The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills season 14’s casting change has already done wonders for group dynamics, according to Sutton Stracke.
“This cast is so refreshing. It’s a great group of women,” Sutton, 52, exclusively told Us Weekly at Gurus Magazine’s #30Voices30Days launch party on Saturday, June 1. “We’ll see what happens with what our future entails, but I think we’re all really smart.”
Bravo announced in May that Sutton, Kyle Richards, Dorit Kemsley, Erika Jayne and Garcelle Beauvais are all returning for season 14. Jennifer Tilly and Bozoma Saint John will get diamonds for the first time this year. Kathy Hilton, one of Kyle’s sisters, also plans to return as a “friend.”
“We’re all really looking forward to the future and hopefully people are going to be honest, transparent and [work] together in friendship, which doesn’t mean that we won’t have fights,” Sutton quipped at Saturday’s event at the Godfrey Hotel Hollywood. “Because that’s what women do. Put eight [or] seven women together, we’re always gonna fight but my forecast is sunny skies with a little thunderstorm and June gloom with a rainbow at the end for Pride Month.”
Jennifer, 65, is a longtime friend of Sutton’s and they previously had lunch on a season 13 episode of RHOBH. Sutton, however, did not influence her pal’s casting.
“I didn’t get her to come, [but] I love that she has come on board,” Sutton gushed. “I think she’s gonna be a great addition to our cast. I just want to make sure Jennifer is OK and taken care of, but Jennifer’s a big girl. If she can face Chucky, she can face a Housewife. I’m not worried about Jennifer.”
Jennifer, who previously starred in the Child’s Play horror franchise, is not the only Housewives newbie to whom Sutton has a personal connection.
“I met Boz before [filming] and it’s so nice to know someone before the season begins. She’s lovely [and] she’s smart,” Sutton said. “She lived in New York and so I have a connection with her that way. She has a daughter in high school. I connect also with that whole lifestyle living in L.A. with a child and being a working mother. I can only tell you this: Boz is a force to be reckoned with and I think we’re all going to fall in love with her.”
Bozoma, 47, shared daughter Lael with late husband Peter Saint John, who died in 2013 after a battle with cancer. Sutton, meanwhile, coparents three children with ex-husband Christian Stracke.
“My ex-husband and I have always been here as a family unit. These are our children,” Sutton told Us. “I’ve known my ex-husband since I was 13. We’re never gonna split up as far as family goes.”
Since their 2016 divorce, Sutton has showcased her dating life on RHOBH.
“Aren’t we so tired of my dating life?” she joked on Saturday. “It hasn’t happened yet, so I don’t know. Hopefully, we won’t have to endure a lot of dates. I know that I have been on a lot of dates since the past season. I look forward to meeting the right man. I think that I have grown up a lot and I’m ready to meet that person.”
RHOBH season 14 is currently filming but doesn’t have a specific premiere date yet.
With reporting by Mike Vulpo