Just months after telling me she wanted to return to "The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills" for its third season, Kelsey Grammer's ex-wife will not be back. But the question remains, was Camille given a pink slip or did she hit the road of her own accord?
"I was not fired," Camille says in a statement released to The Huffington Post. "I didn't want to expose my personal life so much anymore. I had done that and was over that. I care very much for my family and children and that show tends to take me away from them. I really want to focus on them right now."
In mid-January, Camille was singing a very different tune when it came to continuing her "Housewives" career.
"I had a good year, so I would want to go back for a third season, but they haven't asked me yet, so I wonder what's going on with that," Camille told me in January. "I guess they decided who they want, and I guess they are going to start casting, looking for new housewives. They told me they were going to start looking, so it wasn't behind my back. They were like, 'Sorry, we are doing a big casting call.' I was like, 'Thanks.'"
But the now ex-Housewife's decision to leave the show may not have been as one-sided as Camille tells it.
"It was mutual," a source close to Camille tells me. "Bravo wanted her back but, like with all the ladies on the show, was very clear about what they expected from her: drama. They loved Camille during the first two seasons when her marriage fell apart so publicly and she was going through a nasty custody and financial battle with her ex. But now all that is behind her and [she] is enjoying a peaceful life and refuses to change that just to stay on a reality TV Show."
Camille went through intense negotiations with producers to appear on the show in a less dramatic capacity, but Bravo only wanted the Camille that America loves to hate, confirming to me that the decision was mutual.
"Most of the Housewives fight about money and are willing to make a fool out of themselves on camera as long as they get paid a fortune," one ex-housewife tells me. "The negotiations are brutal and the producers always assume they have the upper hand, as usually the women will do anything to stay on the show. Camille was different: she doesn't need the money, plus she doesn't crave the attention that someone like Bethenny does."
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Next season's filming schedule has yet to be released.