You obviously like being in control, but you’re forced to give up a lot of power during the editing process in reality television. Has that been difficult for you?
Well, I’m an executive producer on the Bravo show, but I’m willing to look bad because I don’t really care. My love affair with television is about communication and sharing a story that I enjoy telling. First of all, I’m just not a photogenic person, and I think I look better in person than I do on TV. Sometimes I actually look amazing on the new show, but other times it looks like I just had sex with Meat Loaf. I don’t know how one person can have 10 different looks when they always wear black and pull their hair back.

Was anything off-limits to Bravo’s cameras?

There were some clients who didn’t want to be involved in the show, but it’s pretty balls-out, no-holds-barred. They always needed permission to shoot in my house because I am not Kate Gosselin, so I didn’t want to do that to my daughter Ava, who’s only 7. They also wanted me to do crazy stuff like have my nanny let them in, shoot me sleeping, and tape how I wake up in the morning. I said, “Listen, America has a hard enough time looking at me when I’m actually trying to look good. No one needs to see me in my Target Gilligan & O’Malley pajamas.”


Kell on Earth premieres February 1 on Bravo. If You Have to Cry, Go Outside: And Other Things Your Mother Never Told You is available Tuesday, February 2.