Sheree Zampino joined “The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills” as a “friend of,” but she may have rubbed one of her new pals the wrong way. In a new interview, the ex-wife of Will Smith dished on her co-stars and admitted she was happy she wasn’t given full diamond status on the Bravo reality show.
In a July 25, 2022 interview on the “Behind the Velvet Rope with David Yontef” podcast, Zampino, 54, revealed that she was in talks to be a full cast member, but then was switched to “friend” status alongside co-stars Kyle Richards, Lisa Rinna, Erika Jayne, Dorit Kemsley, Sutton Stracke, Garcelle Beauvais, Crystal Kung Minkoff, and fellow newcomer Diana Jenkins – and she’s happy about her reduced status.
“The pleasant surprise for me with the Housewives is… when we were talking, it was actually to be a full cast member,” Zampino told Yontef. ”It was to have a diamond. And then they offered me a position as a friend, which was a blessing, a true blessing for me because it gave me the opportunity to get into it, but not completely just dive in the deep end.”
“I’m grateful that I was able to come in as a friend and kind of get my feet wet and get the rhythm and get a little bit of understanding because it wasn’t invasive,” she added. “I don’t even have a storyline. I’m just ‘Where’s the party at? You tell me.’ Okay, I make up my little self and go to the party. You know? So this for me was the ideal way to come into the franchise.”
But even as a newbie with no storyline, Zampino did find herself in hot water with one RHOBH veteran.
Sheree Zampino Revealed She Accidentally Insulted Lisa Rinna
BravoLisa Rinna
Fans know that Lisa Rinna is proud of her fit physique at age 59. In July 2022, the longtime Bravo star posed on Instagram in a bikini as she showed fans what she looks like one year shy of her 60th birthday.
But Zampino told Yontef that she accidentally insulted Rinna by referring to her as “Grandma” while shooting RHOBH scenes at her house.
“Lisa, it’s funny because I saw a side to her that I thought was so maternal, you know, I mean very maternal,” she said of Rinna.
“I don’t want to give a spoiler alert… you never know what they’re going to use and what they’re not going to use. But she baked, she was making cookies for us. We were at her house, you know filming and she’s making cookies and she’s running around, you know, with her little hair and, you know, bouncing around, making sure everybody’s, you know, cup is full and, and they have enough to eat and like the cookies are coming out. And I was like, oh my God, like, she’s like a grandma. You know, because for me, my grandmother was so nurturing. Like I just think of just that energy to take care of everybody. And I said to her, I said, ‘Oh my God, you’re a grandma in a hottie body.’ And she did not take kindly to that.”
Zampino said that she meant the term as a compliment to Rinna, but it sounds like the RHOBH OG misunderstood.
“I said, ‘oh my God, no, no, no. I said, ‘ I mean this as a compliment.’ I mean, I guess you hear the word Grandma and you know, instantly you think somebody is calling you, I don’t know some old, [lady] but I just meant it in a very much she’s very maternal,” Zampino explained. “So I was surprised by that.”
Sheree Zampino Came on Board as Garcelle Beavuais’ Friend
Zampino joined the Housewives at the urging of her close friend Beauvais. The “Coming 2 America” alum told E! News that her pal wasn’t totally prepared for what awaited her on the Bravo reality show.
“I threw her in,” Beauvais cracked. “It is Housewives.”
Beauvais added that while Zampino “really holds her own in life,” while filming RHOBH she had a rude awakening.
“I think she was surprised when she got on the show, because every 15 minutes, she’d be like, ‘What the hell? What did you get me into?'” Beauvais revealed.
Zampino agreed. She told Yontef, “There were times where I was literally, it was like, I had to remember that I’m actually here filming. … And it was just like, are you kidding me? And one of the things with Garcelle, I would always say to her is ‘What the hell? What the hell, you go got me into woman? … You know? But yeah, it’s on a whole other level.”
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RHOBH Newcomer Reveals She Insulted Lisa Rinna