It's finally RHOBH premiere night!
The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills' newest star Crystal Kung Minkoff is teasing drama, good times and lots more scoop ahead of tonight's season 11 premiere of the hit Bravo series. While the newbie admits she was "nervous" to join the "strong group" of Housewives, Minkoff reveals they mostly "welcomed me with open arms."
"I immediately felt connected to Garcelle [Beauvais], like day one," Minkoff told E! News exclusively. "And I think also because she has known [my husband] Rob for a long time, so when I walked in there, I was like, 'OK, Garcelle is my friend,' because I knew her."
She continued, "And Dorit [Kemsley] was really warm to me. I think because we have young kids, and I think back on that very first time I met her, she just had the biggest smile and was so welcoming and just made me feel welcomed. And for anyone to do that with someone who is brand new to the group with strong personalities is really sweet."
As for who Minkoff didn't get along with, she explained, "In terms of clashing heads: look, this is a very strong group of women with strong personalities. When you have hot topics, it can get hot sometimes, but that's sort of the beauty of this group. If you shy away from conversation, you can't learn anything from it. Did I butt heads? For sure. But do I feel like there's resolve and that you can come out to the other side? For sure. It's a big learning lesson for all of us. You wouldn't have just kumbaya moments all the time with this group."
The RHOBH trailer teases a major fight between Minkoff and Sutton Stracke. After Minkoff calls Stracke "awkward" and "jealous," she fires back, "Jealous of what?! You're ugly leather pants."
"I was literally laughing," Minkoff shared of the scene in question. "Yeah, it's pretty intense. Again, we're strong and we're going to get heated. But I will say, I love those leather pants and I will wear them proudly every day...I mean, they're hot! They're amazing pants. I love them."
Minkoff wouldn't reveal anything else about the cause of her and Sutton's spat, teasing, "You got to watch it. That's part of the rollercoaster and the ride of the show."
Minkoff also agrees with Beauvais' claim that Minkoff "holds the biggest grudges" in the group.
"Garcelle really nailed it on everyone," she said in response the the Watch What Happens Live interview. "And when she said that about me, I thought about it with all the girls and I was like, ‘Yeah that makes sense.' For me, I don't hold grudges, I think that's like a specific word, but it takes time for me to resolve things. I like to resolve things fully. That's my personality. If it feels like it's brushed under the rug, then I don't feel settled. So for me it's really about getting to the other end in a genuine way. If she wants to say it's a grudge, then I'm all into that."
Minkoff previously revealed to E! she ultimately joined the show after a little convinced from BFF and RHOBH season 11 "friend of" Kathy Hilton.
"Just mentioning Kathy makes me smile. I talk to Kathy every day," she gushed of their friendship. "We've known each other for so long but this really gets you closer. We had lunch last week and she said, ‘I've never spent months and months with someone so intimately.' It was such a great, special treat for the two of us to have that together. We're really social, we see each other in big groups, sometimes alone, but this really gets you a lot closer and I always have Kathy's back and I know she has mine. Our friendship is so genuine and I just love her. She's such a gem of a person."
As for how Minkoff and the other Beverly Hills ladies support co-star Erika Jayne this season amid her ongoing divorce from ex-husband Tom Girardi, Minkoff shared, "I'm brand new and when her stuff was kind of revealed, I'd just jumped into the group. So for me, from my perspective, was just to be there as a good friend and for as a little as I knew her, she was kind to me so I'm going to be kind.
"But for the other girls, each of them have their own perspectives and their own length of time that they know her and the depths of their friendships, so I think it's a challenge on every level, how deep they can support or question her or have questions just about anything. So for me it was just really about being a supportive of friend. This group is a very close group and they are very supportive."
The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills premieres tonight at 8 p.m. on Bravo. Binge past seasons on Peacock any time.
(E!, Bravo and Peacock are all part of the NBCUniversal family)