15 Memorable Friends Who Never Became Real Housewives

Any long-time viewer of "The Real Housewives" knows how crucial a role a good "friend of" can play. Friends are supporting players who are not generally required to expose as much of their personal lives, which means that they can just show up for the juicy group stuff. In some instances, a friend may only be featured a few times a season, and in others, they might be around nearly every episode despite not holding a peach, diamond, apple, etc. The friend role can come about in a multitude of ways, and not everyone has what it takes, but the best "friends" have helped to propel the drama and have given us some stellar moments.

Over the years, many full-time cast members have been demoted to the friend role — including iconic Housewives like Vicki Gunvalson ("RHOC"), Camille Meyer ("RHOBH"), and at one point, Luann de Lesseps ("RHONY") — and it is not unheard of for a former Housewife to show up as a friend after years away from the show, like Danielle Staub ("RHONJ") and Katie Rost ("RHOP") have done. Very rarely will someone begin their run as a friend and then get promoted from there. In fact, only four women have done it, and it took one of them (Marlo Hampton) a full decade. Let's dig into the memorable friends who, for whatever reason, did not start as Housewives and never became Housewives. Here are 15 of the most unforgettable friends who never made the full-time cast.

No matter what you think about Barbara Kavovit, "The Real Housewives of New York City" friend who often went by "Barbara K.," she remains a topic of conversation because she simply refuses to leave the public eye. The former reality TV personality has gone on to run for New York City mayor multiple times. "The city doesn't need another politician, they need someone like me who will use their business skills to make changes to these problems," she said at a 2022 event, per Page Six. As we know from her time on the show, Kavovit runs her own construction company, Evergreen Construction, and is mom to one son.

Kavovit was a guest on "RHONY" for many seasons, but finally made it to "friend" territory for Season 11, when she popped up as Luann de Lesseps' buddy. The first time she made a solid impact was when she was caught discussing de Lesseps' upcoming wedding with Carole Radziwill, a hot mic moment that she unsuccessfully attempted to have cut from the show, per New York Daily News. Years later, she was again caught on a hot mic, this time insulting de Lesseps' singing voice — which, to be fair, is an acquired taste — while at her cabaret show. "I don't think she can ever really hold the show by herself. I mean, she, she can't really sing," she said. Aside from the hot mics, she is mostly remembered for her copious amounts of self-tanner.

In comparison to Kim D., Kim Granatell is a pussycat. That said, take her out of "The Real Housewives of New Jersey" and place her on another franchise, and she would probably be the boldest troublemaker there. Granatell was a friend on Season 2 of "RHONY," and then a guest the following season. We mostly got to know her through her connection to Caroline Manzo, as their sons were best friends at the time. Over the course of her stint on the show, her meddling and lack of boundaries went on to cause problems for many of the cast members.

One of Granatell's finer moments — for us, the viewers, that is — was when she invited a "friend" to Melissa Gorga's Christmas party. As the New York Daily News recapped, the friend in question, Monica Chacon, was working with the feds to take down Joe and Teresa Giudice, so clearly, Granatell knew what she was doing by inviting her. Granatell also befriended the cast outcast Danielle Staub at one point, which positioned her in opposition to Giudice, Manzo, Jacqueline Laurita, and all of Staub's other enemies. That friendship was not long for this world, which led to a classic fight between the pair and Granatell's signature line: "You have no friends, look at you, you're going to be an old f**king old lady with your fake and square f**king t**s." If that does not read like poetry to you, you're watching the wrong franchise.

Nicole James was featured on Season 16 of "The Real Housewives of Orange County" and though she disappeared midseason, she gave us a lot to talk about for as long as she was around. While James is probably one of the more unlikeable friends on this list, she was also one who was central to the drama during her season. The big reveal that, decades earlier, James sued her friend Heather Dubrow's husband — and that Dubrow did not know.

Dubrow did not get mad at James, but she did lose it on the messenger, Gina Kirschenheiter, and did enter into a prolonged war with Shannon Beador, who had told Kirschenheiter the information. By then, James had all but disappeared from our screens. Aside from that one storyline, James gave us an explosive party fight with Emily Simpson and one of the most awkward lunches ever when she was reluctant to hug her (supposed) close friend Noella Bergener, who was crying because of her divorce. Both Bergener and Dubrow have spoken out about how James is actually a good friend, but we are fine with her never popping back into the on-screen "RHOC" circle.

