Back in 2017, when the Real Housewives of Beverly Hills season 7 was airing, Lisa Rinna found herself embroiled in speculation that she had a substance abuse problem, primarily with the anti-anxiety drug Xanax, based on several jokes she made.
Xanax Smoothie and a bag of pills
The famous “Xanax Smoothie” line came from Episode 8 of the series where Lisa and Dorit Kemsley were over at Eden Sassoon’s house. Eden had been sober for four years at that point, so she offered the ladies smoothies instead of alcohol. “This is a first for me I think,” Lisa says. “Having a smoothie at 8 o’clock at night.”
Dorit jokes about adding vodka to her smoothie, which prompts Lisa to say, in a more serious tone: “I have to be honest, I have not put alcohol in a smoothie, but I have thrown a Xanax in.” Eden replies “I would do that,” because she “takes medication.” Dorit, however, was shocked by this possibility.
Lisa then pulls out a Ziploc baggie full of pills to show Eden and Dorit. Lisa says they are “mostly” vitamins, but she does identify a sleeping pill and a Xanax. She also says there is other medication in the bag, like anti-allergy pills.
During a later episode, Lisa Rinna confronted Dorit over rumors that Dorit thought Lisa might have a serious problem.
“I will always be honest, and if you remember, we bonded over that moment and it really stayed with me,” Dorit said, denying that she said anything like that to anyone. “And I’m sure I had the conversation and when I did, I would’ve said, ‘It was the funniest moment.’ I never insinuated that you’re a drug addict. I wouldn’t have said there might be a problem. I would have said it was the funniest moment.”
Lisa explained that no one brought it up with her, but she brought the subject up herself because she had suspicions and “no one negated it.” The comments were allegedly made to Erika Girardi, Kyle Richards and Lisa Vanderpump in Punta Mita, Mexico, but Dorit still claims that the night of the Xanax smoothie and Lisa’s bag of pills was just a fun night.
Dorit told The Daily Dish in December 2017: “it was a bit shocking and then it was all in great fun and for laughs. Rinna pulled out her bag of pills and we all had a laugh about it. I think it was all in good fun… I think that in this day and age people will take something to calm themselves down or they say something like that in jest and it shouldn’t be taken so seriously.”
Regardless of Dorit’s intentions, the RHOBH audience definitely latched on to Lisa’s Xanax Smoothies and bag of pills to wildly speculate about her medication consumption. Lisa has insisted that her comments about Xanax and pills are a joke, and she has continued to lean into that joke by wearing pill-patterned pants, and posting pill memes and jokes on her social media accounts.
In at least one instance Lisa’s joking about drugs came back to bite her. She sent Lisa Vanderpump a picture of a cupcake covered in pills on Twitter for her birthday without knowing that Lisa had lost her brother to suicide. Lisa has also lost a sibling to drug overdose. Her older sister Laurene died of an overdose when she was 21 and Lisa was only 6.
