Reality star hits out at ‘biggest bully in Hollywood’ who made life a ‘living hell’
Reality TV star and actress Lisa Rinna has dished the dirt on the former co-star who 'made her life a living hell' for three years - and dubbed him the most 'horrible' person in Hollywood.
In her new memoir You Better Believe I'm Gonna Talk About It, the 62-year-old pulls back the curtain on her career, controversies and her personal life - and not everyone comes out unscathed.
Before she became renowned for her expert pot-stirring on The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills, Rinna was a model and a soap star who started out on NBC's Days of Our Lives.
She played Billie Reed in the popular series from 1992 to 1995, before departing the role for a gig in Melrose Place. Rinna then returned to Days of Our Lives in 2002, 2012, 2018, as well as in a 2021 spin-off series.
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It's no wonder she was routinely welcomed back to the show - as she somehow made viewers buy into her and Robert Kelker-Kelly's on-screen relationship, despite her claiming they actually 'hated each other' behind the scenes.
Now, if that isn't a testament to her acting ability, I don't know what is.
In You Better Believe I'm Gonna Talk About It, Rinna described the former-actor-turned-pilot as a 'ticking time bomb' and claimed he was one of the 'biggest bullies' who she has encountered in the showbiz world.
Referring to an iconic row she had with socialite Kathy Hilton during her Housewives days, Rinna wrote in the book: "Remember when Kathy Hilton said I was the biggest bully in Hollywood? Not true. Not even close!
"I have legit stories about the real bullies in this town. Robert Kelker-Kelly is one of those bullies."
The mother-of-two, who has been married to Mad Men star Harry Hamlin for nearly three decades, claimed that Kelker-Kelly 'made her life a living hell on the set of Days'.
She starred opposite him as he took on the role of Bo Brady, which was previously played by Peter Reckell.
"Behind-the-scenes we hated each other," Rinna alleged in her memoir. "He was horrible to me.
"I’d go so far as to say verbally abusive. He was passive aggressive, manipulative, and played weird mind games."
"I had to work with him every day, often half-naked to do love scenes," Rinna continued. "If I didn’t do what he wanted, he’d give me the silent treatment. He was a ticking time bomb.
"I never knew when I arrived on set each morning if I’d get nice Robert Kelker-Kelly or dark Robert Kelker-Kelly. He was unpredictable and it was exhausting."
Kelker-Kelly ultimately left Days of Our Lives in 1995 and in wake of his exit, Rinna claims that the network supplied her and fellow Days of Our Lives actress Kristian Alfonso with a security team.
Rinna went on to allege: "Suddenly, one day, he disappeared from the Days set. Next thing I knew, Kristian and I had our own full-time security detail.
"I wasn't worried about physical harm, but NBC had to cover their ass. We had rent-a-cops parked outside out houses and trailers for three weeks and were driven to and from work."
LADbible Group has contacted NBC as well as representatives for Kelker-Kelly and Alfonso for comment.
Rinna previously revealed that she had an explosive feud with Kelker-Kelly back in 2015, telling Bravo they both hated each other 'with a passion'.
"We were a volatile combination, and it looked like love and sexual chemistry on camera, so that was some darn good acting right there," she said.
Kelker-Kelly described his time on the set of Days of Our Lives as 'exhausting' in a 2013 interview with WeLoveSoaps, claiming that he had been 'worked to death'.
"I was working, on average, 90 hours a week," he said. "They were shooting one to two shows a day so we would be doing 120 pages of dialogue and that went on for a long time. I went through one three-year contract and negotiated a second contract, and then that one fell apart. But it was exhausting. They worked us to death.
"At the time, because my shirt was off all the fucking time, I would get up at three o'clock in the morning, go to the gym from four to six, and then be at the studio from six to eight (or nine) at night... and then go to sleep and do it all over again. We were doing this five days a week, consistently. It was insane. At that point in time Days had a high viewership, and they worked the hell out of us."
Topics: Books, Celebrity, Celebrity News, Entertainment, US News, TV
Olivia Burke