Lisa Rinna Discusses ‘RHOBH’ Benefits During OWN’s ‘Oprah: Where Are They Now?’ Special

Lisa Rinna is featured during tonight’s new episode of Oprah: Where Are They Now?, and during the show, the soap star turned reality star spoke of how The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills has helped her both professionally and personally.

“I’m an entrepreneur at heart and to make all of other businesses run and do everything I want to do, I have to be on TV,” Lisa Rinna explained to Oprah Winfrey in a preview clip of tonight’s show, shared by PEOPLE Magazine on September 18. “I knew the girls on the show, and that’s one of the reasons I felt comfortable.”

In addition to knowing Eileen Davidson on a professional level, due to their common careers, Lisa Rinna was also close with Kyle Richards and Lisa Vanderpump prior to joining The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills for Season 5. In fact, because of Lisa Rinna’s friendships with the women on the show, she had been linked to the series for several years. She was even rumored to be joining the show during its debut season years ago.

While her time on the show has been quite dramatic, with wine tosses and screaming matches, Lisa Rinna feels she’s actually benefited from being a part of it.

“I learned so much doing Real Housewives, because it gave me my voice. That voice has always been there. It’s been inside of me, but it gave me the permission to just let it really fly.”

As the Inquisitr previously reported, Lisa Rinna also discussed her decision to join the show, despite her husband Harry Hamlin being initially against the idea. In a separate preview clip of tonight’s Oprah: Where Are They Now?, Lisa Rinna admitted Hamlin threatened to divorce her if she joined the hit Bravo reality series.

“Before season five started of The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills, I had a meeting with the producers to do maybe another show. What came out of the meeting was, maybe I should do The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills… I thought ‘Oh god, Harry’s never gonna go for this.’ He never will.”

And at first, she was right. As Lisa Rinna recalled, Hamlin told her, “Nope. I’ll divorce you. If you do it, I’ll divorce you.” At that point, Lisa Rinna walked away from the show and didn’t look back, but then, just days later, Hamlin approached her about the idea for a second time. And this time, his outlook was much different.

“He said, ‘You know, I’ve thought about it, I’ve done some research.’ Harry, being a really, really smart businessman himself, said ‘It’s a good thing, it’ll work for you, you should do it.’ So I did it.”

For more of Lisa Rinna’s interview with Winfrey on Oprah: Where Are They Now?, tune into the new episode tonight, Saturday, September 19, at 10 p.m. on the OWN Network.

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