Lisa Rinna Reveals Husband Harry Shot Down Her Wish to Change Name to Lisa Hamlin!

Lisa Rinna is revealing why she chose not to change her surname following her marriage to actor, Harry Hamlin. The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills star filled in for Kelly Ripa as co-host on Live with Kelly and Ryan on Wednesday and shared that while she uses her own last name professionally, her legal name is actually Lisa Rinna Hamlin. 

Rinna told Ryan Seacrest that she once had a discussion with her husband about publicly changing her surname. 

“It’s interesting because I wanted to change my name to Lisa Hamlin and Hamlin said, ‘Why would you do that? Your name is Lisa Rinna professionally so don’t mess with that,'” she said. “And so, if Harry tells you to do something, you do it. So that’s why I did that. But I like having Hamlin as my legal name because that’s the name of my children so I want to have something in common with someone, right?”

Rinna and Hamlin spoke to PEOPLE in February about their secret to a happy and successful marriage. The famous couple celebrated their 25th wedding anniversary in March. 

“[The secret is] being diametrically opposite,” Hamlin said. “I like going up to the mountains, and her idea of camping is anything below the 10th floor of the Four Seasons.” 

The 59-year-old reality star added—“We’ll be married for 25 years in March, and I’ve worked hard. So I’ve picked out a very nice diamond.”

Rinna and Hamlin share two daughters, Delilah Belle and Amelia Gray. Rinna told Seacrest that her attraction to and respect for her husband have not faded over the years. 

“He walks into the kitchen and I get that feeling in my tummy, those butterflies. Important,” she said.

Rinna said that having “nothing in common” with Hamlin played a part in the success of their marriage.  

“It just works because I think what he does and what he likes, I’m super attracted to and I’m interested in,” she said. “And look what I do? I’m a kooky reality personality.”

“You’re more than that. You’re a great parent, a great wife. You’re all those amazing things,” Seacrest noted, adding that she reminded him of Ripa. 

“That’s a huge compliment,” Rinna said. “I think Harry gets a kick out of me.”

The couple told the backstory of their first date during the February interview.

“She played hard to get,” Hamlin, 70, recalled.

“The Rules [a trendy self-help guide to dating] had just come out and it was written by women, for women to teach them how to get a man,” he continued. “And in that book, one of the rules was, if you were called up by somebody and they asked you on a date, you had to say, ‘No.’ You had to wait at least a week or whatever. And I knew that she had read that book.”

The L.A. Law actor added—”So I called her up and I said, ‘Do you want to come to dinner at this Italian restaurant?’ and she said, ‘When?’ I said, ‘Well, how about in an hour?’ And I hadn’t talked to her in months. And, she showed up and broke all the rules.”

“I’d just come from work [on Days of Our Lives] and had no makeup on,” Rinna shared. “So I guess I wasn’t playing that hard to get.”

The couple shared that they had learned that mutual respect and a willingness to listen were the keys to a happy marriage. 

“We’ve always heard each other,” Hamlin said.

Rinna quipped—“And it doesn’t hurt that he’s so good-looking.”

The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills airs Wednesdays at 8 p.m. ET on Bravo.

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