With the popular Bravo reality TV show The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills (RHOBV) returning for a 13th season, a lot of people are curious about some recent casting changes. For starters, season 12 was the last entry for one of the most popular wives on the show – Lisa Rinna. Fans are also curious about another departure in popular housewife Diana Jenkins.
RHOBV is the sixth iteration of the show, and it centers around women in or adjacent to the entertainment industry. It features Garcelle Beauvais, Kyle Richards, Erika Jayne, Sutton Stracke, Dorit Kemsley, Crystal Kung Minkoff and new cast member AnneMarie Wiley.
Rinna left the show after eight seasons last year, citing threats to her family and a vision from her mother telling her to move on. Jenkins, however, had a different reason for leaving.
Why did Diana Jenkins leave Real Housewives of Beverly Hills?
Jenkins has one of the more interesting backstories in the annals of Housewives history. She was born in Bosnia, back when it was run by communists, and her legal name is actually Sanela (Diana is her middle name).
The war forced her to flee the country in 1992 and she eventually emigrated to London. She worked low paying jobs and took night school to learn English but her big break came in 1999 when she married one of the richest bankers in the world: Roger Jenkins.
She had two kids with him, and when they divorced got one of those settlements that people only dream about. She then met singer Archer Monroe and they had a daughter together in 2020. In January of this year, she took to Instagram to announce her departure from the show and her rationale for doing so.
She said she was expecting a second child with Monroe and that the pregnancy was considered a “high risk” one, so a doctor advised her to stay on bedrest. Because of that, she said she was unable to “devote myself fully to filming the next season of Real Housewives of Beverly Hills.”
“I would like to thank Bravo and Evolution for allowing me to focus on my pregnancy, and for their support and understanding. I promise to continue sharing my fertility journey with you,” she said.
The pregnancy journey was especially poignant to Jenkins, because on the show she revealed she had a miscarriage previously. Things turned out fine though, because Jenkins gave birth to Elodie Mae Book back in August. Everything is going swimmingly for the mother of four. Just this month, she posted a picture of the baby with her good friend Elton John.