Reality TV queen and campaigner Lisa Vanderpump (Image: Tommy Garcia/Bravo)
The road winds uphill into the clouds above Los Angeles, past the homes of Sylvester Stallone and Rod Stewart, through two security-coded gates, down a long tree-shaded driveway to a glass bridge across a shimmering moat, past gliding swans and diving turtles to Lisa Vanderpump’s imposing front door. Eight immaculately groomed and pampered dogs roam the house, while a couple of miniature Shetland ponies nibble at the lawn beside the infinity pool overlooking rolling canyons reminiscent of the South of France. The Queen of Beverly Hills welcomes you to her £10million estate with a high-gloss, bubblegum-pink lipped smile, perfectly manicured hands and her Pomeranian, Puffy, nestled in the crook of her arm.
“Sometimes I wonder: How did I get here?” admits the brunette from South London.
Yet here she is, talking exclusively to the Daily Express and also revealing the downside to her enormous success and her battle with depression.
If you don’t know her name, then you haven’t been watchingThe Real Housewives of Beverly Hills for the past nine years, or the past seven seasons of Vanderpump Rules, the reality TV series set in her sumptuous Los Angeles restaurant Sur.
Together, they have made the 58-year-old Briton one of America’s premier reality TV icons, already a multimillionaire with her array of luxe restaurants and cocktail bars in Beverly Hills and Las Vegas, her signature line of wines, tableware and upscale pet accessories.
So it came as a shock when Lisa announced this week that she is quitting the series that made her a household name, and will no longer be a Real Housewife of Beverly Hills anywhere outside of her own kitchen.
“I was tearful most days filming Housewives last season,” she admits, her elegant English accent still as crisp as a cucumber sandwich at a vicar’s tea party. “The whole cast ganged up on me, and I was just weary.”
Lisa, right, husband Ken and their daughter Pandora at the World Dog Day celebration in Hollywood (Image: Matt Winkelmeyer/Getty Images)
Her older brother, millionaire British DJ Mark, aged 59, committed suicide last year, and Lisa reveals: “I was emotionally depleted. I started filming two days after my brother’s funeral, which was challenging at best. I wanted to take the year off, and didn’t want to be in the emotionally combative situation that Housewives often entails. But I owed them my loyalty, and commitment.”
Unhappily, Lisa found herself the season’s villain in a row over a dog, branded “Doggygate” by the American press.
“I didn’t have time for the petty bulls**t, really,” she says. “People are screaming at you. They were arguing about who said what about a dog! I’ve had enough. It just became too much.”
The show’s producer, Andy Cohen, who created RHOBH around her, hopes she will return, saying: “The door will always be open to Lisa.”
She shakes her head. “No,” she says, but after a moment, shrugs: “Who knows?” Lisa sits perched on the edge of an oversized white sofa surrounded by antiques and oil paintings in her palatial Villa Rosa, each room fragrant with fresh flowers, her Rolls-Royce and white Porsche convertible standing on the driveway.
Her crisp white shirt is unbuttoned almost to the waist, revealing glimpses of a plunging cleavage cantilevered above designer black trousers and three-inch-heeled gold sling-backs.
Lisa, right, with Glenda Jackson (Image: NC)
So, how did she get here? “I had a happy childhood,” she says. “My father was an ad agency art director, and we lived comfortably. I started ballet lessons at three, and attended Riverston School in Lee Green, South London. I was advanced for my age, always a year ahead at school.When I was too young to go to high school, rather than repeat a year, at nine I went to the Corona Academy drama school, and ended up staying for eight years.”
She made her movie debut at 13 playing Glenda Jackson’s daughter in the 1973 romantic comedy A Touch Of Class, appeared in children’s TV shows, and starred in ITV series Kids.
“I did over 100 commercials for brands like Maltesers, Lilt, Britvic 55 and Hamlet cigars, so by 19 I’d bought myself a flat in Fulham,” she says. “I never had any financial help after leaving home, just a good education and a kick in the arse.”
She turned down an early boyfriend’s offer of marriage, telling him: “I’m too young,” and suffered physical abuse at the hands of another. “He grabbed me by the neck and I thought: ‘OK, I’m done!’ I thought he wasn’t going to change, and got out as quickly as I could.”
Lisa was helping out her brother by manning the reception at a London nightclub when she stopped a man entering. He turned out to be the club’s owner, Ken Todd and they’ve now been married for 37 years. “That night I drove him and my brother home, and Ken said: ‘Give me your number. Actually, better not, because I might fall in love with you’.”
It was months before they met again and went on their first date. “In six weeks were engaged, and three months later we were married, to the disbelief of everyone that knew him, shaking their heads as we walked down the aisle.
“We went out and bought a pin-dot of an engagement ring.” She’s since replaced it with what she calls her “endurance ring”, adding: “For all the years I’ve been with him I should have one on every finger.
“No marriage is perfect. We’ve had our challenges. But we share our ideals, beliefs, business, and have fun together.”
Ken, aged 74, is 16 years older, and Lisa admits: “I see him fighting his age. I ride my horse three times a week, and he won’t do that any more. He won’t play polo, or ski.”
What about sex? “The most important thing he can do,” she smiles mischievously, “so we’re not too worried about that.”
They sold their London restaurants for millions of pounds and moved to Los Angeles when daughter Pandora attended Pepperdine University in Malibu in 2005, and now have a string of wildly successful US restaurants and bars. The couple also have an adopted son called Max.
Lisa appeared on TV’s Baywatch Nights, but says: “The acting business gives you up, rather than you giving it up. I’ve had many acting offers, but that’s not a priority for me.”
She still struggles with her brother’s suicide.
Lisa in LA Pride parade (Image: Sarah Morris/Getty Images)
“The devastation is hard to deal with,” she admits. “When your only sibling goes, they take every memory and shared experience with them. You think, ‘Could anything I have done made a difference?’ Shoulda, woulda, coulda. That’s just part of the sadness.
“I’ve never self-harmed, but I have had depressing moments. I started on antidepressants after my brother passed, and grief counselling. After such a depressing year, I worry about the toll it might take. That’s one of the reasons I wanted to step away from Housewives.
“It’s important to talk about depression, and for people to seek help, realising there’s no shame to it. Life is difficult to navigate.
Just because you’re living in a great house, or driving a fabulous car, or have an amazing piece of jewellery, doesn’t mean you’ll be happy.
“For the most part I’ve had a happy life, but suicide is not the answer. It’s a permanent solution to a temporary problem.” Despite her many successes, she is often “emotionally overwhelmed”.
“I cry about so many things. The world’s a sad place. The slaughter and torture at this month’s dog-meat festival in China; people struggling with depression; a young transgender boy struggling for acceptance.”
Cast of Real Housewives (Image: Michael Larsen/Andrew Eccles/Bravo/NBCU Photo Bank via Getty Images)
Lisa uses her fame to campaign for LGBTQ rights, animal welfare, suicide awareness and the homeless, speaking before the US Congress and the United Nations. She led the Los Angeles gay pride parade last week, and her Vanderpump Dog Foundation has rescued more than 1,000 abandoned pets.
She is good friends with Lady Gaga, goes out dancing with Paula Abdul and has numerous celebrity admirers on social media, including Martin Scorsese. But insists: “I still have the same friends, and I’m still the same mother to my children. I still sing at the piano, and cook for my friends on Sunday”, albeit with the choice of two kitchens – one larger than most people’s entire homes.
And, amid rumours that Lisa is poised to enter politics, she says she’s not done yet.
“I have everything I’ve ever wanted, but there are many things I want to attain still,” she says. “I don’t know how I got here but I’m awfully glad I did.”