I slept with celebs like Gerard Butler & Calum Best – but learnt key lesson about mid-life dating, says Brandi Glanville

The Sun

17-05-2025

BRANDI Glanville is recalling the night she spent with a Hollywood A-lister at his Malibu home.
Before taking her to bed, he made a strange request.
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Would she like to watch a movie? One of his movies.
The star in question was Scottish actor, Gerard Butler, 55, who Brandi met at a party in 2012.
'I was on the beach with some friends,' recalls Brandi.
'I was in my bikini. He came up and was like: 'What's your name, what's your number?'
'I told him my phone number, he repeated it back to me.
'He texted me the next day and invited me over.
'We watched one of his movies – I don't remember which one – and he was like: 'What do you think of this part? This part's great.'
'I was just like: 'This is odd.'
'We had some wine and then one thing led to another.'
'I left a couple of hours afterwards. It was awkward, it didn't super click.'
Brandi, the 52-year-old former star of The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills, was thrown reluctantly back into the dating world after her actor husband of eight years, Eddie Cibrian, 51, left her in 2009 for country singer, LeAnn Rimes, 42, whom he married in 2011.
Since then, she has dated famous faces including actor Gerard and reality star Calum Best, the son of footballing legend George Best.
She has also dated much younger men, and a billionaire. But she says she has learned an important lesson about mid-life dating: to throw away your list of expectations.
'Throw your list away'
He doesn't have to be rich, or famous, or tall and chiselled – you just have to click. Gerard Butler is a case in point. 'Throw your list away,' says Brandi.
'You're going on a first date, he may have the checks on the list, but you're not attracted to him. Don't think: 'I need them to be this tall. Take a chance on someone that might be 5ft 9ins and you'll be OK.'
Brandi's advice to any woman who's been dumped is to 'get out there as soon as possible'.
'Think of it as revenge,' she says.
'It's important to realise you haven't expired because one man doesn't want you. That man is an idiot. Just have fun, you need to have fun.
'Even if he never finds out, you're getting the satisfaction of knowing you've got your own back. With Eddie, though, I made sure he found out.'
Despite the rather unusual build-up with Gerard Butler, Brandi says she was happy with the Olympus Has Fallen star's bedroom prowess.
'Honestly, it was good – it was definitely really good, but I wish we'd had a little more lead up,' she says. "I didn't stay. As a rule I don't really spend the night and I don't like people spending the night when they come to my house.'
A few weeks later, Brandi appeared on a television chat show and mentioned she'd been to bed with him, as you do.
Gerard was furious. 'He called me and said: 'How come you didn't say you're on a reality show?' 'I said: 'How come you didn't ask me what I did for a living?'
'He was mad at me. I was like: 'Dude, you invited me to your house, you never asked what I did for a living, that's on you.' He was all upset about it, like he'd been with the worst human ever.
'Some time later, we ran into each other in a bar. I don't think he knew who I was at first. He was checking me out, but then he came over and was like: 'Hey, we're good right?''
Brandi had more fun with reality TV star Calum Best, the 44-year-old year old son of legendary British footballer George Best, who died from alcoholism in 2005.
'Everyone finds Calum attractive,' says Brandi. 'He's got a bad boy f*** it attitude, but underneath it he's such a softie
'We had a tryst. I came to London, he came here to LA and we had a little fling. He's a big wild man. He's a party boy, he loves to go out and party. Who doesn't?
'Even though he's seven or eight years younger than me, he was way more mature than I was. The thing is, I don't feel older, even with the college kids. I've dated way younger.'
Brandi says many of her friends' husbands have left them for younger models. She advocates following their example.
'Yes, date younger men,' she insists. Actually, the only people that ask me out are younger. It's the same with my friends.
'Younger men like us because we're fully grown and we know what we're doing. We're confident in the bedroom and with our sexuality.
'The youngest guy I ever dated, I was 42 and he was 23. He was a 'mover' on Housewives – moving my stuff.
'He was so cute and he kept flirting with me. We just decided to keep it going for a while.
'He would say stuff about going to college and I would go: 'Oh my God.' At the time it was fine. I didn't feel older, my kids were little, it didn't feel weird. But now my kids are 21 and 18, I definitely couldn't do it.'
Brandi doesn't go for older men. 'I can't do an old guy, I don't have it in me,' she says. 'I have to be attracted to them.'
The exception to this rule was an older billionaire – businessman Michael Meldman, 66, who founded Casamigos tequila with actor George Clooney and businessman Rande Gerber, who is married to supermodel Cindy Crawford
'My friends set me up with him not long after I got divorced,' she says. He had a little belly and was not super attractive. He was 13 years older than me.
'Embarrassed'
'He was like: 'Do you want to go to one of my developments? We have a lot of these cool tent things.' I thought: 'Oh my God, is he gonna take me camping?'
'Then I find out he's a billionaire. He wheels up at 10am, we go to his jet and we're off to the Bahamas. I had my own cabin… and then I didn't have my own cabin.
'I remember we were at this ski place. I'm sitting across from Cindy Crawford. I'm like: 'I really like Mike. What do you think?' 'No Brandi, trust me, just no,' said Cindy.
'I learned he had other girls. I felt embarrassed. I felt I was the only one, so I got really upset. I was with him for a year and a half. But he showed me how to have fun again.'
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Brandi is currently single. For the past year or so, she's been battling a mysterious, upsetting condition.
Her face feels like it is collapsing and she can feel something moving under her skin which she fears is a parasite. Doctors are yet to make a diagnosis.
'It's upsetting, but I just have to carry on doing what I'm doing and hope the doctors find a cure,' she says.
On the subject of dating etiquette, glamorous Brandi says it's not always necessary to dress up and go to a bar to meet a man.
'I've flirted with men at The Home Depot, where you buy tools, manly stuff,' she admits.
'If you go there and you're kind of cute and ask a guy for help, there's possibilities. Once, at the grocery store, there was this guy there.
'I'd go back at the same time of day and he was there and we would eyeball each other.
"Then we were in the same section. It felt kind of like we were both doing it. We went out a few times, but it didn't lead to anything.'
Brandi's last boyfriend, she says mysteriously, was ' European ', but between the lines she seems to be hinting that he's British. She's become unexpectedly coy. But he's famous.
'I can't say his name for so many reasons,' she giggles.
'But you'll have heard of him. No, he's not married. I've never dated a married man. For a year we hooked up twice a week.'
Brandi says she doesn't want to get married again. "It's too hard to get un-married,' she jokes.
"But, yeah, I might like a partner. I'm not looking. That's when things come to find you.'
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