Letting it go. The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills’ Dorit Kemsley spoke exclusively with Us Weekly about her first season on the hit Bravo series, her feud with costar Erika “Jayne” Girardi and why she is more than ready to move on from #Pantygate.
It’s been a while since a rookie Housewife has made such a splash in any franchise of the beloved show. But it wasn’t hard for Kemsley, 40 — with her culturally ambiguous accent and friendship with Boy George — to steal some of the attention away from RHOBH vets Lisa Vanderpump, Kyle Richards, Eileen Davidson, Lisa Rinna and last season’s new girl, Girardi, 45.
“I really didn’t have any expectations going into this. I didn’t know how it was going to be,” Kemsley — who had watched early seasons of RHOBH but took a break when she became a mom to son Jagger, 3, and daughter Phoenix, 13 months, with husband Paul “PK” Kemsley — tells Us of her participation in season 7. “With me, what you see is what you get. Welcome into our lives. I open the front door and I let everybody in. Right, wrong or other, at the very least, I am who I am. I can’t be anything other than myself.”
As viewers saw on the Tuesday, December 27, episode of the reality show, the Connecticut native (who has also lived in New York City and London, among other major cities around the world) was simply being herself when she gifted Girardi a pair of underwear during a girls’ day out with all the ‘wives. According to Dorit, it was a lighthearted way of acknowledging the “Pretty Mess” singer’s decision to go commando in a skintight mini dress at Vanderpump’s White Party, apparently flashing her lady parts to her costars, including PK. Though she initially seemed amused by Dorit’s gesture, Girardi ended up turning on the fashion designer and the two have butted heads ever since. Their conflict came to a head on the Tuesday, March 21, episode of RHOBH when #Pantygate was brought up yet again at an explosive group dinner in Hong Kong.
“I am honestly so past the drama of it all,” says Dorit, who, as documented on the Bravo mainstay, has apologized to Girardi multiple times. “I never thought it would escalate into what it became.”
In fact, the mom of two thought that she and Girardi were going to hit it off before she entered the fold. “I thought her and I would be fast friends. We have some friends in common and they told me they thought she and I would really connect and be great friends,” Dorit tells Us. “She’s a glamorous girl, and I was under the impression that she just loves to have fun and that we’d undoubtedly connect.”
But boy, was she wrong. “Obviously, we got off on the wrong foot. Erika and I are actually very dissimilar. We are not alike at all,” the blonde beauty tells Us. “All the other women, they really had a warm attitude when I came in. Erika did not, and she takes a little more time to get to know. I think that’s who she is.”
Still, Dorit — who is admittedly closest to castmates Richards, 48, and Vanderpump, 56 — is not saying no to a future friendship with Girardi. “I think it’s very possible that we will be friends one day,” she says. “Nothing has happened that’s so tragic. I mean, we all love to make a big deal of it, but really in the grand scheme of things, it’s nothing we can’t get over. I think if both sides want to reconcile, anything is possible.”
While her rocky relationship with Girardi has been a polarizing part of RHOBH’s seventh season, Dorit’s life with her music manager hubby and their adorable kids has also taken up plenty of screen time. “My children are a massive part of my life, so how am I not going to have my children there with me on the show?” she tells Us. “Being a mother is one of my favorite, if not most important, roles in my life.”
As fans will recall, Dorit spoke openly about son Jagger’s speech therapy sessions and revealed that her infant daughter, Phoenix, wore a helmet to help correct a misshapen skull.
“My children, at the time when I first started filming, were having these very small challenges. From them not wanting to eat their vegetables to wearing a helmet to speech therapy, it doesn’t really matter what it is,” she tells Us. “I decided that this is our life, and maybe some other moms can connect and see that I’m not trying to paint this perfect picture.”
Since then, Dorit’s little ones have made major strides. Jagger’s vocabulary continues to improve, and Phoenix “is fantastic” after wearing her helmet for more than a month, “23 hours a day.” Asked to describe the feeling of seeing her babies’ progression, Dorit couldn’t help but get emotional.
“It is like heaven comes down from above and hugs you,” she gushes to Us. “It’s just the greatest feeling in the world. You feel like you’ve got breath in your lungs and your heart sort of beats a bit faster, and you’ve got a skip in your step. It’s really special. It’s really amazing.”
The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills airs on Bravo Tuesdays at 9 p.m. ET.
