Larsa Pippen's ready to get it poppin' again in the 305.
"This season is Larsa 5.0," the Real Housewives of Miami star quips to ET during a sit-down interview inside her new penthouse. "This season ... I was free, you know? I'm not married, I'm single, and I don't know... I feel like I have great energy right now. It's like, my energy is alive and awake, so I don't really hold back on my opinions these days."
That's evident from season 5's first four episodes, which started streaming on Peacock on Thursday. RHOM's return kicks off with an unexpected feud between Larsa and BFF Lisa Hochstein, after Lisa made comments about Larsa's new condo being in a building full of OnlyFans models and possibly questionable characters behind her bestie's back.
"The people that I know that live in this building are literally Harvard finance guys," Larsa fires back. "That's my community. I don't know about the other people that she knows. They're probably at her parties. That's probably how she knows they live here. I don't ever run into them."
Larsa and Lisa get into it multiple times over the course of the first few episodes, the biggest blow-up unfolding inside Larsa's new home ahead of her "New Beginnings" party. "Lisa wasn't being a good friend to me," Larsa says of that moment, "but at the same time, if you dish out what she's giving you, she can't take it. So, she got back-- she got a little pushback from me and she's not used to that."
When Larsa caught wind about the comments Lisa made about her new home, she hit back by bringing up rumors surrounding Lisa's home, namely that she and her (now-estranged) husband, Dr. Lenny Hochstein, rent out their Star Island pad for events and film, TV and music video shoots, to make a little extra cash and cover their mortgage. Lisa hung onto that last bit -- the mortgage -- repeatedly claiming she did not have one. The whole ordeal spiraled into a battle of semantics, as Lenny ultimately told Lisa there was a line of credit taken out on the house. On top of that, Larsa called out Lisa for living off of what Lenny provides for their family, rather than making her own money.
"I don't come for anyone," Larsa says. "I don't do that, but I feel like if you say something bad about me, I'm just naturally going to say something twice as bad about you. Like, that's just my personality."
Larsa's comments about Lisa's financial situation pushed Lisa to tears, and the next time they saw each other at Alexia Nepola's wedding party aboard a yacht, things got even more heated.
"First of all, Lisa is, like, overly dramatic," Larsa says. "She should've won an Oscar for the wedding scene she was she was saying, 'Larsa has to walk the plank! Make her walk the plank!' She was yelling the whole time and I’m like, oh my god, Lisa. I just basically said, it was a fact: you have a mortgage! It's not that serious. Who cares? But you know, she takes things a little more personal."
The two ultimately made up in episode 4, just before Lisa's life essentially imploded, as Lenny confessed to being in love with someone else while wearing a microphone.
"I bonded with Lisa the most, 'cause I feel like she really needed me and, at the end of the day, we love each other," she shares. "We've been through so much together. Her and I were friends when I was married, she was married. I went through my breakup, she's going through her breakup. So I feel like we've kind of seen each other have highs and lows."
"I kinda want to believe that everything happens for a reason," she adds. "You just have to learn from your mistakes, and learn from your situations and just, move on and grow from it."
In the weeks to come, viewers will see the aftershocks of his confession, as Lenny asks for a divorce and an all-out war begins for the Hochsteins. Larsa believes what was unfolding in Lisa's home life, in secret, is why she lashed out at Larsa in the first place.
"Lisa's really not that person," Larsa notes. "She's really a nice person, but I do feel like she was under a lot of pressure trying to keep up this façade at home, when really her home was crashing."
"I would have never imagined they would have broke up," she adds. "I would have never imagined that Lisa would be dealing with the things she's dealing with, I never saw it coming."
Lisa and Lenny's story plays out almost like a true-crime mystery, with flash-forwards and flashbacks offered up to viewers as their reality comes into focus. Lenny's hot-mic moment is seemingly just the start of big reveals to come, as sneak peeks show cameras peering around corners to capture Lenny berating Lisa about their divorce.
"It was almost like every day was a new challenge for Lisa," Larsa explains. "Every day, a new thing would pop up. You're being evicted, he wants this... turns off your credit card -- just all this stuff that was happening every day, so I do feel like we were part of that journey with her, 'cause we were filming, and we were together every day."
As Lisa's new reality set in, her and Larsa's issues quickly evaporated.
"At the end of the day, Lisa and I love each other," she says. "I know she is going through a really hard time, and I have to be there for her, and I have to support her, and I have to make sure she's OK, you know? We had a disagreement, we got over it, and we're focusing on the positive things. Not her home or my apartment, just the beautiful things in life."
The group rallied around Lisa, a rare moment for a Real Housewives show, where a cast is united for a common goal. Nearly everyone in the group has gone through divorce, Larsa included, so they were able to offer up advice and guide their friend through this time.
"We haven't really seen Lisa so vulnerable, and I feel like we all knew she needed all of us, so we all rallied around her and just made sure she was OK and just gave her you know great advice," Larsa shares. " There is light at the end of the tunnel and it's going to be OK."
Larsa vs. Lisa is just the tip of the iceberg this season when it comes to friction within the friend group, though.
