Lara Sophia 
Putting herself first!
Lisa Vanderpump knows the importance of putting herself, especially her mental health, first.
The former Real Housewives of Beverly Hills star reveals that while filming season 9 of the show, she fell into a deep depression which untimely led to her leaving the show for good mid-season.
According to Lisa once she realized she was battling depression she decided to walk away from the show and put herself first.
“I found it very difficult, a dark hole to walk out of,” Lisa told HollywoodLife. “Grief does take a while but you do get through it and things start to get better and even on Housewives. All of the fighting, it’s just not something I kind of look for and wanted to do with my life.”
Lisa’s final season of RHOBH centered around a dog adoption gone wrong, which ultimately left the entire cast divided. Dorit Kemsley infamously adopted a dog from Lisa’s Vanderpump Dogs rescue center however when the puppy did mix well with Dorit’s kids, she and hubby Paul ‘PK’ Kemsley decided to rehome the pup. Instead of simply returning the dog to Vanderpump Dogs they rehomed the pup to a family they eventually turned it over to a shelter.
Not surprisingly, Lisa was NOT happy with this news. The drama started when the news of Dorit’s dog disaster broke in the press. The RHOBH cast accused Lisa of leaking the story to the press, a claim the Pump Rules star has vehemently denied.
By mid-season, Lisa had a major fallout with BFF Kyle Richards and was only speaking to co-star Denise Richards. Things got so ugly that Lisa stopped filming with the cast and skipped the season 9 reunion altogether. She then announced her official exit from the franchise.
Lisa now reveals that fans didn’t see nearly half of what she was going through behind the scenes.
Initally Lisa thought she could push through filming season 9 after her brother Mark Vanderpump committed suicide however she quickly realized the loss was taking a toll on her mental health.
“When my only sibling committed suicide, to me that was just devastating,” Lisa added. “And that radiated so many feelings because all of the survivors to suicide think, ‘Oh, maybe I could’ve spoken to them that day.’ Maybe you couldn’t have changed the path.”
While Lisa was able to walk away from RHOBH she still couldn’t just take the time to focus on herself as she had her spinoff show Vanderpump Rules to film.
“Mine [depression] was circumstantial grief really because of something that happened,” Lisa said. “So for me, I really needed to be proactive with it. I sat there and then I had to start doing Vanderpump Rules and I was committed to that. I was running on four cylinders. I wasn’t really where I should be.”
“I took antidepressants after my brother died and I sought grief counseling just briefly, but it really helped,” Lisa explained. “I think reaching out to people. Not necessarily a grief counselor, but someone you can connect to is so important. For me, I also think that when you’re isolated, even if you can do FaceTime to connect with people, that’s really important. We’re supposed to be with people and integrate. I think exercise is one of the keys to having structure in your life. Getting out of bed, getting exercise.”
The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills returns to Bravo Wednesday, May 19, at 8 p.m. ET.
Thoughts on this news? Are you surprised Lisa fell into a depression after leaving RHOBH? Sound off below!
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