‘Real Housewives of Orange County’ Alum Kelly Dodd’s Most Controversial Moments Through the Years

Credit: Gregory Pace/Shutterstock

‘Real Housewives of Orange County’ Alum Kelly Dodd’s Most Controversial Moments Through the Years

Bringing the drama! Kelly Dodd has a history of saying what’s on her mind, which has gotten her into trouble on more than one occasion. The former Real Housewives of Orange County star, who appeared on the series from 2016 to 2021, noted that her controversial actions over the years were probably the reason for her termination by Bravo after season 15. “Listen, ultimately, I got fired because of myself. I’m the one who got myself fired,” Dodd said during a June 2021 appearance on SiriusXM’s Jeff Lewis Live with her husband, Rick Leventhal. “I was causing them a lot of grief. I was causing them a lot of trouble. And, you know, I’m sorry about that. Like, I feel bad.” Leventhal, who married Dodd in October 2020, revealed that he was surprised by the network’s choice not to renew her contract, calling his wife the “brightest spark” on the show. “You want somebody to love to hate you, or you want people to really love you, but I have a million followers and they are diehard, like, fans, and they love me. And then I have [...] this little group of people that are [part of] the cancel culture that hate me,” Dodd explained. “And so they’re the loud ones. ... The woke, broke people. They love to hate me.” [sendtonews type="float" key="bM4eBT0HRq-2836835-14453"] The former Bravo star’s actions in 2021 alone made a lot of waves, including her public feud with Braunwyn Windham-Burke after they were both axed from RHOC that June. Elizabeth Lyn Vargas’ contract wasn’t renewed either. Outside of the show, Dodd received backlash for attending an event that some fans considered to be a COVID-19 "superspreader" in January 2021. She previously raised eyebrows in May 2020 when she celebrated a meal out in Southern California without a face covering, claiming, “No one is wearing masks here in Orange County. Yup, because no one is dying here of the virus.” She also commented on the alleged politics behind COVID-19 restrictions, sharing a message with her Instagram followers in May 2020. “It’s not the government’s job to protect my health. It’s the government’s job to protect my RIGHTS,” she wrote at the time. “It’s my job to protect my health. When you trade liberty for safety you end up losing both.” Scroll down to relive Dodd’s most controversial moments through the years: [podcast_block]

Credit: Gregory Pace/Shutterstock

‘Real Housewives of Orange County’ Alum Kelly Dodd’s Most Controversial Moments Through the Years

Bringing the drama! Kelly Dodd has a history of saying what’s on her mind, which has gotten her into trouble on more than one occasion. The former Real Housewives of Orange County star, who appeared on the series from 2016 to 2021, noted that her controversial actions over the years were probably the reason for her termination by Bravo after season 15. “Listen, ultimately, I got fired because of myself. I’m the one who got myself fired,” Dodd said during a June 2021 appearance on SiriusXM’s Jeff Lewis Live with her husband, Rick Leventhal. “I was causing them a lot of grief. I was causing them a lot of trouble. And, you know, I’m sorry about that. Like, I feel bad.” Leventhal, who married Dodd in October 2020, revealed that he was surprised by the network’s choice not to renew her contract, calling his wife the “brightest spark” on the show. “You want somebody to love to hate you, or you want people to really love you, but I have a million followers and they are diehard, like, fans, and they love me. And then I have [...] this little group of people that are [part of] the cancel culture that hate me,” Dodd explained. “And so they’re the loud ones. ... The woke, broke people. They love to hate me.” [sendtonews type="float" key="bM4eBT0HRq-2836835-14453"] The former Bravo star’s actions in 2021 alone made a lot of waves, including her public feud with Braunwyn Windham-Burke after they were both axed from RHOC that June. Elizabeth Lyn Vargas’ contract wasn’t renewed either. Outside of the show, Dodd received backlash for attending an event that some fans considered to be a COVID-19 "superspreader" in January 2021. She previously raised eyebrows in May 2020 when she celebrated a meal out in Southern California without a face covering, claiming, “No one is wearing masks here in Orange County. Yup, because no one is dying here of the virus.” She also commented on the alleged politics behind COVID-19 restrictions, sharing a message with her Instagram followers in May 2020. “It’s not the government’s job to protect my health. It’s the government’s job to protect my RIGHTS,” she wrote at the time. “It’s my job to protect my health. When you trade liberty for safety you end up losing both.” Scroll down to relive Dodd’s most controversial moments through the years: [podcast_block]

