10 Things We’ll Miss About Yolanda Hadid on ‘Real Housewives of Beverly Hills’

Who needs a walk-in closet when you can have a walk-in fridge? (And let’s be real - Yo had both!) The Malibu home she shared with ex-husband David Foster had a kitchen that launched a thousand Pinterest boards, and the spacious glass fridge was a standout. There was definitely no expired milk in this work of organization art — it was baskets and baskets of fresh fruit and veggies. (It’s so fabulous it even has its own Twitter account.) When Yolanda moved into her smaller combo, she took those same organizational skills and applied them to her mind-boggling medicine cabinet.

Yolanda was very in touch with her Dutch roots, and she often had a different perspective on friendship than her Beverly Hills counterparts. She frequently mentioned her humble upbringing, her close-knit family and she shone on a girls trip to Amsterdam. It was also refreshing to watch a Housewife who speaks multiple languages and had a wider perspective of the world. (Before she starred on RHOBH, Yolanda and David filmed a Dutch reality show about their wedding.)

Yolanda didn’t flaunt her wealth because, as NY Housewife Dorinda Medley says, “Money talks, wealth whispers.” Yolanda’s life with David was indeed privileged, but she could offhandedly say going to Italy in the summer was “like a job” without sounding completely out of touch. She never bragged about a Chanel bag or new Land Rover. She is one of the few Housewives that did not make wealth the cornerstone of her identity — when she and David decided to sell their Malibu mansion so Yolanda could focus on her health, no tears were shed over the lemon grove. (But we may have cried over that fridge.)

Former model Yolanda fully enjoyed her Malibu lifestyle before her struggle with Lyme Disease. She rode horses, tended to her massive lemon grove, and spent plenty of time at the beach and on yachts. She said her one of her favourite spots in the world is off the secluded coast of BC, where she would summer with David.

Yolanda didn’t give in to the musical chairs version of friendship on Housewives; she was loyal to Brandi even after Brandi burned every bridge with the rest of the cast and left the show. Yo’s struggle with Lyme Disease often kept her bedridden, but she always made her relationship with Brandi and Kim a priority. She was the only cast member to keep in touch with both of them, and would occasional enjoy an on-camera get-together. She also defended her relationship with them to the other Housewives. With Yolanda gone, there doesn’t seem to be a cast member who would be willing to film with Brandi. Maybe Kim Richards?

While many Housewives have tenuous connections to famous people, Yolanda and David really entertained the A list. (Case in point: Oprah, Muhammad Ali and Barbara Streisand were guests at their wedding.) Babyface appeared on the show with her several times, and she and the cast headed to one of David’s charity events in Calgary — and danced onstage with Steven Tyler.

It’s rare to find a Housewife that doesn’t live for bling, but Yolanda’s style was much more elegant and understated. She did not go for statement necklaces or platform wedges in the snow (we’re looking at you, New Jersey); instead, she wore slim fitting jeans, simple tees, luxe cashmere sweaters and beautiful coats. And no one can a pull off their daughter’s white jeans quite like Yo.

All the Housewives love showing off their children, but the Hadid kids have far surpassed a “reality show: level of fame. Years ago, viewers watched Yolanda coach Gigi through her first photoshoot and her move to New York; today, Gigi and Bella are two of the world’s most sought-after models. They are fixtures on the runway, walking for Tom Ford, Chanel and this year, the Victoria’s Secret show. While their careers took them far from Malibu, Yolanda often mentioned the girls and brother Anwar (now a model, too), offering updates on their jet-set lives and careers. And now there’s no chance for a BF cameo from The Weeknd (dating Bella) or Zayn (dating Gigi).

Despite her low-key energy in the last two seasons, Yolanda often found herself the topic of conversation, for better and (mostly) worse. Still, unlike most Housewives, she didn’t run head-first into the drama. She wasn’t afraid of confrontation, but she rarely lost her cool or engaged in screaming matches or middle school behaviour. In her interviews, she didn’t made outright nasty comments or used profanity. You’d never catch her throwing wine glasses at a dinner party or fleeing from a cast trip in tears.

In her early days on Real Housewives, Yolanda exercised often and was a big fan of detoxes like Master Cleanse (cayenne, lemon and maple syrup water… for 30 days straight). As she struggled with Chronic Lyme Disease, Yolanda sought treatments from head to toe. She had some painful dental work done (to remove her fillings), had her breast implants removed and cleaned out her cosmetics drawer, removing any products that could be toxic (including nail polish). She switched to amonia-free hair dye and had IV antibiotic treatments and experimented with a myriad of alternative treatments that include ionic foot baths, oil therapy, fetal stem cell injections in Tijuana, acupuncture, various IVs, time in a hyperbaric chamber and cryotherapy.