Lisa Vanderpump’s mother passed away on June 17 at the age of 84, just a year after the death of her brother, Mark Vanderpump, at 59, according to the multiple reports.
The reality star was in mourning over her mother’s death, her representative told PEOPLE. The representative went further to say that the star was devastated and shocked at the news, and had no further comment. She asked for privacy during the difficult time.
Lisa received the news during the shooting of an episode of the hit reality television show, Vanderpump Rules. Reports say she has since temporarily stepped away from the show to grieve the loss of her mother.
Daily Mail reported that Lisa’s mother, Jean Vanderpump, passed away unexpectedly on June 17 in England. Jean was reported to be very close to her daughter, but decided to live out her life away from the public eye.
“This has hit Lisa very hard and she [is] shocked by her mother’s sudden death,” a source close to Lisa told Daily Mail. “Lisa has not had an easy part in 14 months. In April of 2018, her brother Mark committed suicide, rocking her family to its core.”
According to PEOPLE, her brother died from a suspected overdose in his home in England on April 30, 2018. Lisa was reported to have taken his death very hard. She tried to immerse herself in her work while mourning for her brother, and it was during an episode of “Real Housewives of Beverly Hills” that she confirmed that her brother Mark had indeed taken his own life.
“It’s been five weeks since my only sibling, my brother who was 16 months older than me, passed away through suicide,” Lisa told PEOPLE. “And for five weeks, I stayed home. Obviously it just being the two of us, we were more like twins. It’s been incredibly difficult, but we have to keep moving forward and make the people that were so important in our lives proud as they watch down over us.”
She recalled that even though everyone thought she had her life together, she actually wasn’t in the right space. She recalled that Andy Cohen, the executive producer at Bravo TV, even said on “Watch What Happens Live” that he wished he had given her some time off to properly mourn for her brother’s death. Eventually, it became too much for her, and she ended up being unable to deal with the accumulating stress, PEOPLE reported.
However, the insider source said, according to Daily Mail, that she was sure that Lisa would be able to pull through, and says, “one thing is for sure with Lisa though, she’s as strong as they come and once she has worked through her grief she will be back running her restaurant empire, focusing on her philanthropic endeavors and filming Vanderpump Rules.”
According to the inside source, Lisa had not had a good season on the show “Real Housewives of Beverly Hills,” where she was bullied by the other cast members of the show. She ended up quitting and leaving the show earlier this month.
She was first casted on the show back in 2010, and stayed on the show for the first nine seasons, US Weekly reported. Bravo then created “Vanderpump Rules” in 2012, which was a spinoff of “Real Housewives of Beverly Hills” where the show focused on Lisa and her husband, Ken Todd, and their West Hollywood restaurant.
“I made the decision to leave. It was a very difficult year for me, personally and professionally. I had wonderful things happen this year, opening up and TomTom and the cocktail garden in Vegas. The Housewives, it’s just, it’s emotionally too difficult to deal with,” Lisa told US Weekly.
Co-stars of Vanderpump Rules, Tom Sandoval and Ariana Madix, spoke about being surprised about Lisa’s decision, saying that Lisa had been a very important role in the show, according to ET Online.
“It did shock me,” Sandoval said. “She’s always been such a foundation on that show. You know, the one consistency, so yeah, it definitely shocked me, but I understand. It’s different. Like, her role on that show is very different from who she is on Vanderpump Rules. So, I mean, if anything, she’ll have more time to focus on Vanderpump Rules and focus on her new bars and you know.”
The Daily Mail reported that Lisa will be flying to England in the next couple of days in order to make arrangements for her mother’s funeral.