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Thinning the Herd

Dodd came under fire in April 2020 after flying during the early days of the coronavirus pandemic. She fired back with a series of since-deleted Instagram comments, calling her haters “judgmental” before sharing her thoughts on the worldwide pandemic.

The former reality star claimed that the virus was “God’s way of thinning the herd,” aruguing that those who have died from the disease “would’ve died this year” anyway because “they were compromised.”

Days later, she issued a public apology via her Instagram Story. “When I wrote that it’s ‘God’s way of thinning the herd,’ that’s not what I meant. What I meant was, ‘Do these pandemics happen because it’s God’s way?’ I’m not God. I’m not insensitive,” she wrote at the time. “I feel bad for all the families that have lost loved ones, and I do think we should all stay at home and protect everybody. That’s not what I meant, and I want to apologize to anyone who got offended, OK? I’m sorry.”

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Resurfaced Racist Remarks

Dodd faced backlash in June 2020 when her past racist remarks from four years prior resurfaced. In the recirclulated TMZ video, the TV personality said she didn’t “like” or “know any Black guys” while standing outside of The Nice Guy restaurant in Los Angeles.

She later apologized for her comments in a statement to TMZ, saying, “I am truly embarrassed. There is no excuse for bad behavior or comments that offend anyone. That video does not represent who I really am and I apologize for acting irresponsibly.”

In June 2020, Dodd addressed her own experience with racism as a Mexican American. When a fan asked, “But, like, do you truly believe that because ‘You’re Mexican you can’t be racist’?” she fired back, “I’ve experienced racism personally … I am a woman of color and love everyone!”

Credit: Gregory Pace/Shutterstock

Bridal Shower Debacle

The Arizona native made waves in October 2020 when she had her bridal shower amid the COVID-19 pandemic and didn’t wear a face covering. Dodd shared photos from the event, which showed at least 15 other women not socially distancing while posing together.

The bride-to-be did, however, wear a “Drunk Wives Matter” hat, which was a play on the phrase used by Black Lives Matter protestors around the country. At the time, Dodd clapped back at people questioning the shower’s safety by sharing a group photo of the ladies indoors with masks on. She also called the virus “a super flu not a death sentence.”

As for the hat, Dodd told Andy Cohen during a December 2020 episode of Watch What Happens Live With Andy Cohen that it was a gift from the shower and she supports the Black Lives Matter movement.

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Calling Braunwyn’s Sobriety Into Question

Windham-Burke’s battle with alcoholism was a main story line during season 15 of The Real Housewives of Orange County. It was the ongoing conversations about her sobriety — and Windham-Burke’s revelation that she is gay — that Dodd had a major issue with. Looking back at all the drama in December 2020, Dodd explained that she didn’t have any regrets about how insensitive she was toward her costar.

“I don’t regret it because I think that her whole sobriety thing is contrived and I think it’s fake,” Dodd told Cohen during an episode of WWHL. “I don’t think that she had seven kids so she could ‘not drink’ and I know her well enough that this was a pre-plotted thing that she wanted to do to get her own show. … She wanted to get her own show, her talent agent told her to stop drinking. It’s all contrived. I don’t believe that she is a real alcoholic, no. You’ll see it after on at the end of the show, what happens. It’s really good.”

Credit: Casey Durkin/Bravo

Superspreader Event

The Newport Beach resident faced criticism in January 2021 after she attended a dinner with friends in California without a mask amid the ongoing COVID-19 crisis. “Cheers!” she said in a video alongside her husband while raising a glass to "superspreaders" along with the other diners, all of whom appeared to be maskless.

