Brandi Glanville is no stranger to reality TV, and she’s making an epic return in just a few days.
During her tenure on Bravo’s “The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills” from 2011 to 2016, Glanville was known for her spitfire personality and drama that has been a mainstay through many of the city’s most iconic seasons.
Glanville returns to the Bravo-verse with housewives from across the country in Peacock’s “The Real Housewives Ultimate Girls Trip: Ex-Wives Club,” premiering June 23 on Peacock. She’ll appear alongside Dorinda Medley and Jill Zarin of “RHONY,” Phaedra Parks and Eva Marcille of “RHOA,” Vicki Gunvalson and Tamra Judge of “RHOC” and Taylor Armstrong of “RHOBH,” a cast that housewives mastermind Andy Cohen calls his “twisted fantasy.”
Filmed at Medley’s Bluestone Manor in Great Barrington, Mass. in September 2021, the former housewives unite to settle old scores and catch up on all that’s gone down in their lives.
TODAY sat down with Glanville to hear about all that’s to come in the reality series.
Filming ‘RHUGT’ was different than Glanville's other 'Housewives' experience
Glanville departed "RHOBH" as a full-time wife in 2015 after six years, and has been on reality TV multiple times since. Still, after all this reality TV experience, Glanville said filming “Ultimate Girls Trip” proved to be a unique experience.
“When you’re filming housewives, if you get in a fight, you can leave and not see that person for a day or two and reset. With this, we’re all under one roof. We are doing breakfast, lunch, dinner, brunch and snacks before dinner and after dinner, so you don’t get any time to reset,” Glanville told TODAY. “It’s ‘Housewives’ on crack.”
Glanville’s time on Season One of “Celebrity Big Brother” helped prepare her for “RHUGT,” saying that the “vibes” between the shows — notably, tension and isolation — were similar.
“We went out and about, but it was still COVID. It was pretty much just us in the house at dinner with no one around us. It was a hybrid of ‘Big Brother’ meets ‘Housewives,’” she said.
For Glanville, a surprise friendship with Marcille helped her get through the week, which also was Glanville’s first time away from home since the pandemic began. They “drank and got high,” which helped to make the trip feel like more of a vacation.
Glanville stays true to her role as a pot-stirrer
Although six years have passed since she was on “RHOBH,” Glanville said that she hasn’t changed much. Translation? Glanville will remain a catalyst for drama on "RHUGT."
Glanville said had conflict with Medley and Gunvalson while filming. Her trouble stemmed from Medley being a “mean drunk” and Gunvalson being “difficult with everyone at the beginning (of filming).” While those two feuds stand out as being particularly colorfult, Glanville noted that she had drama with “pretty much everyone at some point.”
Glanville’s relationship with Gunvalson evolved over the course of the week. “In the beginning with Vicki, it was really difficult to get along with her. She just seemed like she didn’t want to be there. I was there to have fun, I was not having it. Towards the end of the trip, I definitely developed the soft spot for her,” she said.
Glanville’s two biggest foes, Medley and Gunvalson, now have been in social media drama themselves as of late, due to Gunvalson’s comment on a Bravo Instagram Live that she would be “miserable” living in Bluestone Manor full time due to it being in a rural area. Medley responded in a variety of posts, notably tagging Gunvalson and calling her out for her comments on calling Bluestone Manor “old.”
Glanville declined to take a side in the battle, when prompted.
“I like Dorinda when she’s sober, and I have a newfound love for Vicki, so I don’t want to pick a side. I love Vicki, and I love sober Dorinda. I think that Vicki probably just meant, like yeah, we weren’t on the beach in the Turks and Caicos," Glanville said.
Glanville shares more about what’s to come this season
Below, she shared a few answers to some of the questions you've probably been wondering about.
- The housewife most likely to cause drama: Gunvalson
- The housewife most likely to make the group laugh: Glanville
- The housewife most likely to tout their own brand: Zarin
- The housewife who serves the best looks: Parks
- The housewife most who spills the most tea: Judge
- On who Glanville would bring on from her franchise: Kim Richards. Glanville said, “Kim Richards would have been a blast, she’s so fun and she’s so quirky. She would have not been putting up with a lot of this s***.”
- On what to look out for this season: “It’s like 'Big Brother.' You get the 24/7, the good, the bad, the ugly. There’s no breaks, there’s no glam.”
