The 'Real Housewives' star tells ET she doesn’t care what her cast mates have to say after she subjected herself to a polygraph test.
Lisa Vanderpump says her lie detector results should speak for themselves.
Last week, The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills viewers watched as Vanderpump subjected herself to a polygraph test, aiming to prove her innocence in "puppygate;" the results will be revealed on this Tuesday's all-new episode of RHOBH. The issue at hand is Vanderpump’s co-stars’ accusation that Lisa leaked a damaging story to digital tabloid Radar Online about a dog that fellow Housewife Dorit Kemsley adopted from Vanderpump’s rescue center, Vanderpump Dogs. Kemsley adopted the drop only for the dog to wind up back at Vanderpump Dogs after a stop at a shelter. Vanderpump has vehemently denied the allegation of leaking or selling the story multiple times, which, in part, led to her falling out with the group.
"If you’re shouting to the rooftops -- if somebody says to you, did you do it? You say no," Vanderpump tells ET. "Did you do it? You say no, and then you say no. No, I swear on my kids' life. No. I mean for me, I'm a religious woman, everybody knows. I've supported our church every week with the homeless the last 12 years. Everybody knows that. So, for me to hold my children up and say, 'I swear on my children’s life,' that should be enough. To me, if somebody said that, I'd say, 'OK, that’s it. That’s done.'"
"So, the fact that it’s still, 'We don’t believe you, we don’t believe you,' it’s like, OK," she continues. "And then John Sessa said, 'Take a lie detector test.' So I said, 'You know what? Yeah, why not? Why not? I’m not scared.' I don’t think you put yourself forward for a lie detector test if you have a modicum guilt, and I didn’t, so that was it."
Sessa is the executive director of Vanderpump Dogs, and involved in "puppygate" himself. Teddi Mellencamp alleges that Sessa was involved in a plot to take Kemsley down by spreading false stories about the dog, Lucy Lucy Apple Juice, within the RHOBH group. Vanderpump and Sessa visited Los Angeles-based polygraph examiner John Grogan together for Vanderpump’s test. When the first footage aired last week, Vanderpump’s co-stars were quick to say they would not believe the results of the exam.
"I don’t care what they say, because if I invested in what they said, then the last 15 episodes would have destroyed me, because it’s been an endless litany of abuse, of accusations," Vanderpump counters. "So, you know what? Onwards and upwards."
"Talk about this guy -- he works with the FBI, with the police force," she adds of Grogan. "So, if I went in all kind of authenticity saying, you know, 'I'm gonna tell the truth, wire me up,' or whatever, I mean, it was pretty strict."
"It was a wonderful experience afterwards, when he came back and said, 'Yeah, 1,000 percent you’re telling the truth,'" she goes on to reveal. "But, you know what? It was a little nerve-wracking, I have to say, because you think, 'Well, my heart’s going so fast, am I going to look guilty?' But I knew I was innocent of it, and it’s a bulls**t accusation anyway, with what I've got going on in the world, saying I'm giving a story to Radar Online. Actually, frankly, I hardly have time to go to the bathroom."
For now, Vanderpump is just facing her co-stars on social media. Her next opportunity to see them in person will be at the season nine reunion taping, but the restaurateur continues to keep mum on whether she’ll show up to the all-cast event.
ET spoke with Vanderpump at her 4th Annual World Dog Day in West Hollywood, California, on May 18. She and the Vanderpump Dog Foundation put on the celebration to raise awareness about the dog meat trade in Asia.
"You know, just a day to actually celebrate these guys, to have 1,000 dogs find loving homes that otherwise would have been euthanized, you know, it’s quite a task, really, to immerse yourself in the world of rescue," Vanderpump admits. "I think a lot of our staff feel the same way. But, to have moments like this, to celebrate, is really incredible."
Last year, Vanderpump and her team championed House Resolution 401, which ultimately passed in September. The resolution condemned the dog and cat meat trade.
"Well, there’s been so many fights, so many battles that we’ve kind of taken on," Vanderpump notes. "You know, we opened a sanctuary in China, we passed Resolution 401 this year, we’re supporting the PACT Act, we’re going back to Congress."
PACT stands for Preventing Animal Cruelty and Torture. The Act would make it a federal crime to commit malicious cruelty to an animal on federal property or interstate commerce.
"I think you’ve seen a lot of change in the last couple of years, and the fact that America is condemning the dog meat trade, which is huge, because it wasn’t even condemned in America," Vanderpump says. "There are so many things [still to] do. Push the message about, you know, adopt don’t shop, be kind to them, have them vaccinated, have them spayed and neutered. All those messages. So, yeah. There’s a lot to say."
The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills airs Tuesdays at 9 p.m. ET on Bravo.
RELATED CONTENT:
