Crystal Kung Minkoff shared the full story about how she lost friends when she joined the cast of “The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills.”
On the January 13 episode of the “Humblebrag with Crystal and Cynthia” podcast, the former Bravo star confirmed that she lost multiple friends amid her decision to join the show, and that her future co-star Kathy Hilton ultimately defended her against a group of Beverly Hills women.
Minkoff also claimed that Hilton only agreed to join RHOBH if she did too. “Kathy would have never done [the show] if I didn’t do it,” Minkoff told co-host Cynthia Bailey on the podcast.
Minkoff and Hilton both joined the cast of RHOBH in 2020, the latter as a “friend” of the cast.
Crystal Kung Minkoff Said One of Her Friends Was Furious That She Joined RHOBH
GettyDuring the 12th season of RHOBH, Minkoff stunned her co-stars when she revealed she had a falling out with 14 former friends. When she told the full story on her podcast, she clarified that she exaggerated the number of women involved. “So, it’s not even 14 girls,” she said. “[It was] seven, one group. The same Mommy and Me group.”
Minkoff then explained that an ex-friend of hers – who happened to be an actor—wanted to join the cast of RHOBH but her husband did not want her to do it. Minkoff described her former friend as a “dynamic, beautiful, funny person who totally makes sense on the show.”
“A lot of people don’t want to do the show and I, as her friend, said ‘I think that’s the right decision for you guys not to do it.’ If he’s not going to do it, you can’t do the show,” she said of the husband. “You can’t be a floating housewife with hiding your children and husband.”
“Fast forward to a couple years later and I’m offered the show,” Minkoff continued. “I didn’t tell anyone for a few months…it takes a while for the casting. There’s no point in telling, we were deep in COVID. So, as we were getting closer I felt that it was the right time to say something…I felt I need to get ahead of it. And I told my friend, [the one] who wanted to do it. And the conversation, while it wasn’t awful, it wasn’t great. But it was as expected.”
“She was ‘Why is it good enough for you and not me?’ And I had to explain different reasons why we were doing it,” Minkoff shared, adding that she was given the opportunity to be the first-ever Asian American cast member on the show.
“I just explained that you know we’re in a different situation. [My husband] Rob is supporting me through this,” Minkoff said. “So after that, we hung up and we had some a nice text back, just sort of a nice supportive text. And then I never heard from her again. Ever again. Never, never spoken once again. That’s about four-and-a-half years ago what that was literally the last text.”
Minkoff later saw a photo of the whole friend group out together and wondered why she wasn’t invited to their outing. “I called every single one and no one answered the phone,” she said. “And I just knew what was happening, I knew that there was going to be narrative in which I did this to her.”
Minkoff explained that her former friend felt that if couldn’t do the show, no one else in the group should do it either. The RHOBH alum noted that she went on to send everyone in the group handwritten letters and flowers and never received a response from any of them. That’s when she realized they collectively agreed to cut her out of the group.
“So, Kathy [Hilton] knows some of the girls,” Minkoff added. “And the reason why I am such a fiercely loyal friend to Kathy is because she stood up for me. Kathy called me about a month before they actually offered me the spot. She said, ‘I know you’re on the list.’ She goes, ‘They’ve been asking me since day one to do the show, I’ll do it if you do it.’ She’s like, ‘I know you’re going to protect me, I’ll protect you, like you’re the nice one.’”
Minkoff also shared that Hilton tried explaining the timeline of her RHOBH role to the other women, to no avail. She admitted that she still doesn’t understand how so much “vitriol and hate” came out of the situation. She added, “I’m not surprised that that group has now disbanded in a way.”
Kyle Richards Questioned Crystal’s Story During the RHOBH Season 12 Reunion
Minkoff previously addressed the end of her “14 friendships” during the RHOBH season 12 reunion. At one point, Hilton’s sister, Kyle Richards, asked Minkoff to clarify the timeframe in which her friends turned on her. Minkoff said some of her friends began getting “weird” with her before she started filming the show.
“Some of these women were asked to be on the show, though,” Richards noted, adding, “I heard it had completely nothing to do with the show, but I don’t want to talk about the things that was said about it.”
Richards called the whole story “very confusing.”
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Crystal Kung Minkoff Finally Shares Full Story Of How She Lost ‘14 Friends’