There's some fresh blood in Beverly Hills!
As The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills returned for season eight last night, fans were introduced to the latest lady to get her mitts on an oversized diamond in the show's opening credits, Teddi Mellencamp Arroyave. We watched as Dorit Kemsley and her son Jagger attended a music class at Teddi's home. We wondered what might possess a woman to hop on a private plane with a relative group of strangers for a girls trip in Las Vegas. And we went the whole episode without learning too much more about her.
While we'll no doubt learn more about the daughter of legendary rocker John Cougar Mellencamp in the coming weeks, E! News went straight to the source to find out all we need to know about Teddi to prepare us for what she has in store.
"I think the biggest thing with me is I'm honest. I'm not mean about being honest, but I'm honest," she told us on the red carpet at the show's premiere party when asked what she wanted viewers to know about her. "When I first meet somebody, I am not going to throw myself in everybody's face. I kind of take a step back and observe. So I think that's what you're going to see at first, is me observing the new women that I'm meeting. I start to come alive as I get to know people a little bit better."
As for why she joined a show that she hadn't really watched prior—"I've watched now," she admitted. "I have caught up on everything now."—the answer is simple.
"The experience of being able to go and travel, meet a bunch of intelligent, smart, fun women," Teddi said. "How could I say no, you know? Yes, there's some downside, but the upside is so much higher."
After joining the show and beginning to film with her new friends and co-stars, Teddi was surprised to find how in it she actually was. "I thought, at first, maybe I was just going to be going through the motions. But it's not. It's 100 percent," she admitted. "It's real. You have real emotions. You're experiencing everything, good and bad, with a bunch of women who become your friends."
For more from Teddi, including how she broke the news about joining the cast to her dad, be sure to check out the video up top!
The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills airs Tuesdays at 9 p.m. on Bravo.
(E! and Bravo are both part of the NBCUniversal family.)