Lisa Rinna and Harry Hamlin Prove You Can Survive a Bad First Kiss

For decades, we thought we knew how Lisa Rinna and Harry Hamlin got together. It was the stuff of ‘90s Hollywood lore: two soap-opera-level gorgeous people bumping into each other, falling in love, and riding into the sunset. But, according to the most recent episode of Let’s Not Talk About the Husband, there’s a lot more to the story—and it’s somehow even cuter, messier, and more perfectly chaotic than we imagined. Because, of course, it is. It’s Lisa and Harry.

The Flash, the Circus, and the Worst First Kiss

It all started with a glance—as most iconic love stories do. Harry remembers it like yesterday: “When someone walks into your life and you see them just for a flash, for a second, and you never forget that moment… I mean, that doesn’t happen.” And who was the woman who grabbed him by the heart with her beauty? None other than Lisa Rinna, who was very much not available at the time. (Neither was Harry.)

“You were married to Nicolette Sheridan,” Lisa reminds him, because the woman never misses a beat. Harry confirms: “I was sitting there with Nicolette. I looked up and I saw this amazingly beautiful woman…and I made sure she didn’t see me looking at you.” 

Fast forward a year,and fate intervened. Lisa was working the night shift at an eyeglass store—as one does when they’re a struggling actress—when she returned the keys to her boss, Brad, who happened to be having dinner with Harry. Lisa plopped down, Harry heard “Lisa Reneau” (he thought her last name was French—how chic), and she immediately launched into how “the circus was so sexy.”

Harry, understandably confused but intrigued, thought, “Wait, this girl is turned on by elephants? Lions and tigers? There’s… something interesting there.”

But here’s where it gets chef’s kiss perfect: their first real date at Toscana ended with the “worst kiss ever.” Lisa doesn’t mince words: “If you can’t kiss, you are bye-bye.”

Harry agrees: “It was really disappointing. I watched you roll up the window and drive away and I thought, ‘Oh shit.'”

Before Lisa Rinna: Baby Mamas, Bond Girls, and Soap Studs

Of course, the path to true love never ran smoothly—especially not when you’re both ridiculously good-looking in Hollywood. Harry, as Lisa gleefully recounts, had “a baby mama and two ex-wives” when they met.

The baby mama? None other than Ursula Andress, the original Bond girl. Yes, Harry shares a son, Dimitri, with the woman who once emerged from the sea in Dr. No looking like Aphrodite herself. Lisa’s reaction to Ursula’s pregnancy? “I’m just glad I wasn’t around for that drama.”

And those ex-wives? Nicollette Sheridan (of Desperate Housewives fame) and actress Laura Johnson. Lisa Rinna herself wasn’t exactly sitting at home knitting. She was dating Peter Barton, her “soap opera stud” boyfriend from The Young & The Restless, (he was named one of the 10 sexiest soap stars alive by Playgirl!), when she first crossed paths with Harry.

“You were with Peter, I was with Nicolette, and neither of us were in any state for a relationship,” Harry admits. And yet, the universe clearly had other plans.

And speaking of Nicolette… fans of The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills know that the drama didn’t end with Harry and Lisa’s meet-cute. Lisa and Nicollette have thrown plenty of shade at each other over the years, with Lisa once claiming that Nicollette “cheated on Harry with Michael Bolton.” (Yes, that Michael Bolton.) Rumor has it that Nicollette was even considered for a “friend of” role on RHOBH, but it never happened—allegedly because Lisa made it clear she wanted nothing to do with her on set. Housewives-level petty? Absolutely.

Destined by a Ghost Waiter?

The true turning point, though, was that fateful Toscana dinner. A portly, balding Italian waiter with a thick accent kept interrupting their first date to proclaim, “You two are destined to be together forever. Your soulmates. You will have children together.”

“We were freaked out,” Lisa laughs. “First date, and this guy’s basically planning our wedding.”

Years later, they returned to Toscana… only to be told by the maitre d’ that no such waiter had ever worked there. Ghost? Angel? Hallucination from bad pasta? Who knows. But the waiter was right.

Missed Calls, Marcy Jo the Spinner, and Fate (Again)

They didn’t just fall into each other’s arms and live happily ever after. There were missed calls (Harry canceled a date, claiming he had his son that weekend—Lisa was not impressed), other romances (Harry’s eight-month detour with Marcy Jo, who Lisa not-so-affectionately dubbed “the spinner”), and a lot of “What ifs?”

“If we’d gotten together back then, we wouldn’t be here now,” Lisa reflects. “You needed the Marcy Jo era to get it out of your system.”

Harry agrees, somewhat sheepishly. “Boys will be boys.”

Eventually, Brad (bless him) invited Lisa to see Malcolm X with “a friend.” That friend was Harry. After the movie, Harry followed Lisa Rinna to her red Isuzu Trooper and asked her out—again. This time, she said yes.

“I broke all the rules,” Lisa laughs. “That was when The Rules book was big, and it said if someone asks you out, you’re supposed to play hard to get. But you asked me to Toscana that night, and I went.”

From Therapy to Thunderstorms: Love, Actually

It wasn’t all romantic dinners and ghostly waiters. Lisa and Harry were the first to admit they needed help. “We went to therapy right away,” Harry shares. “A year in, we knew we had baggage—Louis Vuitton baggage,” Lisa jokes. “Well, yours was Louis Vuitton. Mine was TJ Maxx.”

But therapy helped. As Harry puts it: “Falling in love is passive. Staying in love? That’s work.”

The moment they truly solidified as a couple came in February 1993, when Lisa’s beloved Scottish Terrier, Max, was hit by a car. “It was devastating,” Lisa says quietly. Harry was there, burying Max in the rain, lightning flashing across the sky. That night, Lisa stayed over—and never left.

“Thunder, lightning, heartbreak—the gods were basically like, ‘This is your person,'” Lisa sighs. “And I moved in without even realizing it.”

30+ Years Later: Trust, Hustle, and No DMs

Now, more than three decades later, they’re still going strong—raising two daughters, running multiple businesses, and trading snarky banter like pros.

“Why did it work?” Harry muses. “Because we trust each other. No jealousy. No snooping through phones. I don’t even know how to DM.”

Lisa, ever the realist, sums it up best: “Once a cheater, always a cheater. But we’ve never had that issue. I trust him completely…probably because he’d need a user manual to cheat.”

So, was it fate? Hard work? Divine intervention via ghost waiter? Probably all of the above. But one thing’s for sure: Lisa and Harry’s love story isn’t just a meet-cute—it’s a masterclass in surviving Hollywood, heartbreak, and truly terrible first kisses.