Lisa Rinna is sharing more details about the death of her father, Frank Rinna.
The Bravo alum was starring on The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills when her dad died at age 94 in 2016. During the Friday, March 28, episode of her and Harry Hamlin’s “Let’s Not Talk About the Husband” podcast, Lisa, 61, revealed that her father died by assisted suicide.
“In Oregon, you’re permitted to check out when you want to check out,” Hamlin, 73, explained to listeners. “He was 94, and his quality of life had diminished to the point where he wanted to, you know, transition. You can do that in Oregon if you follow the right guidelines and the protocols and talk to the right number of doctors.”
Oregon passed the Death With Dignity Act in 1997, which allowed terminally ill patients to end their lives with the self-administration of lethal medications that are prescribed by a doctor.
“You have to have two doctors that sign off on your terminal illness, so to speak,” Lisa added. Hamlin confirmed that Frank, who was an artist, went through the correct channels.
“It was about three to six months,” Lisa said, reiterating that a bill was passed in the state to make assisted suicide legal.
“I never told this story at the time,” she added. “I had started the show, and I think it was just too painful at the time.”
Lisa announced via Instagram in January 2016 that her father had died. She recalled the details of his final day during Friday’s podcast episode, calling it a “trippy” moment.
“I didn’t feel like I was in my body,” she added, noting that it was “a hospice situation” with a death doula and her half-sister.
“The person that’s dying has to be able to pick up the juice, or whatever, to drink it themselves,” Lisa continued. “You can’t administer it to somebody.”
Hamlin chimed in, adding, “They’ve got to be able to do it themselves. It has to be a willful act on their part.”
The pills were supposed to come on a Tuesday, Lisa remembered, but they didn’t arrive until Thursday — which made her father “so mad.”
Reality TV royalty! Lisa Rinna and Harry Hamlin have balanced more than two decades of marriage with parenthood as they raise daughters Delilah Belle Hamlin and Amelia Gray Hamlin. “My Pride and Joy and the loves of my life. 
,” the Real Housewives of Beverly Hills star gushed via Instagram in May 2022, sharing a throwback photo of […]
“When they set their mind to this, they’re ready,” she explained. “He was in pain and he was really unhappy.”
Lisa called it a “surreal position” to be in as a daughter.
“You want to support what they want to do, but you’re going to watch your parent kill themselves,” she said. “That’s what we’re doing. But he wanted it so badly.”
After her father drank the medication, it took 45 minutes for his life to end.
“They just go to sleep, by the way. It’s not anything gruesome,” she explained. “It was very peaceful. It was a very humane way to go. In that aspect, it didn’t feel awful, but it felt awful.”
