Lisa Vanderpump Opens Up About Her Brother’s Suicide On Heartbreaking ‘Vanderpump Rules’ Premiere

The Vanderpump Rules premiere ended on a happy note—Jax Taylor and Brittany Cartwright are engaged!—but there were a lot of tears along the way. As the Bravo reality show picked up for its long-awaited seventh season, several longtime cast members were mourning the loss of loved ones. Three members of the cast of the Bravo reality show lost loved ones over the past year.

In the premiere episode, Vanderpump Rules queen bee Lisa Vanderpump spoke out about the sudden death of her brother Mark in April. Amid rumors that the 59-year-old DJ died of a suspected drug overdose at home in Gloucestershire, England, Vanderpump confirmed that her only sibling took his own life. The SUR owner broke down as she recalled the close relationship she had with her late brother.

“It’s been five weeks since my only sibling, my brother who was 16 months older than me, passed away through suicide. And for five weeks, I stayed home. Obviously, it just being the two of us, we were more like twins. It’s been incredibly difficult, but we have to keep moving forward and make the people that were so important in our lives proud as they watch down over us.”

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Lisa Vanderpump’s brother was found dead on April 30, the same day as the Real Housewives of Beverly Hills Season 6 finale. At the time, Vanderpump disappeared from social media for a few days, but issued a statement to the Daily Mail, telling fans her brother’s death came as “a shock” and that she had just connected with him the day before his passing.

“I was completely unprepared for this. He was my only sibling and I am shocked and saddened by his passing. I am trying to be supportive to his two young sons that he has left behind, and help them get through this tragedy.”

Sadly, Vanderpump Rules star Jax Taylor was also mourning the death of his father Ronald Cauchi on the Vanderpump Rules premiere. Cauchi died in December 2017 after a battle with cancer, and his death inspired Jax to get his life together.

On the Season 7 premiere, Jax talked about his devastating loss. While Jax Taylor’s father passed away before the show’s Season 6 reunion, where he also opened up about it, this was the first time the Bravo star went into detail about how deeply his dad’s death affected him. Taylor revealed that his father’s passing made him realize just how special Brittany Cartwright was to him and how he knew he had to make her his wife. Taylor even proposed to Brittany at Neptune’s Net, his father’s favorite eatery in California, and he used money left to him by his father to purchase his fiancee’s $70,000 ring, saying it would remind him of his dad whenever he saw it.

And co-star Lala Kent also broke down on the Vanderpump Rules premiere. Kent’s father, Kent Burningham, died in April at age 64, per Page Six. While fans knew that Lala’s dad died unexpectedly, in a heartbreaking confessional on the Vanderump Rules premiere, she revealed that he had a stroke and got into an accident.

In an emotional scene with her SUR boss, Lala said to Vanderpump, “I’m 27 and I don’t have a dad anymore, it’s a little intense for me. It’s just so sad. You’ve had a loss, Jax, myself…”

Vanderpump Rules airs Mondays at 9 p.m. ET on Bravo.