Bravo’s Real Housewives has been around for over a decade and grown exponentially from a singular show into a series and now an entire franchises! Similar to many other reality shows, the Real Housewives has a high turnover rate with their cast members — many stars have come and gone. Sometimes their departure is expected or supported by the audience, but there have been a few times when cast members have totally shocked us with their exit! Here’s are the 7 most shocking exits in Real Housewives history!
7. Yolanda Hadid
Yolanda Hadid goes down in history as one of the most beloved Housewives of all time. She was so sweet in nature and always kind to her cast mates. She never really got too heavily involved in the drama, until the drama came after her. While her exit wasn’t all that shocking in the sense that she’d been battling Lyme disease for almost the entire time she’d starred on the show, her last season was the most riveting of all her seasons combined! Not only was her illness called into question, but just before she announced her departure, viewers watched as her marriage to David Foster unraveled and abruptly ended in divorce!
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6. Brandi Glanville
Brandi Glanville’s career on the Real Housewives has been up and down as she’s wavered from being an underdog to a bully and eventually just an outcast. While she was never a fan favorite, she did have a fan base that rooted for her and it was clear she liked the attention from the show. This is why it was so surprising when she decided to quit. Even those who didn’t like her couldn’t disagree that she brought a lot of drama to the show so her absence wouldn’t go unnoticed. Her parting gift to viewers was an extremely dramatic last season. Not only did she throw a glass of wine in fellow Housewife Eileen Davidson’s face, but she also slapped Lisa Vanderpump while on a girls’ trip in Amsterdam!
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5. NeNe Leakes
She was once the highest paid cast member in the Real Housewives franchise, but after threatening to quit several times, she walked away from the show in season 7 to focus on other opportunities. Her exit was shocking not only because she’d been with the show since the beginning and helped build the brand up from the ground, but also because of how much money she was walking away from. Bravo producers reportedly offered her a salary of $2.5 million, but she claimed she needed to spend more time working on her other businesses. When she returned as a guest for season 8, she made the same salary she had as a full-time cast member! It was recently announced Leakes would be returning to the show as a full-time cast member in 2017 for season 10.
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4. Heather Dubrow
Unlike some of the other ladies on this list, Heather Dubrow was not involved in any kind of scandal when she announced her departure from The Real Housewives of Orange County after starring on the show from season 7 to 11, but it was shocking nonetheless. Even her fellow co-stars were surprised! Meghan King Edmonds told The Daily Dish she was not only surprised, but shocked to hear that Dubrow was leaving the reality TV series. The former actress made her announcement shortly after the 11th season wrapped up and simply said she wanted to pursue other opportunities.
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3. Jill Zarin
When Jill Zarin got fired from The Real Housewives of New York City it was a huge shock, not only to fans, but also to her! The season had taken a dark turn and producers were forced to shake things up so they fired several cast members from season 4. Zarin had taken on the role of the matriarch of the show ever since season 1, so when it was announced she wouldn’t be returning, many fans were disappointed. She has since admitted in an interview with Oprah Winfrey that prior to her being fired, she had sent an email to producers telling them she wanted to “leave on a high note,” but when she tried to take back her statement, it was too late and she’s disappointed she was never given a real reason as to why they let her go.
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2. Adrienne Maloof
This Beverly Hills Housewife left the show in a very dramatic manner! Adrienne Maloof refused to show up for the season 3 reunion and it’s still unclear whether she was fired or left on her own accord. Before she left, Maloof was engaged in a legal battle with fellow Housewife, Brandi Glanville. Maloof issued a Cease & Desist to Glanville after she outed Maloof for using a surrogate to have her twins Christian and Colin on camera before she’d had the chance to even share that information with her own children. These two have since made up and Maloof has made a few guest appearances on the show since her departure, but it was definitely one of the most dramatic exits in Real Housewives history!
Source: www.crushable.com
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1. Phaedra Parks
Phaedra Parks has been a cast member on The Real Housewives of Atlanta for a long time, and she’s also the latest Housewife to be fired from the franchise! During the filming of season 9, Parks told Porsha Williams that Kandi Burruss and her husband Todd Tucker were planning to drug and rape Williams. The conversation between Parks and Williams was caught on camera, but didn’t air after Burruss asked Bravo producers to keep it mum due to its damaging content. Unfortunately, it all came out during the reunion when Phaedra was outed as being the source of these nasty rumors. Similar to many other situations in the past, Bravo had no choice but to fire her because none of her co-stars wanted to work with her and she didn’t go down without a fight in the media!
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