"I'm holding everyone accountable," Larsa says of her season 5 strategy. "I feel like in relationships, especially friendships, you have to be held accountable and be a good friend if you want to have that title, as a friend, then be a friend."
"This year was a real learning experience for me," she continues. "Learning and seeing how the girls are, and how they navigate and what pushes people's buttons, you know? So, I'm kind of still getting used to being around the girls and seeing how they navigate."
Of the crew, Larsa says season 4 newbie Dr. Nicole Martin changed the most going into season 5 -- and "for the worst." Adriana de Moura also changed, Larsa says, but in a confusing way. The two were at odds for most of last season, after Adriana refused to respect Larsa's boundaries when it came to talking about people in her life that aren't on the show. This year, Adriana offers Larsa a literal olive branch as a peace offering, then asks for her blessing to get a Brazilian butt lift.. though it's unclear why she needs Larsa's sign-off on the surgery, other than the fact that she body-shamed her co-star for her curves last season.
"Adriana is a wild card," Larsa sighs. "You don't know what you're going to get with her, so when she's actually, like, asking me to be a part of that, I don't know if she's insulting me or being nice to me. So, I kind of take it with a grain of salt. I'm like, OK... I see, you want to have a conversation with me. It's OK, we can talk, but I really don't know where she's coming half the time."
"She's a hard one to pinpoint where she is mentally at that moment," she adds. As for Adriana's onscreen partner in crime, Julia Lemigova, Larsa says season 5 shined a new light on the Russian former beauty queen. Larsa no longer considers her a "weirdo," a label she gave Julia after she repeatedly chimed in, in comments sections online, in defense of Adriana, when she had nothing to do with Larsa and Adriana's feud.
"I kinda like Julia," Larsa confesses. "When I separated Adriana and Julia, I really got to appreciate Julia and I feel like she's pretty amazing."
Even so, she still might release merch emblazoned with the catchphrase, "Stay out of it, you weirdo." What she's not ready to put a label on, though, is her relationship status. While multiple outlets (and a flurry of paparazzi photos) have linked her to Marcus Jordan, the former college basketball player turned entrepreneur (who just so happens to be Larsa's ex-husband, Scottie Pippen's, one-time NBA teammate, Michael Jordan's, son), Larsa maintains they're just friends. To move out of the friend zone, Larsa says, takes time.
"You have to spend time with someone, get to know them," she offers, "I feel like the first month, you're just getting to know each other. The second month, it's a little more intimate. The third month, I feel like timing-- just spending time with someone."
"We're friends, I’m dating," Larsa adds. "I'm at a place right now in my life where I want to spend time with someone, and I spend time with them sometimes."
As for the media labeling them something they're not quite ready to call themselves, Larsa admits it's frustrating. She won't budge on calling a guy a "friend" until it's "exclusive" and they agree to live publicly as a couple.
"That part's stressful, 'cause I feel like people want to know what's going on and you don't even know what's going on," she explains, "so it's kind of like, I wish I could take a beat and introduce the person when I'm ready, not necessarily have someone introduce the person and then like all of a sudden, it's awkward, you know?"
"It's hard, because sometimes stories are made up that are not even real," she says of the coverage that comes when she steps out with Marcus and other friends, who happen to be male. "You're put in a situation where you're like, do I even answer this? Or is it not worth me saying something? Sometimes it's not even what people assume it is. Hey, we're friends, we're hanging out. We're trying to figure things out. I don't want to put pressure on the guy. I don't want to have pressure put on me."
Larsa says she prefers to be "low profile," but the paparazzi find her anyway.
"Every time I've been caught with someone, it's been the most random restaurants, it's been the most random places," she rattles off. "I literally have been trying to dodge bullets for the last few months it's really hard, it's really challenging."
While Larsa is taking her current dating life day by day, she does think about what she wants for her future. Her second chapter might lead to a second marriage.
"I liked being married," she says. "I think marriage is great. I had a great experience, it was amazing. I had a great run. So, yeah, I would do it again."
Until then, fans can tune into RHOM for an inside look at Larsa's new life. Season 5 followed her on "super giggly" dates with guys who weren't her match and, of course, plenty of group drama. After getting her eyes on the first few episodes, Larsa says she's taking notes to hold her co-stars' to the fire at reunion.
"I feel like Alexia saying that every time I have a party, it's a business thing, that kinda caught me by surprise," she offers as an example. "I'm like, I gave her a $900 dog collar, like, I offer gifts when I have parties ... I'm very generous. What is the problem? Like, do you not like gifts?"
"Last season, I was kinda like, 'Oh I'm just living in the moment...' and this season, I'm like, 'Oh, this person said this?! OK!' This season I'm really holding the girls accountable, and you know, don't say things you don't mean. That's kinda how I am."
"I could have behaved a little bit better," she reviews of her own performance in what's to come. "I feel like I should have behaved a little better."
But then, it wouldn't be Housewives, would it? The Real Housewives of Miami season 5 is now streaming on Peacock, with new episodes debuting on Thursdays.
RELATED CONTENT:
