Real Housewives Who Have Been Arrested

In the grand pantheon of reality television, Bravo's "Real Housewives" franchise stands alone. There have been many attempts to imitate the well-worn formula honed razor-sharp by mastermind Andy Cohen – a Bravo executive before becoming a talk show-hosting celeb in his own right — but no copycats have ever knocked the shows off their collective perch.

Beginning in 2006 with "The Real Housewives of Orange County" before expanding to Beverly Hills, New York, and more cities throughout the U.S. (and beyond), the "Real Housewives" have introduced an unforgettable array of colorful and flamboyant personalities to TV viewers. Some of these women, in fact, are so colorful that they've also managed to rack up police records. 

As it turns out, the list of "Housewives" stars who've been placed under arrest is not a short one. While the transgressions behind their arrests have run the gamut — everything from tax fraud to domestic violence to a sobering number of DUIs — there's no denying that, statistically speaking, cast members of the various "Housewives" shows tend to experience the long arm of the law far more than what would be seen as typical. 

Former child actor and "The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills" star Kim Richards is a two-timer when it comes to arrests. Her first came in April 2015, when the heavily inebriated reality star was arrested after a booze-fueled altercation in the Beverly Hills Hotel's Polo Lounge. According to E News, she was charged with three misdemeanors, including public intoxication and battery upon one of the cops who wound up hauling her to jail.

Richards avoided serving any time by cutting a plea deal, per TMZ. She received three years of probation and was ordered to attend 52 Alcoholics Anonymous meetings, along with performing 30 days of community service. She was also banned by the hotel. As she explained during an appearance on "Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen" (as reported by People), she'd admittedly downed a few drinks before showing up at the Polo Lounge just as it was closing — and then refused to budge. "He said, 'If you don't leave, we're calling the police,' and I really thought he was joking," she recounted. "And he called the police. And one thing led to another."

Later that same year, she was arrested a second time while attempting to exit a Los Angeles Target store with two shopping carts loaded with merchandise — none of which she'd paid for. Once again, she entered a plea deal, receiving the exact same punishment from her last offense: probation, AA, and community service.

When "The Real Housewives of New York City" introduced Leah McSweeney when she joined the show in 2020, viewers were immediately shown a photo of her mugshot. The photo was taken shortly after her 2002 arrest, which she said took place after police began beating on her friend as cops dealt with a rowdy crowd outside NYC's Hammerstein Ballroom. She unwisely threw a plastic water bottle at one of the cops, hitting him square in the back. That officer responded by punching her in the face. "I fell onto the sidewalk, and suddenly I had four cops on my back, cuffing me. I just felt so many knees on my back. And one of them slammed my face into the subway grates and knocked my tooth out," she told People.

She sued the NYPD, alleging police brutality, and won. She was awarded $75,000, which she used to launch her fashion line, Married to the Mob. "In hindsight, it was a pivotal moment in my life," McSweeney told the New York Post of her arrest. She posited to People that her clothing line's success was "the silver lining" to the brutal beating.

That mugshot came back to haunt her years later when her daughter Googled her mom as part of a school project and came across that particular photo. "She was basically like, 'Mom, why do you have a mugshot?'" McSweeney recounted to People. "So I had to tell her."

NeNe Leakes has been a fan-favorite on "The Real Housewives of Atlanta" since the series' first season in 2008, and she's also experienced some brushes with the law. In 2014, Star Magazine reported on some of her prior arrests from back when she was still going by her birth name, Linnethia Johnson. The outlet obtained court documents indicating that Leakes had been charged with three felony counts and one misdemeanor way back in 1992, involving what was described as "theft of services" from a phone company.

Leakes avoided jail time by agreeing to a plea deal, pleading guilty to all four counts. In exchange, she was sentenced to two years of probation and also ordered to repay $2,650, presumably the value of what she had allegedly stolen. However, that wasn't the end of her legal problems. The outlet also reported that she was subsequently arrested three more times for violating the terms of that very parole.

Once her criminal past had been exposed by the tabloid, Leakes responded with a message she posted on Twitter. "22 yrs ago I was lost, scared, trapped & a single mom!" she wrote. "I care enough abt myself 2 change my life & u can 2! Wit God, anything is possible."

