay fanbase — and I kept thinking, ‘It would be so cool if I had a bar right in here somewhere.’ And that space was empty and kind of raggedy-looking and torn down.”
Leakes then claimed she called Vanderpump, who also owns the nearby restaurant Villa Blanca, to get her opinion. “She said, Oh, darling, darling, it’s a piece of crap and they’re charging so much for it, darling,’” the Celebrity Apprentice alum said. “She talked me off of it and then went and got it. … That’s so f–ked up.”
After the drama started to make headlines, the restaurateur’s RHOBH costar Erika Jayne sided with Leakes. “NeNe don’t lie,” the Pretty Mess author, 47, told Us on February 7. “NeNe can take damn good care of herself.”
Vanderpump has been feuding with her castmates for months while filming the Bravo show’s ninth season.
“Relationships are definitely tested and fans will be taken on a crazy ride,” she told Us earlier on Tuesday. “This season was particularly difficult for me and perhaps I was not prepared.”
With reporting by Emily Marcus
