Kelly Dodd’s Stepdaughter Is Not Here for Her Controversial Opinions
Updated Feb. 1 2021, 6:17 p.m. ET
Season 15 of The Real Housewives of Orange County was a doozy for Kelly Dodd. The five-season veteran may have finally crossed the line when it comes to her behavior and outspoken nature.
After several racist and controversial comments, Kelly has been under fire, with many fans of the Bravo reality show calling for her firing. Now, her very own stepdaughter is coming forward to give her a little lesson in white privilege.
Kelly Dodd’s comments before Season 15 aired led to a large boycott of the show.
Some fans of The Real Housewives of Orange County checked out of the show once veteran cast members Vicki Gunvalson and Tamra Barney were not asked back. Then in summer 2020, Kelly Dodd gave others good reason to take a break from the ladies of the O.C. First, there was Kelly’s ignorant and uneducated response to the COVID-19 pandemic. She referred to the virus as the flu, denounced the effectiveness of face masks, and said the death toll was God's way of "thinning the herd.”
She dug an even deeper hole for herself after posting a selfie wearing a hat that read "Drunk Wives Matter'' at her bridal shower. Many called her out for the tasteless mocking of the Black Lives Matter movement, to which she took no blame or responsibility. During the reunion for Season 15, she continued to be one of the most obtuse housewives in Bravo history by claiming to be Black after receiving the results from her ancestry DNA.
Kelly’s new husband’s daughter spoke out against Kelly’s comments.
Kelly Dodd married Fox News correspondent Rick Leventhal in 2020. She also inherited his children, including Veronica Leventhal, Rick’s eldest daughter. Veronica wasn’t shy about addressing Kelly’s bigotry. “I want to say something super quickly that I’ve been thinking about the last couple of days," she said in a video shared by LoveAndyC on Twitter. “I don’t think it’s okay for people who say they’ve experienced racism or prejudice to then turn around and inflict that same bigotry on other people."
While Veronica didn't name her new stepmom in the video message, it seems pretty clear that the comments are about Kelly. The video came only days after Kelly shouted "I'm Black!” to her costars to try and defend her comments.
Veronica continued, "I don’t think you can experience the privileges of whiteness and then turn around and deny that those privileges exist. I don’t think that you can claim ownership on a culture or a nationality and then disallow privileges to those people, either through certain political perspectives or just subjugating them in other ways.”
Kelly Dodd was fired from beverage company Positive Beverage.
Once the walls started to finally close in on Kelly, it was her partnership with Positive Beverage that pulled out first. In a statement, the beverage company said they did not want to be associated with The Real Housewives of Orange County star's "controversial views" on COVID-19.
"Our core values of wellness, community, diversity and inclusion should be reflected by our brand and anyone associated with it," Zach Muchnick, Positive Beverage Head of Brand, said in a statement on Instagram. "It has become clear over the past few months that Kelly's controversial views and opinions have distracted from our primary objectives, so effective today, we are no longer affiliated with Kelly Dodd-Leventhal."
In typical Kelly Dodd fashion, she took no responsibility for her firing and instead took Positive Beverage’s statement as an opportunity to take credit for all their success. She reacted to the news on Twitter. "I'm glad I could help put Positive Beverage on the map and wish them well," she wrote. "I'm also really excited about my next venture in the beauty industry, which is my real passion. Stay tuned!"
