Brandi Glanville may no longer be a Real Housewife, but she’s happy to play a fake one on TV. The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills alum brings her years of reality TV experience to the scripted world with her guest stint on Part 3 of Netflix’s Family Reunion, playing snobby, gold-digging “Trophy Wife” Heidi in an episode that parodies Housewives — alongside The Real Housewives of Atlanta’s Kenya Moore and The Real Housewives of Potomac’s Candiace Dillard.
“My manager reached out and she said that they specifically wanted myself, Kenya and Candiace, and they were not going to take no for an answer,” Brandi, who self-admittedly is not an actress, recalls of getting the gig. “And I was nervous because of Kenya.”
Brandi and Kenya have some reality TV history of their own, feuding for multiple episodes of The Celebrity Apprentice’s seventh season. The ladies tossed personal digs back and forth until they were ultimately fired simultaneously back in 2015.
“I was like, it’s been a long time, maybe we can do it and work together and be fine,” Brandi says. “It was fun. I mean, in the beginning, when I walked in the morning, I was on time, but everyone was already there — and I had gone to the wrong stage, but I was still on time — and she said, ‘Nice of you to make it.’ And I was like, oh no, we’re starting like this? But it was fine.”
“She lived up to her diva-ness a little bit, with, like, asking everyone to get her tea constantly, even like the producer,” she adds. “I’m like, ‘I think that’s your boss. I don’t think he’s going to get you tea,’ but it was great. She did a great job and we all worked together to do the best that we could. And you know, it was a really good time and I loved everyone on the set was so lovely, like really, really amazing.”
Brandi’s episode of Family Reunion hit the streaming platform just weeks after her ex-husband Eddie Cibrian’s new sitcom, Country Comfort, premiered. Housewives fans were quick to pick up on the fact that Eddie’s co-star is Katharine McPhee, who is married to music producer David Foster, the ex-husband of Brandi’s RHOBH castmate, Yolanda Hadid.
“I thought it was kind of ironic and funny,” Brandi says of hitting Netflix at the same time, with a lot of Housewives connections. “We were at dinner last night for my son’s birthday, all of us, but then I congratulated him on his show and I was waiting for congratulations back — obviously I was in one episode for five minutes, but it’s nice. It’s nice to have nice things being said about my ex and even myself, ‘cause we get a lot of negative things.”
It’s been more than a decade since Brandi and Eddie split up in the wake of his affair with singer LeAnn Rimes. Eddie and LeAnn will soon celebrate 10 years of marriage, and Brandi says the big, blended family is finally in a great place.
“This took time and 10 years,” Brandi notes. “And I think that LeAnn grew up a lot, and I know that I’ve grown a lot. We just we’ve grown up. We’re not little brats anymore.”
Brandi says she and LeAnn have bonded over co-parenting the sons she shares with Eddie — Jake, 14, and Mason, 17.
“We’re, like, girly girls, we talk about everything and it’s all fine and great,” she says. “Honestly, there’s no weirdness, there’s no awkwardness. The kids are super happy when we’re all together and it’s finally good.”
“She went through some stuff and with anxiety and went to some rehab, and she’s just a totally different person than the person I met at the beginning that was poking me a lot and then getting me to be super b**chy,” she adds. “She’s not that way anymore. I’m not really that way anymore either. I really don’t like to fight. I don’t, but I will. I’m not a wallflower. And if someone makes me mad, they’re going to know.”
RHOBH fans are well aware of that fact after watching Brandi on and off the show since she joined in 2011. Brandi last appeared on the series at the tail end of season 10 in 2020, bringing with her the story that drove the season: Did she and Denise Richards hook up or not? Brandi offered up so-called proof, while Denise denied, denied, denied, and the rest of the women were caught in between. The drama was never resolved, and Brandi fully expected to be asked back for season 11 to clear the air, especially after Denise announced she was done with the show as the reunion episodes aired.
“I was disappointed, honestly, because I felt like I really gave them their season,” Brandi admits. “They used the few times that I shot, like in the trailer and every commercial. I didn’t make very much money. I really thought maybe they’re going to ask me to come back, because I did so much for that season, and it’s just been crickets. No one’s reached out to me. Not anyone to say ‘yes’ or ‘no.’ I would’ve thought I would’ve gotten a phone call and been like, ‘Listen, we’re going to go another route, but thanks…’ from anyone.”
“I just felt like it was kind of crappy,” she continues. “I had had conversations in the past about coming back, [Andy Cohen] and I had. He’s like, ‘Maybe after [Lisa Vanderpump] leaves, and we’ll look into that.’ And then Lisa left and then really, unfortunately, her mom and brother passed, and they were like, ‘Listen, we don’t want to pour salt in her wounds.’ And I’m like, I don’t either, but I want a job.”
Brandi says she thinks her “Housewives days are done” after not getting a call for season 11, and that the writing was a little bit on the wall when production canceled her appearance at the season 10 virtual reunion the morning of filming. Brandi suspects Denise threatened to pull out of the taping if Brandi showed up on screen.
“Which makes me like, why?” Brandi asks. “You can walk away from the camera the second you see me. There’s no point. Like, in the same room I would be like, ‘I don’t want to be around Brandi.’ But if I come on screen, she could walk away. You know?”
“There was no closure for me,” she adds. “There was no closure for the audience or the other women, and I felt like it was selfish of her to not be honest, because that’s what you sign up to do on a reality show. And if you have skeletons or something, they will come out, as we all know.”
Brandi is adamant that she didn’t come on the season with the intent to expose this supposed secret between her and Denise.
“It had happened the season before with Denise, where I wasn’t shooting,” she says. “And if I wanted to, I could have just said, ‘Hey, put me on the show. I have something to say.’ But I really thought that Denise and I had a connection. I thought we were friends. I was wrong.”
