Lisa Vanderpump is the REAL DEAL housewife of Beverly Hills
With her witty one-liners, LISA VANDERPUMP is the standout star of The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills – but the British-born businesswoman, activist and philanthropist is a far cry from the average LA lady-who-lunches
As one of the celebrities on Dancing With the Stars three years ago – the US equivalent of Strictly Come Dancing – Lisa Vanderpump hit the jackpot. The star of popular reality series The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills was paired with Gleb Savchenko, the ludicrously handsome dancer who went on to burn up the UK’s Strictly dancefloor last year with Countryfile’s Anita Rani. As Lisa admits, she and Gleb – brace yourselves, ladies – ‘definitely had an emotional affair during the show. Unfortunately,’ she sighs, ‘it wasn’t physical because we’re both married and he’s far too young. I have underwear older than him. And in any case,’ she adds, ‘I like older men. I want somebody who’s grateful.’
Lisa Vanderpump photographed in New York this year
For those yet to sample the delights of The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills, it’s worth tuning in – just for Lisa alone. The show, which follows the lives of a group of real-life, well-heeled women going about their glamorous lives in and around LA, is a jamboree of fighting, hair extensions, tears and drama. Lisa – London-born though now a California resident – has been on the show since its inception in 2010. Her fellow real housewives include Kyle Richards (whose half-sister Kathy is mother to Paris Hilton), Yolanda Hadid (mother to models Gigi and Bella) and Camille Grammer, who suffered the ignominy of seeing her marriage to actor Kelsey Grammer publicly collapse during the filming of season one when he took up with British flight attendant Kayte Walsh.
Lisa with screen partner Gleb Savchenko on Dancing With the Stars in 2013
As a result of starring in the show, former actress Lisa, 56, is now even more famous in the States than she is in her native Britain, although that said, she is the perfect blend of Hollywood gloss and British bite. Of Kyle’s sister Kim Richards, she once remarked: ‘Should she get married again? I don’t know. She’s tried it three times – maybe she’s not much good at it’. And she can be equally tart about herself: ‘My husband calls me a sex object,’ she once observed. ‘He says every time he wants sex, I object.’
Her one-liners have made her one of the most popular stars of the Real Housewives franchise – a TV phenomenon that began in 2006 with The Real Housewives of Orange County and now includes The Real Housewives of New York City and Miami and, in the UK, The Real Housewives of Cheshire. First Lady Michelle Obama and actress Jennifer Lawrence are devoted followers and, as a testament to the worldwide popularity of the franchise, there was the launch of Hayu – the first on-demand reality-show subscription service from NBCUniversal – in March. It allows viewers to watch more than 3,000 episodes of reality TV – including Real Housewives, Keeping Up With the Kardashians and Made in Chelsea – across mobiles, laptops and TVs. Complete newbies to the shows can watch box sets from the beginning to see what all the fuss is about.
The cast of The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills (from left): Yolanda Hadid, Kim Richards, Kyle Richards and Lisa Vanderpump
As Lisa explains: ‘It’s incredible how popular reality shows are. In some ways, they’ve taken the place of soaps because people are more interested in the dynamics of a real group of women.’ She admits that, initially, she was, ‘extraordinarily wary of doing the show’, but, ‘now I wouldn’t care if they followed me 24 hours a day. [In fact, it’s around ten hours a day.] I had no idea what I was getting into,’ she adds, ‘but it’s got to where a member of the royal family in Saudi Arabia once came up to me and said: “Oh, we watch your show, we love you!” It has such a far reach.’
We meet at her home, Villa Rosa – an 8,800 square foot mansion set in a gated community in Beverly Hills and, like Lisa herself, rather fabulous. Two of her seven swans (yes, really) are nestling outside the entrance, while on the terrace we are treated to panoramic views of Los Angeles.
