Lisa Vanderpump has built a public career around two clearly documented areas: hospitality and animal welfare. Alongside her husband, Ken Todd, she has spent more than three decades developing restaurants, bars, lounges, and other hospitality concepts, eventually expanding into her first hotel venture in 2026. Outside that business, she and Todd founded the Vanderpump Dog Foundation in 2016, creating an organized platform for rescue, education, legislation, and broader animal-welfare efforts.
Her profile also includes long-term family ties, public advocacy, direct comments about work and responsibility, and recent expansion in Las Vegas and Scottsdale.
Quick Facts
| Field | Details |
|---|---|
| Full name | Lisa Jane Vanderpump |
| Nationality | English |
| Height | 5 feet 5 inches |
| Husband | Ken Todd |
| Children | Pandora and Max |
| Residence | Beverly Hills |
| Profession | Hospitality entrepreneur |
| Animal-welfare organization | Vanderpump Dog Foundation |
More Than Three Decades in Hospitality
Lisa Vanderpump and Ken Todd have worked in the restaurant and nightclub industry for more than 30 years. First-party business materials and her professional publisher biography both describe a long-running hospitality partnership that developed across restaurants, bars, lounges, and related concepts.
Her 2025 and 2026 openings continued a hospitality business record spanning more than three decades.
Vanderpump has also spoken directly about the amount of work involved. In a 2020 interview with Global News, she said professional success requires work, dedication, and energy. She also mentioned that she had been awake since 5 a.m. that day.
Expanding the Vanderpump Hospitality Portfolio
The hospitality business continued to expand in 2025 and 2026. Wolf by Vanderpump Scottsdale officially opened in December 2025 through a partnership involving Vanderpump and HCW.
Another expansion followed in Las Vegas. By May 29, 2026, Caesars Entertainment had announced the opening of Gigolo, a lounge located inside The Vanderpump Hotel. The venue’s name was created as a tribute to Vanderpump’s late Pomeranian, Giggy.
The largest recent step came on June 11, 2026, when Vanderpump celebrated the grand opening of The Vanderpump Hotel on the Las Vegas Strip. Caesars described the 188-room property as her first hotel venture.
That move broadened her hospitality work beyond restaurants and lounges into lodging. Official Caesars materials referred to the hotel as her 40th hospitality concept after a December 2025 announcement had described the Scottsdale opening as her 39th. The two figures are chronologically consistent when tied to their respective dates.
Why Animal Welfare Became a Major Public Focus
Lisa Vanderpump and Ken Todd founded the Vanderpump Dog Foundation in 2016. The organization identifies itself as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit focused on dog rescue and broader animal-welfare concerns.
Its stated work includes rescue, education, legislative efforts, and international animal-welfare issues. Vanderpump has discussed this work in direct interviews rather than limiting her involvement to organizational statements.
In a 2019 interview with The Independent, she described rescuing dogs from shelters and difficult situations. She also said she wants rescue facilities to feel more welcoming to people considering adoption.
She connected her work to a broader belief about public visibility. In the same interview, she said people given a platform have a responsibility to use it to help others. That statement provides direct context for why animal welfare developed into such a prominent part of her public work.
Animal Advocacy That Reached Congress
Vanderpump’s animal-welfare efforts also entered the legislative arena. The U.S. Congressional Record documents work by Lisa Vanderpump, Dr. John Sessa, and the Vanderpump Dog Foundation with Rep. Alcee Hastings concerning H.Res. 401.
The resolution called on nations to prohibit the dog and cat meat trade and enforce relevant laws. In a May 2019 Congressional Record entry, Hastings publicly recognized Vanderpump and the foundation for their involvement and leadership on the issue.
The Congressional Record independently documents her involvement in the legislative effort. It also clarifies the nature of the effort: the resolution encouraged international action rather than creating a worldwide legal ban on its own.
The foundation’s work therefore spans direct rescue and efforts to influence broader policy and public awareness.
Other Public Advocacy
Animal welfare is not the only area in which Vanderpump has received formal recognition for advocacy. In 2015, Equality California announced that she would receive an Equality Award for years of work supporting LGBT people and Californians.
The organization scheduled the award event for October 10, 2015. Her current Hachette professional biography also identifies LGBTQ+ advocacy as part of her public activities.
Her own comments about public responsibility also help place this work in context. Rather than presenting advocacy as separate from her public profile, Vanderpump has said that visibility creates an obligation to help others.
Work Habits and Values in Her Own Words
Vanderpump has offered several direct insights into how she approaches work and decision-making.
In the 2020 Global News interview, she emphasized work, dedication, and energy as necessary parts of professional success. She also said she prefers firsthand context before making important judgments, rather than relying only on someone else’s account.
Family Life and Personal Priorities
Lisa Vanderpump has been married to Ken Todd since 1982. She has said directly that she never legally changed her surname to Todd and did not change her passport after marriage. She also explained that their children use the surname Vanderpump-Todd.
The couple have two children, Pandora and Max. By 2026, professional biographies also identified them as grandparents to two boys, Teddy and Greyson. PEOPLE reported that Greyson was born in February 2025.
Vanderpump has spoken openly about some of the principles she values in family life. In her Global News interview, she said a lasting marriage requires respect, humor, shared goals, and room to grow and change. She also said parents should try to keep adult conflict away from their children.
In a 2025 PEOPLE interview, she described grandmotherhood as a major source of joy and spoke warmly about her attachment to both grandsons.
Her own description of an ideal day away from work also centers on home and family. She has said she enjoys seeing her horse, spending time at the dog rescue center, cooking, staying home, and having friends and relatives over.
Personal Loss and a Change in How She Sought Support
One of the most difficult periods Vanderpump has discussed publicly followed the death of her older brother, Mark Vanderpump, in 2018. She said Mark was her only sibling and 16 months older than she was.
In a later Bravo interview, she described his death as a suicide and spoke about the effect the loss had on her. She said she sought therapy and grief counseling afterward and described reaching out for professional help as something she had not previously been accustomed to doing.
Vanderpump later experienced further family loss. Her mother, Jean Vanderpump, died in June 2019, and she publicly announced the death of her father, John Vanderpump, in July 2024.
From Villa Rosa to a New Lifestyle Project
Vanderpump’s professional publisher biography states that she and Ken live in Beverly Hills with a number of animals. In a 2020 interview, she said she enjoys cooking, staying home, spending time with animals, and hosting family and friends.
Those interests also form the basis of an upcoming publishing project. Home at Villa Rosa: Cooking and Living the Vanderpump Way is scheduled for publication by Workman Publishing Company on October 13, 2026.
The publisher describes the 304-page book as focusing on cooking, entertaining, family meals, her British heritage, and home life. As of August 23, 2026, the book remains forthcoming.
The project extends themes Vanderpump has already discussed in interviews: cooking at home, hosting others, maintaining family connections, and incorporating animals into daily life.
How Hospitality and Animal Advocacy Define Her Public Work
More than three decades after beginning her hospitality work with Ken Todd, Vanderpump entered a new business category by opening her first hotel in 2026. Her separately established work through the Vanderpump Dog Foundation includes rescue, education, and legislative advocacy.
Her own interviews connect these activities to values she has stated publicly, including sustained effort and using public visibility to help others. The documented record supports hospitality and animal welfare as two enduring parts of her professional and public work.
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