Time for a change. Following Garcelle Beauvais’ son Jax Dillon getting harassed online with hateful messages, some fans are hoping for a cast shake-up on The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills.
Hosts of the “Real Moms of Bravo” podcast, Vanessa Rizi and Abby Steffens, joined Us Weekly’s “Getting Real with the Housewives” and revealed that they think “Fox force five”— Erika Jayne, Lisa Rinna, Kyle Richards, Dorit Kemsley and former castmate Teddi Mellencamp — may need to be split up.
“I think it’s getting a little bit more balanced as they brought on more cast members, but I do feel like for a while it just seemed like it was five against two,” Steffens said. “It was hard for anyone to get a word in when there’s five people kind of teaming up against somebody else. I’d like to see the [show] a little bit more balanced, and I think some of these women, it would be better for them not to always be such a group.”
Vanessa added, “I would love to see alliances shift. I don’t even know that necessarily I want more cast members because it is a pretty big cast, but I really want alliances to shift. I also think these women, you can be a good friend and call a friend out. We see it in other franchises, and I would like to see more of that.”
The hate directed toward Garcelle, 55, and her family comes amid the former Real cohost’s ongoing feud with Jayne, 51, Lisa Rinna, 59, and Diana Jenkins, 49.
Following Jax declaring that he just wants to be a “normal kid,” Bravo issued a statement in support of its talent.
“We are shocked and appalled at the social comments directed at Garcelle’s son,” the network wrote in a graphic via Instagram on Wednesday. “We urge our viewers and social media followers to refrain from targeting our cast and their families with harmful rhetoric.”
“It’s really unfortunate. We always as Housewives fans and as mothers, we never like to discuss the children aside from the lighthearted moments that we see in Housewives,” Vanessa said to Us Weekly. “I’m curious to see how Garcelle’s going to respond after this with her children and filming if she’s going to not include them as much. I don’t know what she’s going to do, but I also wouldn’t blame her.”
The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills airs on Bravo Wednesdays at 8 p.m. ET.