Beneath the terrace, a member of staff is walking Lisa’s two miniature ponies, Diamonds and Rosé, and as we step inside, we’re greeted by a selection of Lisa’s eight dogs, including pomeranians Giggy and Harrison – the latter a puppy she brought home from a rescue centre in Sacramento several months ago. ‘He had no fur and had been in a cage 14 hours a day, so I drove nine hours there and back to pick him up.’ An extremely contented Harrison snuggles up on the sofa next to her. ‘Now he loves sitting by my side.’
Lisa is a woman who tends not to do things by halves. She loves dogs, so has loads of them (she is also a committed dog activist, founder of the Vanderpump Dog Foundation, and at the forefront of a movement aiming to put an end to the torture of dogs during China’s Yulin Dog Meat Festival, more of which later). She loves shoes and has a closet full of them (‘How many pairs? Too many’), and loves the colour pink (scores of beautiful blush-coloured roses adorn her home).
She also loves her husband of 34 years, British businessman Ken Todd, though cunningly disguises this by teasing him nonstop. He pops in and lets her know he’s heading to the gym. ‘You need to,’ she laughs, adding: ‘God, I’m mean to him! I take the mickey out of him all the time.’
Lisa is a dog activist and founder of the Vanderpump Dog Foundation
But then part of her undeniable appeal on the show is her feistiness. A curvaceous brunette beauty, she is a rarity in Hollywood in that she’ll happily admit to the various cosmetic procedures she uses to maintain her looks. ‘I haven’t had any surgery but I’ve done Botox; I’ve had laser on my upper eyes to tighten the skin; I have a little bit of filler here and there and laser to resurface the skin. But I want minimal stuff rather than over-inflated lips or a tightly pulled face,’ she says.
‘There are rumours I had a butt implant, but I haven’t and I’ll have it x-rayed to prove it!’ Moreover, while other real housewives have crumbled under the relentless glare of the reality lens, Lisa hasn’t merely survived, she has thrived since appearing on the show.
A successful restaurateur and club owner prior to the series (as business partners, she and Ken have owned 33 restaurants over the years), Lisa currently runs three with him in LA – Pump, Sur and Villa Blanca – and also has her own series Vanderpump Rules, which follows the workings of Sur and its young staff. The couple debuted on the Sunday Times Rich List of wealthiest TV performers this year with a combined fortune of £40 million – meaning that Lisa can’t be dismissed as a mere Beverly Hills housewife, shopping and lunching her days away.
‘I’ve always worked and it’s always been important to me to have financial independence,’ says Lisa, ‘and I think [that independence] is what attracted my husband to me initially. I had my first job at 13 and bought my first flat by the time I was 19 so, when we met, he saw I didn’t need him – I wanted to be with him. We’ve debated many things during our marriage, but we’ve never argued about money. I love working,’ she adds, ‘and I almost feel that sleeping is a waste of time! It’s important [as a wife] to keep your own identity.’ It’s one of the reasons why, she says, they have managed to avoid the so-called ‘curse’ of the reality TV divorce.
The couple met in 1982 at London’s Corks – the first bar Ken owned – and have been together ever since. ‘I’d just come out of a relationship with an American guy who wanted to get married but I didn’t,’ she says. ‘Then I met Ken and I’d never felt such a connection. I was only 21 [to Ken’s 37] and after we’d known each other six weeks he said: “Well, I’d never ask you to marry me because you told me you didn’t want to marry your previous boyfriend.” I said he should ask anyway – and when he did, I said: “Of course.” He’s the love of my life. He can be quite tough and outspoken, but he’s the kindest and most decent person I know and I admire him so much.’
They moved to California 12 years ago (‘we love the weather and the lifestyle’) and Ken, as befitting a ‘real husband’ of Beverly Hills, is incredibly well-preserved. Of their 16-year age difference, Lisa says: ‘I didn’t worry about it when I was younger, but I get scared now because he’s 71 this year. We’re very honest about that, but he’s vital, fit and as driven as ever – and,’ she adds, ‘he’d still sh*g every day if I gave him the opportunity.’