One of her pals pretended to cough after shouting, “Spread that s–t!” and Dodd said she was “getting a lot of hate for being at a restaurant we’re allowed to be at.”

The TV personality later commented on her actions via her Instagram Story. “I’m not a superspreader because there’s nothing to spread,” Dodd said in the clip. “We all got the vaccine and we don’t have it, so there’s nothing to spread about superspreaders. The sheeple are mad.”

Us confirmed that after the videos surfaced, Positive Beverage chose to disassociate with Dodd. “Our stakeholder, Kelly Dodd, was distanced from our company as an ambassador of the brand after the recent weeks and days of social media presence, indicating her opinions about people and the pandemic,” the brand’s founder and CEO, Zach Muchnick, told Us in a statement. “These values weren’t aligned with our tone and priorities of inclusion, diversity, wellness and health within every pillar of daily life. While she remains a minority shareholder in the company, we made the decision today to formally sever ties with her endorsement and likeness with our brand.”

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Coming for Heather's Family

The Positive Beverage cofounder claimed she caught COVID-19 from Heather Dubrow’s son, Nicholas, in July 2021. After receiving a letter from Dubrow’s attorney about the false claim, she said she was sorry for her remark.

“I am offering my sincere apology,” Dodd said via her Instagram Story at the time. “I did get COVID at a party New Year’s Eve, and Heather Dubrow’s son and his friends were all there. And while I had information leading us all to believe we could’ve gotten COVID from them, because we all — like, 24 of us — got COVID that night, we obviously have no way of proving or knowing for sure he or his friends were the source of our infection.”

She continued: “And for that, I apologize. I’m going on the record right now to be very clear: Rick and I don’t know how we caught the virus, and we’re both very, very sorry for any trouble we caused the Dubrow family.”

Credit: Courtesy Kelly Dodd/Instagram

Transphobic Cameo Comments

In July 2021, Dodd angered some fans when she seemingly made transphobic quips in a Cameo video. While giving a birthday shout-out to someone named Jennifer, who listed her pronouns in the request, the former Housewife appeared to take a jab at the LGBTQ+ community.

“Jennifer! They switched up this Cameo bulls–t, right, and [it says] this is Jennifer, she/her. I don’t get this,” Dodd said. “You’re born a girl or a boy. I don’t get it. You’re Jennifer. I’m sorry, I don’t give a f–k.”

She later addressed her controversial opinions, saying in an Instagram video that she’d never seen the options for having pronouns in a Cameo message. Dodd noted that she was “drinking” when she saw the request and spoke out of turn.

“I was just reacting in my own raw and unfiltered way,” she continued. “I want to be very, very clear about this — that I accept everyone for who they are. I accept everyone for who they want to be and who they believe themselves to be and I don’t hate on anyone. I’m not transphobic. I was just unfamiliar with the language.”

Credit: Courtesy Rick Leventhal/Instagram

Offensive Halloween Costumes

Dodd and Leventhal turned heads in October 2021 when they debuted their Halloween costumes. “Kelly celebrated her Native American heritage & I celebrated the great American film actor Alec Baldwin #happyhalloween🎃,” Leventhal captioned photos of the duo, in which he dressed as a cowboy version of Baldwin and held a prop gun and Dodd wore a full headdress and also held a toy gun.

The duo were slammed for their controversial picks after Baldwin was involved in an accident on the set of Rust the same month. The actor fired a prop weapon while on location in New Mexico and it discharged bullets that killed Halyna Hutchins and injured director Joel Souza. Dodd also received backlash for her wardrobe, with one fan commenting, “Culture really isn’t a costume.”

The former Fox News correspondent later released a statement to Page Six, saying, “People twisted our outfits and intent in ways neither of us could’ve imagined and filled our page with hate. We took the post down out of respect for the victims’ families and only hope the cancel culture won’t cancel Halloween next.”