Lisa Rinna revealed she made a promise to her husband when she first joined “The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills” more than 10 years ago. In a January 2026 interview with In Style, the former Bravo star revealed that she followed her husband, Harry Hamlin’s, advice not to drink alcohol on camera.
“Yeah, for five years,” Rinna, 62, shared. “My husband said you cannot drink on that show, or you’re not going to do it. I took his advice there, and it was very good advice to take, because on a show like that, you need to stay clear[-headed] and you need to keep your wits about you. After five years, I was swayed to have a little bit more fun. But I’m really grateful that I did not drink for the first five years.”
RHOBH has always featured plenty of social events that involve drinking. While Rinna presumably didn’t drink during the cast’s infamous trip to Amsterdam in season 5, she did have a glass of wine tossed at her by co-star Kim Richards.
Rinna admitted that even without alcohol, she doesn’t feel like she sees herself when she watches old episodes of RHOBH. “I always kind of saw myself and the other women as characters, even though we were playing ourselves,” she admitted. “When I watch it, it’s not like I’m necessarily watching myself. It’s almost like watching an actor playing myself.”
Rinna exited RHOBH in January 2023 after eight seasons.
Harry Hamlin Threatened to Have His Divorce Lawyer on Speed Dial When Lisa Rinna Joined RHOBH
Hamlin has been vocal about his initial thoughts on his wife joining RHOBH. Speaking with The Daily Beast in 2019, the actor admitted he gave his wife a warning when she approached him about putting their lives on the reality show.
“I have my divorce lawyer on speed dial, and I do,” he revealed, referencing his past two divorces to exes Laura Johnson and Nicollette Sheridan. “I said to Lisa, ‘You can’t do this. Everybody who does that show gets divorced. It’s a horrible, horrible thing, to do that show.’”
Hamlin added that he talked with “Real Housewives of New York City” veteran Bethenny Frankel, who convinced him that the ‘Housewives’ was “a good thing to do” from a branding perspective. He even agreed to appear in some scenes for “brownie points.”
Harry Hamlin Admitted RHOBH Was a Good Experience for His Wife—And for Him
GettyHamlin, who has been married to Rinna for nearly 30 years, said the show did not impact the couple in a negative way. While speaking with the Daily Mail in February 2025, he said, “We’ve always had a great relationship, it wasn’t even tested during the ‘Housewives’ thing.”
The show even helped Hamlin launch his own brand of jarred pasta sauce, Harry’s Famous Sauce.
“I have a lot of people on that show to thank for various things,” he said on the couple’s “Let’s Not Talk About the Husband” podcast in 2025. “I mean, I can thank Garcelle Beauvais for giving me this sauce business that I now have because had she not loved the sauce and then made a whole thing about [it]. I have the Open Food company, which came out of that moment. It’s amazing how things happened.”