Well, that’s not bad going after 34 years of marriage. ‘I think it’s because I’m the only woman he has access to without getting into trouble!’ she laughs. ‘I’m always put together when we go out, but after we come home he’ll see me with my hair in a clip, my glasses on and cream on my face and say: “You’re not the person I went out to dinner with!” He’s fine if I’m a slob, but he loves a woman to be a woman and he likes curves, heels, skirts and lipstick.’
Lisa with her husband of 34 years, businessman Ken Todd
Given that marriages in Beverly Hills aren’t exactly renowned for their longevity, has she ever worried about Ken being unfaithful? ‘Well, I’m very jealous,’ she admits, ‘and if I see someone super-cute wanting to take a selfie with him in the restaurant, I’m over there like a shot. But he’s never given me a reason to doubt him and I think in 34 years, I’d have found it. But if there was any hint of impropriety or infidelity,’ she adds, ‘I’d chop his nuts off.’ At this precise moment, Ken walks into the room. To give the man his due, he doesn’t bat an eyelid. ‘Anyway, I’m not going to find anyone better than him,’ says Lisa. ‘I’ve looked.’
She has a stepson (Ken’s son Warren Todd, now a property developer in London), and two children with Ken – Pandora, 30, and Max, 24. In the new season of Real Housewives, viewers will get to see a little more of Max’s story. The couple adopted him when he was a six-week-old baby in US foster care and Lisa admits that she worried Max’s biological parents might come forward while she was doing the show.
‘I think any adoptive parent feels a little threatened by the fact that you’ve loved this child and brought them up [and might lose them],’ she says. ‘But being a mother is a verb and not just a noun – it’s something you do – and I don’t think your bloodline has that much to do with how you feel about your children. I love them both equally, and I treat them equally, and Max is just an incredible human being. He’ll sit there at dinner sometimes and just hold my hand.
‘We were honest with him [about the adoption] from the start and answered questions whenever he had them, so he grew up understanding it.’
Did they ever want more kids? ‘Actually, we wanted to adopt more,’ adds Lisa. ‘We were living in Gloucestershire at the time, in a house with ten bedrooms and 100 acres, so we thought we could give these four children who’d been given up a lovely home. But I was 35 and we were told we were too old, which I thought was extraordinary. Now I’m becoming an advocate for adoption and foster care because I feel very strongly about it.’
It doesn’t take much time in Lisa’s company to realise that beneath the glamour, glitz and quips lies a genuinely caring soul. She admits that she uses both her shows as a platform to promote causes in which she truly believes, and in the last season of Real Housewives she was filmed organising a march against the Yulin Dog Meat Festival, which takes place annually in China. It’s the one time during the interview that Lisa’s cheeriness fades.
Lisa addressing congress about Chinese dog torture in September 2016
‘You always think when you hear the word festival that it’s a celebration, but I was horrified at what they do,’ she says. ‘They torture these poor dogs, they beat them to death and they boil them alive because they believe that torturing them makes the meat more tender and that [eating] the meat helps cool the diner’s blood. It’s the most barbaric, heinous, disgusting festival.’
British pop star Leona Lewis and US songwriter Diane Warren released the charity single ‘(We All Are) Looking For Home’ to aid her mission. As Lisa insists: ‘This isn’t about going against China. Around 65 per cent of Chinese people are against eating dog meat and I think most people would be against the torture of dogs. We entered our resolution into Congress last month and hopefully we’ll get it passed to stop dog torture.’
Lisa was also a campaigner for LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender) rights long before it became fashionable and, as well as being a spokesperson for several organisations, including The Trevor Project (which aims to prevent suicide among gay youth), she and Ken opened London’s first gay cocktail bar Shadow Lounge, which was a thriving Soho venue for 15 years (it closed last month).
