Vanderpump Rules star turned to sex work while unemployed... as show's entire cast was fired for reboot

Daily Mail​

20-05-2025

A former Vanderpump Rules cast member has opened up about her side hustle as a sex worker.
Billie Lee, who was last seen on season 11 of the hit series before the cast were fired to make way for a reboot, admitted that she once worked as an escort during her 20s.
The transgender reality star, 41, told the Oldish podcast that she was pushed into the world's oldest profession after struggling to find work in Los Angeles.
'Because our unemployment rate is so high — it still is — for trans people, a lot of us do lean on sex work because we are all so fetishized and over-sexualized,' she said.
She then said that she was 'paid to do sexual things' in her early 20s - and has no regrets about it.
'I find it very empowering now,' she gushed.
'I'm a pleaser - I'm a people pleaser, which is hard if someone's mad at you - but I'm also just a pleaser in general,' she continued.
'So whenever I became a sex worker, I was like, "Oh, wow, I can get off pleasing these men and also get paid."'
She went on to say that sex work became 'a way of life' for her during that time.
'I have to say, I was pretty blessed when I came to sex work,' she explained.
'There were times when I would first enter a hotel room, you do certain things that you learn. Like, I would check-in to make sure that the front desk saw me,' she continued.
'And I would check and make sure where the cameras were, security cameras. And then I would have a pocket knife up in my coat in my coat sleeve. I would do a check throughout the entire room in any cabinets in the bathroom and stuff like that before I would get on the bed. So you do like little things to protect yourself in that way.'
She also hinted that she worked with high end clients instead of walking the streets at all hours.
'I had really amazing clients who like treated me with respect and wine and dined me,' Billie gushed.
'I was in hotels in Beverly Hills, you know, so I wasn't on the street, which a lot of my sisters are.'
Billie appeared on multiple seasons of Vanderpump Rules, including the 11th season, which was the show's last with its original cast.
Late last year in November, it was announced that the show would be getting an entirely new cast - with only Lisa Vanderpump returning.
It came after the future of the series was left rocky amid a feuding cast.
Original star Katie Maloney called the upcoming reboot 'cheap' in April.
Maloney emphasized that she wasn't slamming the new cast, but instead wondered why the network just didn't create 'a whole different show' instead.
She explained, 'To me it just feels like it's going try to have the same flavor, the same everything… When you try to replicate the recipe just based off of taste, you can't do it.'
The most recent 11th season - which finished airing last year - had featured Katie as well as Ariana Madix, Tom Sandoval, Tom Schwartz, Lala Kent, James Kennedy and Scheana Shay.
However, episodes focused on the disputes and conflicts between the cast not long after Scandoval - where Sandoval cheated on his longtime girlfriend Ariana Madix with Rachel Leviss.
The new cast will consist of 'close-knit SUR-vers who are as complicatedly involved with one another as their iconic predecessor,' per Bravo.