Lisa Rinna Called Lisa Vanderpump an ‘Expert at Manipulation’ in New Memoir

In her new memoir, Lisa Rinna gives fans some insight into her “complicated” relationship with Lisa Vanderpump. The women spent several seasons together on The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills. Their once-friendly relationship turned bitter in Season 7, and Rinna admitted they still aren’t on good terms. She said she came to view Vanderpump as manipulative.

Lisa Rinna accused Lisa Vanderpump of manipulation

Rinna joined RHOBH in its fifth season. She connected with Vanderpump, who had been on the show since its first season.

“Vanderpump and I were acquaintances long before we became Housewives,” she wrote in her book You Better Believe I’m Gonna Talk About It (via InStyle). “By the time I joined the show in season 5, she was already a producer on Vanderpump Rules, so she knew the game better than anybody. I looked up to her, and I let her lead the way.”

They were in frequent contact, which led Rinna to believe Vanderpump viewed her as a close friend. Now, though, she thinks the other Housewife was trying to influence her.

“Vanderpump’s very smart. When I first came on the show, she called me every single morning. I was so gullible, I actually thought she cared about me,” she wrote. “While I was drinking my first cup of coffee and prattling on about my day’s boring errands, she was molding me like clay into a henchwoman to do her bidding.”

She said she “fell in line” and became willing to do “all of Vanderpump’s dirty work.” She said that all of this made Vanderpump an excellent Housewife, but she doesn’t think she was a good friend.

“Vanderpump’s an expert at manipulation — it’s why she makes such a good producer on her own show — she knows how to use other people like chess pieces,” she said, adding, “She spends every waking hour figuring out her next move. She’s not spontaneous. She has a plan going on, but you don’t know that because she’s quite good at keeping it hidden.”

Their friendship ended in season 7

After two seasons on the show, Rinna said she began to view Vanderpump as calculated. This led to the end of their friendship.

“Once our power dynamic evened out and I saw her game plan with clear eyes, she lost control of me, and she never got it back,” she wrote. “I didn’t allow it.”

She said she started looking for ways to beat Vanderpump at her own game.

“I tried to find ways to get under her skin, like saying she smelled like Chardonnay, cigarettes, and mothballs,” she wrote. “In one of my interviews, I blurted out that her house looked like a disco. More than anything I ever did and said on that show, the disco dig made her nuts. I loved the cat and mouse game I had with her because it made for great television.”

Vanderpump remained on RHOBH until Season 9. Rinna exited the show after Season 12.

She said she found her authentic self while filming ‘RHOBH’

In her memoir, Rinna wrote that her time on RHOBH allowed “the real Rinna to emerge.” She learned to speak her mind, a necessity on reality television.

“It was my producer saying to me, ‘You need to think out loud, and you need to say how you feel,’” she explained. “Growing up, we were not of the age of anybody talking about their feelings. I finally started to say how I feel about other people, and I started to think out loud, and that was very life-changing for me.”

She tries to maintain this level of honesty in her offscreen life.

“I think it helped everywhere,” she said. “You got to learn how to do it the kind way and the vulnerable way, which takes some doing, because a lot of times it just comes flying out of your mouth. But in the long run, it’s been very helpful.”

Rinna is currently on this season of The Traitors.