Lisa Hochstein's family evacuated Hurricane Irma three days ago—via private jet.
That alone wouldn't have ruffled any feathers, had the 35-year-old reality star not posted a smiling picture of her family and dogs in front of the aircraft on Instagram three days ago. Lisa, who starred in the second and third seasons of The Real Housewives of Miami, has since came under fire for publishing the picture, which some commenters called "tone deaf" and "stupid."
In her original Instagram caption, Lisa—the wife of plastic surgeon Dr. Lenny Hochstein—thanked her family and friends "who have reached out to help, offer a place to stay, offer help to get out of Miami or just checked on us! And I'm sorry if I haven't gotten back to all of you!"
Lisa explained that her family originally wasn't going to leave their home "partly because of the dogs and a few other things." The Hochsteins "waited until the last minute when we realized that this thing wasn't slowing down," she added, "which definitely made it difficult to get out."
"I'm praying for everyone who already has been devastated by this hurricane and pray that Somehow by a miracle Florida is not hit so hard. We did not want to risk it with our little angel Logan. And YES we let some friends stay at our home because it's a little safer then theirs!" the Bravolebrity wrote. "They will be fine!!! Material things can be replaced lives cannot #staysafe."
In response to a wave of negative comments, Lisa amended her caption Monday. "To all of these ignorant people leaving nasty comments... although it's none of your damn business we were not the only ones in this plane. Every seat was occupied and my son had to sit in my lap. EVERYONE IS POSTING ON SM about how they escaped! This happens to be mine and I don't need to apologize or hide to ANYONE ABOUT HOW WE DO SO," she said. "We also did not have paper work for our dogs to fly commercial as every vet was closed and every flight was booked and there is no way in hell we would leave them behind. Fortunately we were able to get a plane to take them with us. Anyone with nasty comments needs to back off get off my page and worry about yourself and how you can help instead if wasting your energy on attacking me."
Lisa rolled her eyes over claims she was "'abandoning' my friends in my house," writing, "They weren't any guests that happened to just be there already, they are friends who just didn't have a proper safe place to stay who live in Miami and I figured mine would be safer for them so I offered for them to come on over! So take your comments and shove them up your [butts]."
The comments weren't all negative, with some people saying they would have flown on a private jet if they had been presented with the same opportunity. Lenny read many of the comments, telling one of Lisa's fans, "Thank you for your thoughts. They mean so much to us."
To donate to the Red Cross' Hurricane Irma relief fund, click here.
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