Crystal Kung Minkoff On Being The First Asian-American Cast Member On ‘RHOBH’: “The Responsibility Is There And I’m Proud To Be The One To Represent Our Group”

Crystal Kung Minkoff reveals how does it feel to be the first Asian-American to join the cast of The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills as a full-time cast member.

“It’s certainly quite poignant to be the first Asian-American on the show. The responsibility is there and I’m proud to be the one to represent our group,” she told Page Six.

“I have one story and I’d like to represent my story. And my culture is a massive part of it. It’s all-encompassing for me. But it’s just my story. So I think that, hopefully, I’ll be the first, but not the last, because I’m Chinese American from the Valley. That’s my story.”

Kung Minkoff says she hopes “RHOBH” will ultimately include stories other than hers and Garcelle Beauvais, who became the show’s first black “Housewife” when she joined the series in 2019.

“I think we need a lot more representation,” Crystal told Page Six. “It starts with one person, but I think that’s important. We have diverse and unique stories to share and we’re all very different.”

Kung Minkoff says she’s “excited to share my culture, my family. I’m obsessed with my husband and his work and to have a face to his work too is kind of fun.” 

While Minkoff said she has always been a fan of the show, she told the publication that it took “many, many months” for her to decide if she wanted to join the series.

“I would have panels with my friends, like, ‘What do you think?'” she reminisced. “And then Kathy Hilton — we’ve been friends for 15 years — called me and said, ‘I know that they want you to do it, and they want me to do it. Why don’t we just jump in together?’ And I was like, ‘Wow … to have a friend who I really know to guide me through this …’ [that] just made me feel so much better. So that’s what I did. I just went in.”

Minkoff added that she knew Kyle Richards through mutual friends and had met Beauvais “over the years,” albeit “very briefly.”

“But I did watch the show, so I felt like I knew them through the show — but not personally,” she laughed.

She added, “I have always been a fan of the show, so it was really weird. I remember the first time I walked into the first group dinner, I was like, ‘Oh my God, these are all the girls from the show!'”

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