Lisa Vanderpump: Not Your Typical Housewife

Lisa Vanderpump isn’t what you’d call a typical housewife.

- Emma Bazilian

More obvious descriptors would include businesswoman, style icon, activist and, of course, reality TV tour de force. But thanks to Bravo, it’s the title of housewife—or rather, Housewife—that’s made Lisa Vanderpump a brand name and national celebrity.

A decade has passed since America was introduced to the Housewife, capital “H.” Unlike the lowercase version, the Housewife wasn’t your average, stay-at-home mom— or even necessarily a wife—but a wealthy, sometimes nipped-and-tucked and often outburst-prone woman of a certain age who had agreed to let cameras invade her daily life.

Since the March 2006 debut of the first installment, The Real Housewives of Orange County, there have been no fewer than 96 Housewives across nine cities. Only a handful of cast members has broken through the reality glass ceiling to earn true celebrity status—New York’s Bethenny Frankel (creator of the Skinnygirl empire), New Jersey’s Teresa Giudice (whose recent incarceration made her a tabloid staple), Atlanta’s NeNe Leakes (who parlayed her fame into an acting career).

And Vanderpump. The 56-year-old Brit has become the de facto star of The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills and the force behind the spin off Vanderpump Rules, which follows the exploits of the staff at SUR, one of three Los Angeles restaurants Vanderpump owns with her husband, Ken Todd. (There’s also the elegant Villa Blanca and Pump Lounge.) With her stream of witticisms, no-B.S. attitude and hyper-glamourous lifestyle worthy of a Jackie Collins novel, she has engendered a fierce loyalty among fans that hasn’t wavered in six seasons of often ruthless television.