RHOD News

LeeAnne Locken leaves Real Housewives of Dallas to focus on real life

LeeAnne Locken and Rich Emberlin at the Unlikely Heroes gala in fall 2019.

Photo by Thomas Garza

Real Housewives of Dallas star LeeAnne Locken is retiring her exhausted weave. The show’s biggest and most controversial star announced she will exit the series after four seasons.

In a statement published in People magazine late February 25, Locken said:

“The last four years have been a trolley-slapping good time but after much consideration, I have made the personal decision to step away from RHOD.

“Getting to share my wedding with the viewers last year brought me tremendous joy, however, the season was very personally challenging for me. I am looking forward to stepping away from the cameras and spending quality time with my husband and friends, traveling, but most importantly, getting back to philanthropy, which was my main reason for joining the show.

“Thank you to everyone who has laughed and cried with me along the way. It’s been an amazing journey, and yes my pantyliner is still exhausted. There are so many exciting things on my horizon that I can’t wait to share with you.”

Locken has been the show’s most talked-about star since it premiered in 2016. Her brassy personality, fights with other cast members, and no-holds-barred commentary have courted controversy on all four seasons — none more so than in season 4 when she called castmate Kary Brittingham, who was born in Mexico, a “little chirpy Mexican.” Locken got grilled on the RHOD reunion show and called a racist by fellow castmates.

Close friends in Dallas quickly came to her defense, but she was vilified on social media.

Her biting, sarcastic, and often self-deprecating comments (and hot mic moments) have become memes throughout the years. Among the classics:

"I’m exhausted. My weave is exhausted. The pantyliner on my underwear is exhausted.”
"They're not knives, they're just hands."
"It's a little Plano in here."

But the series also chronicled joyful and tender moments in Locken’s life, including her philanthropic work with the LGBTQ community and survivors of childhood abuse. Cameras were rolling for her sweet engagement to longtime love Rich Emberlin at the State Fair. Their wedding was the highlight of season 4.

Locken shared exclusive details of their courtship and wedding with CultureMap last fall, and it was one of our most-read stories of 2019. In that interview, she expressed how emotional it was to juggle the demands of the show and everyday life. She put her foot down when producers wanted to rush the nuptials as part of the show, for example, telling them, "It’s not fair to rush this. This is an authentic wedding, this isn’t crap.”

Locken posted a note of thanks to her friends and fans on Facebook late Tuesday night, saying, “From the bottom of my heart I want [to] THANK YOU ALL for your kindness, your love & for making me laugh when I thought I couldn’t. YOU are what kept me going and YOU are who I will always be GRATEFUL for.”

Bravo has not released cast information for season 5. Of the original cast, only Stephanie Hollman and Brandi Redmond remain. The other castmates are Kameron Westcott, D’Andra Simmons, and Brittingham.

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Movie Review

Shaun the Sheep gets PG-spooky in new movie for the Halloween season

Photo courtesy of Aardman / Sky UK LTD / StudioCanal 2026

Shaun the Sheep in Shaun the Sheep: The Beast of Mossy Bottom.

Since his introduction over 30 years ago, the Aardman Animations character Shaun the Sheep has been almost as popular as the studio’s flagship characters, Wallace and Gromit. There is never a shortage of trouble Shaun can get into as he leads his flock and proves to be a thorn in the side of his farmer and Bitzer, the farmer’s loyal sheepdog.

His antics lead everyone down some slightly spooky roads in the new film, Shaun the Sheep: The Beast of Mossy Bottom. At first, things are only slightly awry as Shaun and the flock are growing a secret pumpkin patch to have their own jack-o-lanterns. But when the farmer accidentally destroys the pumpkin patch, Shaun tries to regrow it quickly with a Frankenstein-esque experiment.

However, disaster looms when Shaun uses an old bottle of Hair-Gro as the container for the serum he creates. Naturally, the balding farmer uses it on his head, and everyone soon discovers how truly successful it is, with pumpkins growing out of control and the farmer sprouting hair all over his body. Through a series of mishaps, the farmer becomes the titular beast, creating mayhem while Shaun and others try to stop him.

Directed by Steve Cox and Matthew Walker, and written by Mark Burton and Giles Pilbrow, the film goes down just as easy as every other Aardman project has. They get the Halloween vibes started from the opening credits, with things like the sheep doing the “Thriller” dance, and continue the fun throughout, referencing everything from Psycho to Friday the 13th in a nice, PG way.

With no script — every character is mute save for reaction noises — the movie relies on sight gags for its humor, and the Aardman team is endlessly inventive in that respect. Sometimes it’s small things like a sheep using toilet paper rolls as binoculars, and sometimes it’s something like forcing the Bigfoot-like farmer to be shaped into a rectangle as he escapes through a window. But there’s a never-ending stream of such moments, so even if one doesn’t tickle your funny bone, chances are the next one will.

The biggest benefit of the characters not talking is that there’s no need for deep character development. The filmmakers do a great job of giving the basic traits of each character, and then use those attributes to color everyone’s actions for the rest of the film. Shaun is the troublemaker, the farmer is a bumbling fool, Bitzer is preternaturally smart, and the town’s vet is empathetic, and the combination of those characters and others makes for a highly entertaining blend.

Like all Aardman creations, Shaun the Sheep: The Beast of Mossy Bottom is a fun lark that doesn’t make its audience think too hard. With just enough references to keep viewers engaged but not so many as to be overbearing, the film puts its well-worn characters to good use once again, delivering a Halloween season story that can be enjoyed by people of all ages.

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Shaun the Sheep: The Beast of Mossy Bottom is now playing in theaters.

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