Inside Diana Jenkins’ Scandalous Past Before ‘RHOBH’
Diana Jenkins has definitely made her mark on Real Housewives of Beverly Hills during her first season. Ahead of her debut in season 12, she declared herself to be the new series’ villain — and she wasn’t wrong. Jenkins immediately started feuding with co-star Sutton Stracke, and Garcelle Beauvais got caught up in the drama. But that was just the beginning.
In addition to having heated exchanges with some of the RHOBH cast members, Jenkins has also made some comments on social media that have fans accusing her of racism. Now, the situation has spiraled. The latest accusation is that Jenkins is behind racist death threats leveled at Beauvais’ 14-year-old son Jax on social media, and fans are calling for the RHOBH newbie to be fired.
Before we talk about this current drama, let’s take a look inside Diana Jenkins’ scandalous past.
Diana Jenkins was a penniless Bosnian refugee looking for a ‘Dynasty’ life
Jenkins’ life story is truly one of “rags to riches.” Born as Sanela Dijana Catic into a Bosnian Muslim family, she grew up in a small apartment in Sarajevo. But, watching Dynasty on TV as a young girl inspired her to dream big and make that her “blueprint for life.”
When war broke out in 1992, Jenkins walked from Sarajevo to Croatia before eventually making it to Britain. How she got to London without money or a passport is still a mystery. When she arrived, she wasn’t able to speak English. But, she made ends meet by doing menial jobs — cleaner, waitress, babysitter — and running a jewelry stall.
In 1995, Jenkins says she reached a turning point when she found out her younger brother had been killed in the war. She says she “reinvented” herself for “survival.”
“That year Sanela died and I became Diana,” she said in 2009, per MoneyWeek.
She started pursuing a business computing degree at City University and wrote a dissertation on “how network planning and data research techniques can be applied to the area of multinational tax planning.” Not long after, she met Roger Jenkins at a London gym and changed her life forever.
The ‘RHOBH’ star became the wife of a mega-rich banker
Roger Jenkins is a legendary financier — formerly of Barclays — who became the wealthiest banker in London, with Diana by his side. They married just months after they met. And while he became a huge star at Barclays, she styled “Brand Jenkins.”
Diana pushed her husband to become the firm’s highest earner, and he was credited with negotiating a £6B deal with Qatar that saved Barclays during the 2008 financial crisis. However, it was Diana who helped make that happen. She introduced her husband to Sheik Hamad bin Jassim, the head of Qatar’s sovereign wealth fund, after meeting the sheik’s wife on vacation in Sardinia.
Diana Jenkins left the UK after being dubbed an ‘Eastern European mail-order bride’
Roger Jenkins was already a high earner when he met Diana, but he became extremely wealthy during their marriage. He was so good at his job that his annual earnings were thought to be around £40M. At the same time, Diana was an entrepreneur who launched numerous businesses.
That kind of money brought Diana into the lavish Dynasty lifestyle she had always dreamed of — and a lot of famous friends. The Telegraph once described her as having “George Clooney, Sir Elton John and Cindy Crawford on speed-dial,” and her life being “the stuff of fairy tales.”
But among the elite UK social circles, Diana wasn’t accepted by everyone. She was branded in the British press as an “Eastern European mail-order bride.” Her husband was also accused of “tax avoidance, on an epic scale,” and the media framed Diana as being the beneficiary of all that cash.
So, she packed up and moved to America with her children, leaving her husband behind in the UK.
“I looked around the room and thought: ‘What am I doing here with these people? I would rather be at home eating pizza in my pajamas.’ I felt really unfulfilled, empty, almost dirty,” she said.
The ‘RHOBH’ star was caught up in a 2003 scandal
A few years before she left the UK for California, Diana’s relationship with the British tabloids turned south when she was spotted with Manchester United footballer Rio Ferdinand during a night out at the Funky Buddha club in London.
She was wearing a black mini-dress and thigh-high boots while hanging out in the VIP Lounge with Ferdinand. According to the undercover journalist who was there to witness it, Ferdinand couldn’t keep his eyes — or hands — off Jenkins the entire night.
Ferdinand and his group of friends went home with Jenkins to her London penthouse at 5 am, and he didn’t leave until later that day. Then, Diana left for Rio to join her husband for Christmas vacation.
Since there was an undercover reporter in the group of Ferdinand’s friends, the story and photos were all over the tabloids for days. Diana threatened to sue for libel until she discovered the story came from someone who was with her that night.
Is Diana Jenkins behind the social media threats against Garcelle Beauvais’ son?
Diana’s past is definitely colorful, but does that mean she’s behind the latest Beverly Hills drama? It appears that a targeted bot harassment campaign has been launched against Garcell’s 14-year-old son, and many fans believe Diana is responsible.
Yes, Diana has called out Garcelle on social media. And, on RHOBH she called her the most guarded person in the cast, and someone who was “too afraid” to hear her critiques. She also posted about Garcelle’s lack of sympathy about her recent miscarriage and wrote, “go on trolls, do your worst.”
That’s when all of the nasty — and identical — messages started popping up on Garcelle’s son’s social media. They turned out to be bots, possibly from a bot farm, purchased for the targeted campaign against young Jax. Diana insists that she had nothing to do with it, but she took a long time to speak out.
She simply posted Bravo’s message that read “We are shocked and appalled at the social comments directed at Garcelle’s son. We urge our viewers and social followers alike to refrain from targeting our cast and their families with harmful rhetoric.”
Real Housewives of Beverly Hills airs Wednesdays on Bravo.
