'RHOSLC' Star Meredith Marks on Her "Entirely New Friendship" With Lisa Barlow (EXCLUSIVE)

Viewers of The Real Housewives franchise know the Bravo show is considered by many to be a reality TV soap opera. And any good soap opera needs a few villains and even more feuds. One of the franchise's breakout shows, The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City, has supplied both ingredients.

Meredith Marks and Lisa Barlow are two RHOSLC OGs who have witnessed a villain's wrath and the dangers of an ongoing feud.

During their five-season run (and counting, fingers crossed), their friendship was in jeopardy of being broken for good. Fortunately, they’re in a better place now and have a new collaboration to prove it!

Meredith and Lisa recently partnered with DoorDash X Lyft to give their members exclusive benefits. Also, despite their blowups with their other castmates, the duo are closer than ever on RHOSLC Season 5.

While speaking about her and Lisa’s partnership, Meredith told Distractify how they managed to get their friendship back on track.

Meredith told Distractify that she and Lisa intentionally tried to make their relationship work.

"We've worked really hard to develop a new friendship, and it's an entirely new friendship," she said. "We couldn't go back to where we were, nor did we want to go back to where we were."

Meredith and Lisa were introduced to RHOSLC watchers as close and lookalike friends. However, their once close relationship became more turbulent as the series continued.

In Season 2, Lisa made scathing remarks about Meredith's finances and her husband Seth Marks's job security. She called the Marks a "dumb f----ng family that poses," all of which were recorded by RHOSLC's audio engineers. And though Meredith threatened Lisa after she tried to "go there with the husband" in Season 4 of RHOSLC, they decided enough was enough and made amends in 2023.

Meredith said that collaborating with Lisa for DoorDash X Lyft further helped their friendship flourish. The partnership was kismet since the jewelry designer is known for her aversion to driving, and Lisa has the same hate for cooking. Meredith shared that it was also "exciting" for the companies to highlight them as the dynamic duo they are.

"When we were seen publicly as some as a duo, as people they'd want to bring together in this light, it was very heartwarming for both of us," she recalled. "We were just like, 'My gosh, this is incredible and so fun.'"

"So, to me, that kind of represents how we have evolved," Meredith added. "And like I said, we don't want to go back to the same friendship. We want a new friendship. We want a fresh friendship. And we want to be clear in our communication with one another because that's really where things got screwed up."

Meredith and Lisa may have been able to rekindle their friendship, but the jury is still out on her and Whitney Rose. The RHOSLC OGs have been at odds since Season 1, and their relationship hasn't improved over the years.

While they appeared to become cordial in Season 4 after the fallout of Monica Garcia being behind the RHOSLC gossip account, RealityVonTease, Whitney reignited their feud by calling her a "villain" and accused her of spreading a rumor that she uses Alibaba to dropship her PRISM Jewelry line.

During a Season 4 trip to Palm Springs, Calif., Lisa's husband, John Barlow, accused Whitney of stirring the pot amongst the group.

Although Meredith has had her own share of issues with Whitney — including a more recent one when Seth called her a "beyotch" when she asked to see proof Angie Katsanevas's husband, Shawn Trujillo, said Meredith used their son, Brooks's sexuality, to deny insinuating Shawn had an affair with a man — she said she hasn't let Lisa and Whitney's feud affect their friendship and tries not to be "put in the middle" or put Lisa in the same position.

"I feel like Lisa and I both recognize that there was a lot of gas poured on the fire by other people, which exacerbated our issues," she said. "Our issues are our own issues, but other people grossly exacerbated them. And so we really made an agreement that we're not going to allow that ever to happen again and that we are going to communicate and talk."