The Stunning Transformation Of Lisa Rinna

Lisa Rinna's mom told her she was born to entertain. More specifically, she said Rinna "came out" of the womb as Sarah Bernhardt, a reference to the late 19th and early 20th century stage actress. "I had no choice (but) to go down this path," Rinna said to She Knows.

But it's not that her parents were in the entertainment industry or that she grew up around it. They weren't, and she didn't. It's just that Rinna — the daughter of a stay-at-home mother and art director father — was very emotional and dramatic as a child. And because her only sibling was a half-sister who didn't live with her, she was pretty much an only child. As such, she became accustomed to getting extra levels of attention, Rinna told The Oregonian.

Her earliest roles were in school productions, including one in which she sang "I'm Just Wild About Harry" on stage. The performance has always had an added significance for her because she went from singing about a Harry to later marrying one.

Not everyone was as convinced as Lisa Rinna's mom that she would become a big star. Rinna's freshman year acting teachers at the University of Oregon weren't exactly fond of her and held her back, as she told The Oregonian. "Whether they had it out for me or not, they didn't love me and wouldn't put me in Acting 2," she said. Rather than keep plugging away, she dropped out of college after her freshman year and pursued a career in modeling.

Rinna appeared at conventions and in catalogues for the Oregon-based Nike and then modeled in San Francisco and Japan before landing in Los Angeles. It was in LA that she ended her four-year hiatus from acting and signed up for acting classes. "Things have worked out all right," she said. "I turned it around. I always seem to take some lemons and turn them into lemonade." Yeah, you could say that.

Lisa Rinna is a Michael Bolton fan, but not because of his music. The balladeer unintentionally played a major role in her marriage to L.A. Law and Mad Men actor Harry Hamlin, with whom Rinna has been married for 20-plus years and shares two children. Hamlin was previously married to Desperate Housewives actress Nicollette Sheridan but, in what sounds like a soap opera storyline, she left him for Bolton — which explains Rinna's grateful attitude toward the "When a Man Loves a Woman" singer.

Once Hamlin and Sheridan split, that opened the door for Rinna, who at the time worked at an eyeglass store owned by Hamlin's friend. Hamlin met Rinna in 1992 as he was grieving his failed marriage, and five years later they were walking down the aisle. Rinna revealed on an episode of Real Housewives that she has run into Bolton and the interaction was as quirky as you'd expect. "I just have to thank you from the bottom of my heart," she recalled telling Bolton. "I would not have my beautiful girls. I would not have my husband." Bolton's response? "You are so welcome."

For someone so concerned about their appearance, Lisa Rinna sure left herself open for ridicule when she infamously agreed to become a spokesperson for adult diapers in 2012. Nobody is saying there's anything wrong with wearing diapers as an adult. It's a part of life for millions of people. But that's not something we're used to hearing a celeb talk about openly — let alone one known for her sex appeal.

What possessed Rinna to put herself out there like that? "I'll do anything to make a buck. I don't say 'no' very much. I say 'yes,'" Rinna said on Real Housewives (via Bravo). "That Depends job saved our bacon. I got paid more money to do that than I got paid to do anything ever in my life. And I was just winking all the way to the bank."

Rinna claimed she wasn't the only one who benefited financially, either. She wrote in a Bravo blog that her contract stated $250,000 would go towards Dress For Success, which prepares disadvantaged women for the workplace. You can't knock that.

No longer is Lisa Rinna simply juggling her own career. She now serves as the "momager" for daughters Delilah Belle and Amelia Gray Hamlin, who have found success in modeling because, well, of course they have — their parents are Lisa Rinna and Harry Hamlin! Rinna arranges gigs for her daughters and accompanies them to appearances and photo shoots, which has become a Real Housewives storyline.

Managing her daughters' careers is a full-time gig and apparently more difficult than her own job, according to Rinna's interview with Entertainment Tonight, but she seems to be loving every moment of it (just look at Rinna's Instagram page and all the modeling pics she posts of her daughters). And when Rinna has questions about the modeling industry or managing her daughters, she's been known to turn to her famous friends for advice. "I've of course talked to Cindy (Crawford) a lot about it and to Kris (Jenner)," she told ET, "so it's helpful."