Porsha Williams became a member of "The Real Housewives of Atlanta" cast in 2012, joining in the fifth season and quickly becoming one of the franchise's most popular personalities. 

During the summer of 2020, Williams was among the many people to take to the streets on behalf of the Black Lives Matter movement, protesting the high-profile deaths of Black people who lost their lives during altercations with police. In July, Williams was one of more than 80 people who were arrested during a protest over the death of Breonna Taylor, held at the home of Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron. The following month, Williams was arrested a second time, at another protest over Taylor's death. She was reportedly charged with disorderly conduct and obstruction of a highway.

For Williams, being arrested was a small price to pay. "I have a platform, and I felt compelled to use it to bring awareness to what is happening to Black folks in America and the need for us to take action in America," she explained in a 2020 interview with Elle.

Viewers of any of the shows in the "Real Housewives" universe have likely noticed how much alcohol serves to fuel the assorted shenanigans, and DUI arrests are certainly not uncommon with the women who appear in the franchise. That was the case for Brandi Glanville, who joined "The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills" in 2011 as a "friend of" in the second season before being promoted to the main cast in Season 3. 

The year before her debut on the show, Glanville was pulled over by cops for a traffic violation while she drove on Sunset Boulevard in Los Angeles, according to TMZ. When the officer spoke with her, they allegedly smelled the distinctive odor of alcohol and gave her a field sobriety test, which she reportedly failed. She was then placed under arrest. 

Glanville was subsequently hit with two misdemeanor charges for driving under the influence and driving with a blood alcohol level exceeding 0.08%. Like so many other "Real Housewives" alums, she chose to accept a plea deal by pleading no contest to the latter charge and avoiding a potential six-month sentence. Instead, she was placed on probation for 36 months, ordered to pay a $390 fine, and had to attend a three-month-long alcohol education program. 

Kelly Bensimon became a member of the "Real Housewives" extended family with she joined the New York City edition in the series' second season back in 2009. She didn't stick around long since she was one of several women axed from "The Real Housewives of New York City" in 2011 after the fourth season. The same year as her "Housewives" debut, Bensimon found herself in some legal peril when she was nabbed by police after allegedly assaulting her then-fiancé, Nick Stefanov. 

"She was arrested on March 5 at 9:10 a.m. for punching her fiancé in the face, and [she] gave him a laceration under his left eye. She was arrested for assault — it's a misdemeanor," an NYPD spokesperson told People at the time. Meanwhile, Bensimon's lawyer, Stephen Turano, said she'd entered a plea of not guilty. "We are confident that the charges are unfounded and we look forward to a quick resolution," the lawyer told the magazine. 

Her sentence was not harsh: a mere two days of performing community service. While the judge in the case did permit her to see Stefanov, he did specifically prohibit her from "[harming] or [threatening] him." Apparently, the black eye she inflicted on Stefanov didn't permanently ruin their relationship. Still on-and-off a decade later, the pair were spotted in the streets of the Big Apple in 2021, heaping PDA upon each other. The pair seems to have eventually split, as Bensimon got engaged to financier Scott Litner in August 2023.

Kelly Dodd came to fame as part of the cast of "The Real Housewives of Orange County," joining the show for its 11th season. Dodd proved to be a volatile addition to the show, sparking conflicts with various co-stars – particularly with the OG of the OC, Vicki Gunvalson.

Another person she reportedly didn't get along with too well was her ex-husband, Michael Dodd, a situation that crested in July 2014 when a marital spat turned into a violent brawl. Not only was Dodd reportedly arrested and charged with domestic violence, she was also hit with a restraining order that forbade her from getting anywhere near her husband, who she ended up divorcing in 2017. The restraining order was lifted a year after it was granted, and the charges were dropped after she attended 10 Alcoholics Anonymous meetings and underwent a six-month-long course of therapy. 

While Dodd is clearly no angel, she has complained that her transgressions are relatively less felonious than her fellow Housewives, which is something she pointed out in great detail after her firing from the franchise in 2021. Meanwhile, during an interview with SiriusXM's "Jeff Lewis Live," Dodd also griped that she was taken by surprise when the hammer came down. "I had no idea," she said of her firing. "It was actually, I was blindsided."

If you or someone you know is dealing with domestic abuse, you can call the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1−800−799−7233. You can also find more information, resources, and support at their website.