Lisa Rinna addresses long-standing rumour about her husband Harry Hamlin’s sexuality

Lisa Rinna is shutting down rumours about her husband Harry Hamlin’s sexuality once and for all.

The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills alum, who has been married to L.A. Law actor Harry Hamlin for almost 30 years, addressed the long-standing rumour that he is gay in her new memoir, You Better Believe I’m Gonna Talk About It.

In the recently-released book, Rinna, 62, wrote that her husband is 100 per cent heterosexual, and is not gay “in any way, shape or form”.

“Let’s just clear this up one last time, once and for all: Harry’s heterosexual… He is not a gay man in any way, shape or form, not that there’s anything wrong with that,” she wrote.

Rinna and Hamlin met in 1992 and married in 1997, and Rinna wrote in her book that she never heard any rumours pertaining to his sexuality until she joined the cast of Bravo’s The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills in 2014.

“I just figured b****** will say anything to get my hackles up, so it never concerned me. My reaction was always more, ‘why you mad, boo?'” she wrote.

Rinna, who left Housewives in 2023 and has since appeared on American Horror Stories, Canada’s Drag Race and The Traitors, said that Hamlin wasn’t the only Real Housewives spouse to have his sexuality questioned.

“Every husband’s sexuality was questioned at some point on that show,” she claimed in the book, adding: “When you’re a good-looking man in Hollywood with a good sense of style, that adds up to ‘is he gay?'”

While Rinna said that she first heard claims about Hamlin’s sexuality during her Real Housewives tenure, she believed that the rumours first started circulating after he starred in Arthur Hiller’s 1982 gay drama film Making Love.

He played Bart McGuire, an out gay novelist who has an affair with a supposedly straight married man. The film was released at a time when LGBTQ+ representation on screen was pitiful and deemed controversial.

“Mainstream films about gay men are still rare today, but back then it was unheard of,” Rinna wrote in her book, adding that Hamlin felt the role was “absolutely necessary” for him to take on.

“He does what rings true to him,” she explained. “It was something that he felt was absolutely necessary to do. Harry made a brave decision, and it bit him in the ass.”

Rinna claimed that her actor husband was “blacklisted” by the entertainment industry for years after appearing in Making Love. 

While he had been nominated for a New Star of the Year accolade at the Golden Globes in 1979 following his performance in Movie Movie, his career was stunted slightly after Making Love. He still managed to bag three Best Actor nominations at the Golden Globes in 1988, 1989 and 1990 for his role in L.A. Law.

“To this day, Harry says he would do Making Love all over again because it was so impactful,” Rinna wrote.

“Harry changed so many people’s lives, and that’s why he wouldn’t have it any other way.”

Rinna has previously said that during her long Real Housewives stint, “when people would get mad” at her, they would claim Hamlin is gay. 

During her intense feud with fellow Real Housewives star Kim Richards, Richards claimed she knew a secret about Hamlin, which added further fuel to the bin fire of rumours online.

However, Rinna is insistent that she and Hamlin remain “unbothered” by the rumour, as she has a “great deal of trust” in her husband.

Prior to his marriage to Rinna, Hamlin, 74, was married to Falcon Crest star Laura Johnson between 1985 and 1989 and Desperate Housewives actress Nicolette Sheridan between 1991 and 1992.

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