Dorit Kemsley Denies Mistreating Dog Involved in PuppyGate, Shares Memories from Time with Pooch
Dorit Kemsley has denied mistreating Lucy Lucy Apple Juice, the dog involved in #PuppyGate.
On Friday, the Real Housewives of Beverly Hills star, 42, shared a series of photos and videos of little Lucy being loved on by her family after Kemsley was accused of locking the dog in her basement — before giving her away to a shelter.
In the first clip, Kemsley’s son Jagger can be seen sweetly petting Lucy while seated in the backseat of a car.
“Do you love her Jaggy?” Kemsley asks her son in the clip. “She’s our baby isn’t she?” Kemsley says, to which Jagger replies, “Yes.”
“Locked in a cage? Unloved? Mistreated?” Kemsley wrote over the video with multiple faces with tears of joy emojis.
In the next clip, Kemsley’s daughter Phoenix and Jagger are shown dancing as Lucy runs around them.
“Lucy didn’t partake in any family fun. She was locked away in a cage, in our ‘basement’ which we don’t have!” Kemsley wrote over the post.
Kemsley also shared a recording of her husband Paul Kemsley — known as P.K. — kissing all over the tiny pooch. “Someone is pleased to see me,” P.K. says as he indulges in the love fest.
Proving Lucy really was a part of the family, Kemsley posted a shot of the puppy on set with her at a photoshoot. “On set with her mommy (me)… roaming around. Ha!” Kemsley wrote.
The #PuppyGate storyline has dominated the ninth season of The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills.
It all started when Kemsley, who adopted Lucy from Vanderpump Dogs, which is owned by costar Lisa Vanderpump, says she was forced to give Lucy away after the puppy bit both her daughter and P.K.
Kemsley claims she thought the dog was being given to a nice, loving home, but Lucy somehow ended up in a shelter. The shelter scanned Lucy’s microchip, which tracked it back to Vanderpump Dogs.
Vanderpump, 58, seemed to have understood Kemsley’s decision on the season premiere, which aired last month, telling her, “I know that you had no bad intention.”
Soon after, housewife Teddi Mellencamp Arroyave got involved, as did Kylie Richards and two of Vanderpump’s employees: executive director John Sessa and event manager John Blizzard.
Also on the premiere, Mellencamp Arroyave, 37, and Richards, 50, visited Vanderpump Dogs. There, Sessa brought Lucy out. “You don’t recognize her?” he asked Richards. “It’s Dorit’s dog. She’s with us again.”
Vanderpump was quick to shut down the gossip saying, “Stop! I really don’t want to talk about this now.”
While at Vanderpump dogs, Mellencamp Arroyave, who had a rocky relationship with Kemsley in the previous season, told Richards that she already knew it was Kemsley’s dog because she was told by Blizzard, but promised not to say anything.
It all came to a boiling point when Mellencamp Arroyave claimed the entire thing was a set up by Vanderpump, who allegedly instructed her employees to tell Mellencamp Arroyave, so that #PuppyGate would come out. Mellencamp Arroyave claimed Vanderpump wanted to keep her hands clean.
“When I really knew the setup was beyond was when I saw Lisa and how she was acting. ‘No, no, don’t you dare,’ ” Mellencamp Arroyave said in episode 6 of her interaction with Vanderpump at the rescue center. “This bad acting and at this moment, I shifted. I was like, ‘I don’t care about this petty crap. This is someone I can’t look at anymore. You just set me up. And now you’re pretending that your hands are clean so that you can be relevant and you can be the hero to Dorit? F— you!”
“The original story I was told was so bad,” Mellencamp Arroyave said. “But that’s why I was so angry on top of it. Because I was told an inflated version of the truth! The original story I was told wasn’t true. I was told that not only was Dorit’s dog in a kill shelter, but that Dorit had locked that dog in her basement and it hadn’t seen the light of day in months.”
In episode 5, Vanderpump shared text messages between Blizzard and Mellencamp Arroyave to Richards and Kemsley, which show Mellencamp Arroyave telling Blizzard to bring the dog out at Vanderpump Dogs.
Mellencamp Arroyave later admitted to her part in the drama, but maintained that it was all orchestrated by Vanderpump. Vanderpump has yet to take any blame, but has instead put it all on Mellencamp Arroyave.
RELATED: Lisa Rinna Confronts Lisa Vanderpump, Claims RHOBH Star ‘Set Up’ Dorit Kemsley with PuppyGate
Sessa also blamed Mellencamp Arroyave on Twitter Wednesday, writing, “I never wanted anyone to know that we were told the dog was locked in a cage for months — that was Teddi continuously pushing the issue to the next level.”
“I was in on the scheme. I was part of the scheme,” Mellencamp Arroyave said to Kemsley on the latest episode. “I was set up and I took the bait but could not go through with it. I didn’t tell Kyle, I didn’t tell Lisa Rinna. And I told you that your friend betrayed you.”
The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills airs Tuesdays (9 p.m. ET) on Bravo.
