Real Housewives Who Have Lost Their Fortunes

Bravo's Real Housewives franchise nets big ratings as well as big bucks for its stars, but that doesn't mean the Real Housewives themselves are good at managing their money. Though some stars from the franchise pull in more than $1 million per season — with The Real Housewives of Atlanta stars NeNe Leakes reportedly raking in more than any other housewife with $2.75 million per season — a lot of them find themselves in dire straits. Several of the housewives have filed for bankruptcy, while others have been taken to court (and in the case of Teresa Giudice, hauled off to prison) over their money matters.

The Real Housewives of New York star Bethenny Frankel was already a mogul when she became a TV star. She hinted that all that glittered within the Bravolebrity realm wasn't gold in an August 2018 interview, telling Money magazine of her less-savvy peers, "They can't afford the lives they're living. And if the music stops, they're going to get in some trouble." For some of the housewives, the music stopped long ago, but they're still dancing their way deeper into debt. Here are some Real Housewives who lost their fortunes. Thankfully, a few of them were able to get theirs back.

RHOC star Alexis Bellino and husband Jim received a foreclosure notice for their Newport Beach, Calif., mansion in 2010, Radar Online reported. The Bellinos' home was a money pit for the couple, as they spent nearly $6 million in renovations on the property since purchasing it in 2007. The site claimed that the pair defaulted on their $4.5 million home loan. When they tried selling the mansion, they reduced the price from $4.99 million to $3.69 million, but, with interest and penalties, the Bellinos still owed more than $4.67 million on the home. The house was reportedly listed for a short sale before the pair modified their home loan.

The Orange County Register reported that Jim's company "that holds title to his house" filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in December 2010. He said in a statement at the time, "To set the record straight, we have not filed bankruptcy. I have been buying and selling residential and commercial properties for more than two decades," adding, "The bank's actions, however, forced the entity that holds the title to the home to file Chapter 11 re-organization bankruptcy protection for the purpose of protecting this asset while we continue to work toward resolution."

In 2010, The Real Housewives of New York star Sonja Morgan filed for Chapter 11, claiming to be nearly $20 million in the red. E! News reported that Morgan listed $19.8 million in debts and $13.5 million in assets. Morgan alleged that she had a deal between her own company, Sonja Productions, and Hannibal Pictures, Inc. to make a John Travolta-starring film called Fash Flash to Bang Time.

The movie never happened, which Morgan blamed on Travolta's alleged diva demands. As a result, Hannibal Pictures filed a lawsuit against Morgan, resulting in a $7 million judgment against her that she appealed. She told E! News in June 2015, that, with administrative fees, the $7 million judgment was actually closer to $9 million. She's now out of bankruptcy, as she told E! News, and happy to keep her finances private. She admitted she had to sell her homes in France and Colorado to get back on her feet.

But Morgan wasn't totally out of the woods just then. In December 2017, her bankruptcy attorneys sued her for allegedly not paying them $350,000 in legal fees, The Blast reported. The case was later dismissed for lack of documentation. Different lawyers involved in her bankruptcy case also sued her for $66,000, but that case was also dismissed on a technicality. In February 2017, TMZ reported that she'd also put her $10 million Upper East Side townhouse on the market.

The Real Housewives of New Jersey star Danielle Staub filed for bankruptcy in June 2012. The Star-Ledger reported that Staub filed for Chapter 7 protection, listing $1.9 million in debts and saying she only made $63,791 that year — $50,000 for appearing on little-watched VH1 reality show Famous Food and the rest for her work with Dial-A-Star. She'd been trying to sell her Wayne, N.J. mansion for years without success, despite marking it down nearly 40 percent to $899,000. She owed $111,161 to the IRS, $70,000 in taxes to Wayne Township, and $5,162 in New Jersey state taxes, as well as various other legal fees. Her other liabilities were mostly consumer debts, including bills from Nordstrom (a whopping $7,270) and smaller ones to Gap and Annie Sez clothing stores.

TMZ reported that Staub allegedly tried hiding some of her assets in the discovery phase of her bankruptcy case, but she quickly coughed up $35,000 to creditors in a settlement to avoid criminal charges. In July 2014, Radar Online reported that Staub was officially discharged of her $1.9 million bankruptcy debt — minus her back taxes, which she still has to pay.

TMZ reported that former RHOA star Lisa Wu and then-husband Ed Hartwell defaulted on a home loan. Wu's rep told the site that the pair tried to renegotiate the terms of their mortgage because the house, which they had purchased for $2.9 million in 2007, had lost value — to the tune of a full $1 million — when they tried to sell it. Wu later told Essence (via HuffPost), "The bank that held the mortgage chose not to allow us to sell and they chose to handle it in hopes that they would recoup the original value of our home by coming after us for the difference. We paid millions in taxes every year and chose to downgrade by moving to another one of our properties." She continued, "Ed and I even wanted to rent our former home after the bank said they would restructure the loan to make it affordable, but ultimately they chose another route. We've lost more than $600,000 in that home." As Wu said, the couple had moved into another property they owned, and the two later divorced.

Former RHOC star Peggy Tanous filed for bankruptcy in 2013. In documents obtained by Radar Online, Tanous claimed that her only income at the time was listed as $2,500 in child support from her ex-husband, Micah, whom she'd never publicly acknowledged divorcing. Tanous' home was foreclosed after she missed a whopping 75 mortgage payments. Radar Online reported in February 2015 that Tanous owed $1.5 million on her Irvine, Calif. property, which was allegedly only worth $840,000. She also reportedly owed $300,000 on a second mortgage from a different bank for the home. She was three days from a foreclosure sale when she filed for bankruptcy in 2013, the site claimed, and, in 2015, her mortgage lender asked a judge to lift her bankruptcy protection because she didn't have equity in the property.

Tanous left the Real Housewives franchise in 2011, Us Weekly reported. She only appeared on the show for a single season and claimed in a Facebook post at the time that she'd been through "months of negotiations" before making her decision. She hasn't been on the show since the sixth season.

RHOBH star Dorit Kemsley and husband PK were sued in August 2018 by a former business partner, TMZ reported, for an alleged $205,000 loan for a swimwear line. Later that month, The Blast reported that the Bellagio Hotel and Casino sued PK in 2013 for $3.6 million he allegedly owed on a casino marker (a line of credit for high-stakes gamblers). He paid several $875,000 installments, but then claimed his bankruptcy filing in the U.K. covered that debt. However, the Bellagio filed documents in 2018 claiming that they weren't informed that his marker was part of his bankruptcy filing. PK paid them $575,000, but, with interest accrued, he still owed more than $2 million. PK agreed to pay off his marker by June 2018, but allegedly stopped payments that May. In February 2019, The Blast reported that PK still owed the Bellagio $1.7 million and that his assets could be seized if he didn't pay up.

In January 2019, The Blast reported that Nicos Kirzis sued PK for the balance of a $1.2 million loan that had a repayment deadline in 2013. Kemsley claimed that his U.K. bankruptcy filing wiped that debt out, but Kirzis alleged he was never listed as a creditor in the filing. A judge ruled that Kirzis could seize PK's assets. Once Kirzis began the process, PK reportedly paid him $250,000, which allegedly barely covered the loan's interest. A judge reportedly warned PK that, unless he files to vacate the judgment, Kirzis could seize his assets to repay the balance.