Lisa Rinna Accused QVC of Sabotaging Her Clothing Line After She Criticized Donald Trump
Ahead of the 2020 election, Real Housewives of Beverly Hills star Lisa Rinna was a vocal critic of Donald Trump. She met him on The Celebrity Apprentice, and said she couldn’t keep quiet about his campaign. Not long after, Rinna was fired from QVC. She believes her outspokenness was the final straw for the company.
Lisa Rinna spoke out about Donald Trump
Unlike some Housewives, Rinna made her political stance clear during the 2020 election. She spoke critically about Trump.
“During the 2020 election, I had been very vocal about my feelings towards Trump,” she wrote in her book You Better Believe I’m Gonna Talk About It (per the Daily Mail). “I had worked with this man, so it’s not like he was a complete stranger to me.”
Rinna competed on two seasons of The Celebrity Apprentice, so she felt it was important to speak about him as someone who had met him.
“I felt like that somehow made it okay for me to talk about and post about him,” she wrote. “I was shocked at his ugliness and vileness and hatred and couldn’t stay quiet about it.”
Rinna admitted this was a period of her life in which she was “really mouthy” about everything.
The ‘RHOBH’ star said QVC sabotaged her clothing line after her remarks
At this time, Rinna had a clothing line with QVC. When they called to fire her, she believed her political comments were at least partly to blame. She said her sales were not the problem.
“I think between [my] Trump bashing, and RHOBH fans flooding the channel with complaints about me, it was more than QVC could handle,” she wrote. “It didn’t make sense — we were still making gobs of money.”
She indicated the owner’s political beliefs did not align with her own, resulting in her firing.
“QVC was sold to Qurate,” she wrote. “The head of the company was majorly conservative and a huge Trump supporter and donor.”
She also accused QVC of producing a subpar product.
“[They] made fabric I didn’t care for and wasn’t up to my high standards,” she wrote, adding, “The cut and the sewing, everything was inferior.”
While she now says her comments about Trump were just the “final nail in the coffin,” she accused the company of “muzzling” her at the time.
“I am sad to report it would now seem I can’t use my platform to inform or question or say how I feel politically because the Karens have bombarded QVC, begging them to fire me and saying they will no longer buy my clothes,” she posted at the time. “It is a shame that I must be muzzled in order to support my family, but that is just what it is. Remember, you know how I feel. Use your voice and vote.”
Lisa Rinna was on Donald Trump’s ‘Celebrity Apprentice’ twice
Rinna met Trump while competing on The Celebrity Apprentice. She admitted she did not enjoy her time on the fourth season of the show.
“I had a terrible time [the first time],” she said in 2013, per The Hollywood Reporter, adding, “I really failed going in, because I knew I could play this game and I wanted to play and win a lot of money for charity, and I wasn’t able to do that. I came home really feeling badly … It was a thorn in my side that I failed miserably.”
Two seasons later, they asked her back for the All-Star season. At first, she gave them a resounding no.
“Every single one of the producers knew I had the worst time,” she said. “It was not something fun for me. I hated it. I asked them, ‘Are you kidding me? Hell would have to freeze over before I do it again.’”
Ultimately, she said she decided to return upon the advice of her daughter.
“She said, ‘You know what, Mom? I really think you should do it, because it would be good for you to fix that,’” Rinna said. “My 11-year-old is very wise … It stuck with me.”
In both seasons, Rinna was fired on the second task.
