The Moment
Lisa Rinna just did something on The Traitors that she almost never did on The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills: she dropped the armor and flat-out cried about how hard it was to walk away.
On a recent episode of the Peacock competition show, the 62-year-old reality veteran was banished at the roundtable. In her confessional, she opened up about leaving RHOBH, calling it “very difficult” and getting visibly emotional as she thanked the show and said it was “so nice to be me.”
Rinna, who joined RHOBH in Season 5 and stayed for eight seasons before exiting in 2022, also used her camera time to address the blowback over her on-screen feud with The Traitors co-star Colton Underwood. She insisted the drama is “all part of the game,” stressed that she and Colton are actually “great,” and asked fans to stop sending death threats.
Lisa Rinna got emotional on The Traitors, opening up about the lasting impact and struggles following her departure from Real Housewives of Beverly Hills.
Source: https://t.co/6Gd5wwCZO1
Read more: https://t.co/2EW6v3kmzm pic.twitter.com/bhOhO8bwJy— TVISHDHI (@tvishdhi) January 30, 2026
So yes, in 2026, we have Lisa Rinna crying, Colton Underwood being called a “great nemesis,” and the phrase “please guys be gentle” all in the same storyline. Reality TV may change scenery, but the script? Not so much.
The Take
I’ll say it: Lisa Rinna is acting like a woman who finally realized the casino doesn’t care how long you’ve been playing.
For eight seasons on RHOBH, she was the ultimate company woman: stirring pots, pushing storylines, taking the villain edit on the chin. She even said this was the longest job of her 35-year career and that she was “grateful” and “excited for what is to come” when she left. That’s corporate speak for: I know how this machine works.
But on The Traitors, you can see the bill come due emotionally. When she says the end of Housewives was “very difficult” and that it was “so nice to be me,” that’s not just nostalgia. That’s someone realizing their most famous, most meme-able version of themselves was also a costume they had to keep wearing long after it stopped being fun.
At the same time, she won’t fully drop the performer in her. The way she talks about Colton Underwood – “a great nemesis,” “all part of the game” – sounds like a Marvel villain doing press. She knows audiences want a feud, sponsors want buzz, and producers want chaos, but she’s also staring down the other side of that: viewers who can’t-or won’t-separate character from person.
The part that really lands is her plea to the fans: be gentle, don’t send death threats, don’t go after families. When a woman who’s spent years cashing checks for drama is basically saying, “Hey, you’re taking this further than I ever meant to,” that’s a red flag for the fandom, not just for her.
We’ve hit this bizarre point where reality TV is supposed to be campy and over-the-top, but the audience reaction is dead serious. It’s like we’re all agreeing to watch professional wrestling and then trying to sue the heel for being mean in the ring.
So no, I don’t think Lisa Rinna suddenly became a delicate flower. I think she’s a savvy grown woman who knows exactly how messy she’s been on TV – and is finally saying the quiet part out loud: the game is supposed to stop when the cameras do.
Receipts
Let’s separate what’s solid from what’s vibes.
Confirmed:
- On a recent episode of Peacock’s The Traitors, Rinna tearfully said, “The end of ‘Housewives’ was very difficult for me… It was just so nice to be me. I am just so grateful for the entire experience.” This aired in late January 2026.
- Rinna joined The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills in Season 5 and appeared for eight seasons before exiting after the 2021-2022 season. Her departure was announced publicly in early 2023.
- In her official exit statement at the time, distributed through Bravo and widely picked up by entertainment media, she called it the longest job of her 35-year career and said it had been a “fun eight-year run” and that she was “excited for what is to come.”
- On The Traitors, she said she and co-star Colton Underwood are “great,” called him a “great nemesis” in the game, and asked viewers not to send death threats or jeopardize anyone’s family.
- In the days before this episode aired, Rinna publicly walked back a previous “stalker” comment she had made about Colton on the show, clarifying that it was part of the game and not meant literally.
- Colton Underwood, known from The Bachelor, has previously been linked in news reports to a 2020 restraining order filed by an ex, based on court documents that have been made public. Those reports resurfaced online as The Traitors aired.
Unverified / Interpreted:
- How much of Rinna’s emotion over leaving RHOBH is about lost income, lost identity, or simple nostalgia? She hasn’t broken that down publicly.
- The exact scale and content of the backlash or threats she and Colton may have received; she references it but hasn’t released specifics.
- Whether she genuinely feels “totally great” about the way things ended with Bravo, beyond the polite public statements.
Sources (human-readable): Rinna’s remarks on The Traitors (Peacock episode released late January 2026); Lisa Rinna’s 2023 exit statement distributed via Bravo and syndicated in entertainment news in January 2023; public reporting summarizing 2020 court records related to Colton Underwood.
Backstory (For Casual Readers)
If you only know Lisa Rinna as “that woman with the hair and the lips,” here’s the quick refresher. She started as a soap star (Days of Our Lives, Melrose Place), then reinvented herself as a reality personality on RHOBH. She joined in Season 5 and quickly became one of the show’s loudest voices-bringing big feuds, bigger catchphrases, and that infamous willingness to “own it” when the drama blew back on her.
Her 2022-2023 exit came after a run of especially toxic seasons, intense online fighting, and growing fan fatigue with her confrontational style. Officially, the split was described as mutual and friendly, but many viewers read it as Bravo quietly rebalancing the cast. Since then, Rinna has leaned into fashion, appearances, and now a fresh reality paycheck as a contestant on The Traitors, which drops familiar TV faces into a murder-mystery-style competition.
What’s Next
In the short term, expect more of this: Rinna reclaiming her narrative on shows that give her screen time without putting her back in the Beverly Hills blender. The Traitors is still airing, and even post-banished, players often stay in the cultural conversation through exit interviews and social clips.
There’s no confirmed plan for her to return to RHOBH, even as a guest, but Housewives history says: never say never. The franchise has a long tradition of bringing back big personalities once the dust settles and the audience gets nostalgic.
What I’ll be watching for next:
- Whether she does a longer sit-down about her RHOBH exit that goes past the polished gratitude and into what “very difficult” really meant.
- How she navigates the Colton Underwood situation going forward – will she keep joking about it lightly, or draw a harder line on certain labels now that past legal issues have been dragged back into the spotlight?
- Whether networks and streamers start building shows around the older, self-aware reality veterans who know the game and the cost – because that’s a story a lot of viewers 40+ actually recognize in their own lives.
At the end of the day, Lisa Rinna seems to be trying to thread an impossible needle: stay the unapologetic chaos agent people tune in for, while begging the audience to remember there’s a real person on the other end of the memes. Whether that works probably says less about her, and more about us.
Your turn: When a reality star like Rinna says “it’s just a game” but also admits the fallout has been “very difficult,” how much responsibility do you think lies with the shows, the stars, or the fans hitting send?
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