Kelly Dodd / Instagram
Positive Beverage is no longer affiliated with Kelly Dodd.
In a note released on Sunday, the beverage company said it did not want to join the The real housewives of Orange County the star’s “controversial views” on COVID-19.
“Our core values of well-being, community, diversity and inclusion must be reflected by our brand and by anyone associated with it,” said Zach Muchnick, Brand Director at Positive Beverage, in a statement on Instagram. “It has become clear in recent months that Kelly’s controversial views and opinions have deviated from our main goals, so effective today that we are no longer affiliated with Kelly Dodd-Leventhal.”
CEO Shannon Argyros added in her own statement: “We welcome everyone – whatever they are and whatever they are passionate about – to Positive Beverage. But there must always be an underlying layer of respect. Unfortunately, we feel that Kelly’s position is negative more congruent with our core values. We appreciate her contributions during our affiliation, and she will always be part of Positive Beverage’s history, but we don’t align with her views or global views while defending our own values.
Dodd, 45, who has partnered with Positive Beverage for two years and even bought a stake in the company in February 2019, reacted to the news on Twitter.
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I am happy to have helped to put Positive Drink on the map and wish them the best. I am also very excited about my next venture in the beauty industry, which is my true passion. Stay tuned!
– Kelly Dodd (@RHOC_KellyDodd) January 31, 2021
“I’m happy to have helped put Positive Beverage on the map and wish them the best,” she wrote on Sunday. “I am also very excited about my next venture in the beauty industry, which is my real passion. Stay tuned!”
Dodd’s split from Positive Beverage comes after the reality show star commented on the coronavirus pandemic during his recent outings with friends. In several videos of his story on Instagram over the weekend, Dodd shared scenes of her and large groups of friends having dinner and drinking in Newport Beach, California.
Positive Drink / Instagram
When she started receiving messages from fans concerned about the COVID-19 dining protocols, Dodd and his friends commented on being “allowed” in the restaurant and how they should be able to “live a normal life”.
“I am not a super spreader because there is nothing to spread,” said Dodd later in a separate video, stating that she and her friends “all understood [COVID-19] vaccine.”
A Bravo representative told People that Dodd “did not get the vaccine”.
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Positive Drink / Instagram
Currently, California is only in Phase 1B of the vaccine launch – meaning that people over 65 qualify for vaccines, as well as anyone working in education, day care, emergency services and food and agriculture.
In another video posted on Saturday, Dodd and his friends compared the restrictions on COVID-19 to living in Russia.
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This is not the first time that Dodd has made questionable statements about the ongoing pandemic, which claimed the lives of more than 439,000 Americans. In December, the mother of one appeared in an episode of See what happens live with Andy Cohen to express his remorse for saying that COVID-19 was “God’s way of reducing the flock”.
“At the time, it was a question like, ‘Why are all these people dying? … Why [do] pandemics happen like that? Is it God’s way of reducing the flock? ‘”Dodd said of the April comment she made on Instagram.” It was a stupid thing for me to say. It was insensitive and I apologize if I hurt or offended someone, because it wasn’t really my intention. I was scared of it and, in retrospect, it was the most stupid thing I have ever said. “
“In the beginning,” added the Bravo star, she was “misinformed” about the virus, saying, “You have to realize that it was in January, when it happened and I was misinformed.”
“I’m claustrophobic and I can’t stand wearing a mask – and now I understand the science behind it and I’m ready, willing and able to wear a mask,” she said. “And I know it’s important, because I don’t want to be sick and I don’t want to make other people sick. I’m just a human being; I make mistakes.”
The mother removed from the reality show, Bobbi Meza, contracted the virus in November and was hospitalized.
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