Denise Richards Is Leaving ‘RHOBH’ After Whirlwind Season

Denise Richards announced that she is officially done with The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills on Wednesday. According to E! News, reps for both Bravo and the actress have confirmed that she won’t be returning for Season 11 on her own accord. Her decision isn’t surprising considering she attempted to quit during this season, but it is a devastating development for her loyal fan base.

While many of the other housewives have been actively tweeting about the reunion episodes still airing, the actress has essentially tuned RHOBH out. She’s been focusing on other aspects of her life, like her current film project, and celebrating her second anniversary with husband, Aaron Phypers. She hasn’t addressed the series on social media since the reunion episodes, other than commenting on her red eye makeup struggles.

Her fans have been very active on social media. Throughout the course of this season, a rift formed between Denise and most of the other ladies. The majority of fans have taken her side and formed their own faction, called Team Denise. They started throwing shade at the rest of the cast, calling them “mean girls.”

Denise has been painted as the black sheep of the housewives crowd from the start of Season 10. At the beginning of the season, she was ostracized for deciding to no longer bring her children around the friend group after her daughter overheard conversations with adult themes. Many of the women were confused as to why she was being so conservative after speaking so liberally of her husband and her love life in the past.

Soon after, Brandi Glanville disclosed to Kyle Richards and Teddi Mellencamp that she and Denise had an affair. Eventually, the entire cast found out about the rumors and once Brandi showed the ladies the texts between the two, everyone aside from Garcelle Beauvais accused Denise of lying.

Denise started to miss filming and even issued cease-and-desist letters to the cast and crew. Former friend Lisa Rinna even accused her of trying to get all of the footage involving the Brandi rumors removed from the show.

According to Variety, the drama surrounding Denise has sky-rocketed the ratings for RHOBH. The show was the top-rated cable series on Wednesdays this summer. Without Denise, the franchise will lose her supporters, and the drama surrounding her, and will likely hurt the ratings. However, RHOBH survived and even thrived after Lisa Vanderpump made an eerily similar exit after last year.