‘We wanted to make something really glamorous for the gay community,’ she says, ‘and it was very stylish and a lot of fun. I believe a heterosexual voice for the LGBT community is important because we can act as a conduit between the gay and straight communities. Luckily,’ she adds, ‘I married a man who supports me in everything I do. One of the reasons we’ve stayed together is that, great as he is at loving me, spoiling me and being a wonderful father to our children, Ken also says: “What are you passionate about? I’ll support you,” and that’s pretty amazing.’
The couple have lived all over the world, including Monte Carlo, France and England and, despite living in Beverly Hills for more than a decade, ‘I can’t vote in the upcoming election and I’m not thrilled with either [Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton]. I can’t believe that out of 350 million people in this country, these two are the best candidates.’ She misses a lot about England – ‘the pubs, the Changing of the Guard and Harrods. But I could live anywhere with Ken because wherever he is, is my home.’
Lisa grew up in Dulwich, South London, with parents Jean and John Vanderpump, a creative advertising director (the surname is of Dutch origin), and elder brother Mark, now a wealthy businessman who appeared in the recent Channel 5 documentary Gold Digger and Proud (the Vanderpumps, clearly, are not a shy lot). She had acting aspirations from a young age, and at nine attended the Corona Theatre School in London, where contemporaries included Ray Winstone and comedy actress Cleo Rocos.
She was also, she reveals, an early crush of fellow pupil Nicholas Lyndhurst – Rodney Trotter of Only Fools and Horses fame. ‘He was a skinny little guy back then,’ laughs Lisa, ‘and he would say I was his first girlfriend – I was about 12, maybe 14, so there was no snogging. But he had a crush on me, although he might deny it now.’
Lisa with husband Ken and pomeranians Harrison and Giggy in July 2016
At 13, she made her acting debut as Glenda Jackson’s daughter in the 1973 film A Touch of Class, and by 19 she had signed with LWT to do Kids, a drama about children who had been taken into care. ‘I was working and did commercials so I was able to buy my own place,’ she says. ‘My parents gave me a good education and a good upbringing but they didn’t give me anything financially, so I’ve always had autonomy in my life.’
After marrying Ken at 21, the couple lived in Hollywood for a while, with Lisa even scoring a role opposite The Hoff in the Baywatch spin-off series Baywatch Nights. ‘He was nice but so tall – 6ft 4in while I’m 5ft 5in,’ she says. ‘They kept saying, “Put her on a box”, and I’d say, “No, put him in a ditch.”’ The roles subsequently dried up as Lisa pursued her career as a restaurateur, but her recent fame on Real Housewives has led to a whole new lease on her acting life.
As well as appearing in the video to Lady Gaga’s ‘G.U.Y.’ (the two are friends) and Lisa Kudrow’s series The Comeback, she’s been asked to appear in The Royals – the kitsch TV series starring Elizabeth Hurley as the Queen. ‘They want me to film in England and because I’m doing two other shows here, it’s quite difficult, but I’d love to do it. I’d want to play [Elizabeth’s] sister, though!’
Lisa photographed in Los Angeles, June 2016
Frankly, it would be perfect casting (despite her years in the States, Lisa has managed to retain her British accent), but for the moment Lisa has more than enough to keep her occupied. Is there anyone she’d like to see join the cast as a fellow real housewife?
‘Oh, Gaga would be amazing,’ she says, ‘or Maria Shriver [the estranged wife of Arnold Schwarzenegger]. I’d probably need somebody who’d be on my side, though, because I’ve been beaten up on the show by some of the others recently. They’ve been saying: “She’s a liar, she’s a manipulator,” and it made me question whether I could return to the show again.’ Lisa looks downcast. ‘But then I thought: “Bugger off!”’ she laughs. ‘I’ve been a good mother, a good wife and a philanthropist.
If I don’t fit into their mould,’ she concludes, ‘then frankly, who cares?’
The new season of Vanderpump Rules will be on Hayu from 8 November. All previous seasons, and Real Housewives of Beverly Hills, will also be available. For information on Lisa’s Dog Foundation go to vanderpumpdogs.org