According to interviews done for Dave Quinn's "Not All Diamonds and Rosé," Tanya Sam was in negotiations for a full-time role on "The Real Housewives of Atlanta" when she decided she did not want it. This was confirmed by both Sezin Cavusoglu, a Bravo executive, and Sam herself. "We figured out pretty early on that there would be no way to get past some structural thing in the full-time contract around businesses and exposure of businesses on camera," Sam said in the book, adding that she then offered herself up for the friend role instead. She appeared in a friend capacity beginning in Season 11, and filmed three seasons in that role before departing the franchise.

Sam was always more reserved than many of the "RHOA" women, perhaps because of her offscreen life as a businesswoman, but she still knew how to turn up. She memorably took the others to visit Canada, from where she hails, to celebrate the Caribana Festival in Toronto, and got down and dirty (possibly too dirty, but the rumors are unconfirmed) with stripper Bolo during Cynthia Bailey's out-there bachelorette party. Though she started the show as NeNe Leakes' friend, Sam's friendship with Porsha Williams appeared to grow quite deep, and we always enjoyed their back-and-forth. Nonetheless, her feuding with Kenya Moore was probably when she was the most memorable. Moore accused Sam's partner, Paul Judge, of flirting with the "cookie lady," which was a major rift in Season 12.

On paper, Eden Sassoon, the gorgeous daughter of hairdresser Vidal Sassoon, seemed like the perfect fit for "The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills." "Obviously Vidal Sassoon is a huge name and also very synonymous with Los Angeles and Beverly Hills. Eden had some funny stories because she was a dating machine at the time – dating younger guys," said Jennifer Redinger, a Bravo casting director, in "Not All Diamonds and Rosé." On the show, all we heard about was a random young guy that Eden had not yet met in person, but off the show, she has been linked to pop singer Jesse McCartney and "Bachelorette" star Josh Murray.

Despite seeming like a good fit for the show, Eden Sassoon never gelled with the rest of the "RHOBH" cast and lasted only one season (Season 7) as a friend of the "Housewives." She oscillated between fading into the background and trying way too hard to get attention but did at times help move the storylines along. She was the person who told Kyle Richards that Lisa Rinna had been talking about Kim Richards' sobriety, though she went about it in a very clumsy way that included a super awkward scene with her asking probing questions about Richards' family history with alcohol. By the end of the season, Sassoon had all but had it with Rinna and she memorably erupted on her at a 1920s theme party. "I've given you so much of my time, my energy, my f**king heart, you b***h," she yelled at a laughing Rinna.

We now had a handful of same-sex attracted cast members and friends on the "Real Housewives," such as Noella Bergener and Brandi Glanville (who both identify as bisexual), and "The Real Housewives of Miami" has put Julia Lemigova's marriage to Martina Navratilova front and center, but for a long time, "Housewives" and their friends were overwhelmingly straight-identified, hyper-feminine women. Rosie Pierri broke the mold, in part because she was gay, and in part because she spent more of her time drinking beers with the men on "The Real Housewives of New Jersey" than attending fashion shows at Posche. If she were not Kathy Wakile's sister and the cousin of Teresa Giudice and Joe Gorga, Pierri probably wouldn't have appeared on this sort of platform, which made her all the more relatable.

While she was a guest from Season 3 until Season 6, Pierri was made a friend for Season 7 before leaving the show altogether. "The first season Kathy was on the show, everybody would see me and be like, 'Who's that?' I didn't even know the cameras were on," Pierri said in "Not All Diamonds and Rosé." "Then they wanted to mic me the second time around, and I was a little nervous." Despite her nerves, Pierri put it all out there, hilariously trying to pick up ladies on camera, poignantly coming out to her niece and nephew over a meal, and exploding in rage from backstage at a reunion when Giudice mentioned her father. 

For years, people asked for Kathy Hilton to appear on "The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills" alongside her sisters Kim and Kyle Richards. She had done a few guest spots over the years, but prayers were answered when she finally signed on to be a friend in Season 11. The only problem is that she was so good in her inaugural season that now we want her as a full-timer, which is something Hilton has no interest in whatsoever. She told Los Angeles Magazine in April 2022 that she will never hold a "RHOBH" diamond, adding, "My husband is not going to be in it. My children aren't. When you sign up for the Housewife gig, you got to let it all out and include everybody."

In her debut year as a friend, Hilton gave us many iconic moments and proved herself to be hilarious in a way we would have never expected. She played practical jokes on the other women, proved herself incapable of understanding the premise of "two truths and a lie," and mistook her ear drops for eye drops. We loved her giant purse full of random items, the dance she did with stale bread, and the giant fan she needs to sleep, and cackled when she stayed up late on vacation eating chips and drinking Red Bull in bed while combing over six newspapers. Hilton also had a number of iconic quotes from Season 11, including "Who is Hunky Dory?," "I'm literally ready to have a gorilla," and "Hi, Tomasina."