From ‘humble’ to ‘Housewives:’ OFC’s Matt Kailey interviews Cedric Martinez

His sexy combo accent (French and British) and his even sexier combo looks (face and body) belie his humble, rough-and-tumble beginnings, but Cedric Martinez left his past behind when he met up with Lisa Vanderpump of Bravo’s The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills. And although at the end of the season it appeared that he might be moving on again, when we spoke, Martinez denied that he was asked to leave the Vanderpump home.

“I wasn’t asked to leave the house,” he said. “I think people have come to the wrong conclusion, but it didn’t quite go down that way. … We had a little disagreement, that’s for sure, but it’s nothing that we can’t fix. Especially when you’re close to someone for so long. It’s just like a family, isn’t it? You’re bound to have disagreements and you’re bound to have arguments. That’s what families do.”

Even so, he was coy about whether or not he’ll be returning for RHBH Season 2 – “To that, I’ll say you have to wait and see.” However, indications are that we won’t have to wait after all. Lisa Vanderpump had enough choice words about Martinez on the RHBH Reunion Show that we wonder if they can ever patch things up. And Martinez isn’t talking – at press time, he had not responded to our request for follow-up comments.

Regardless, Martinez no doubt has a bright future ahead no matter what happens with the Vanderpumps. He’s a sought-after model and a prominent figure on the L.A. scene. But it wasn’t always that way.

“I don’t know my father and my mother was a prostitute,” he says. “She still took care of me the best she could, which wasn’t very good at all, so we did end up on the streets and we did end up having to beg, steal and borrow. … I’m not going to lie. It was a very horrible childhood. But like Lisa used to say, it’s not where you come from, it’s where you end up that matters. It definitely taught me different values, having led the life that I led. And then I met them and … they’ve opened doors for me, and I’ll always be grateful for that. So now I’m very excited about the future and I’m very happy to be here and by no means do I let my past hold me back. … I have moved on. In fact, if I hadn’t moved on, I would have been dead by now.”

Or he would have been a chemist – his major at the University of Grenoble. But what was he going to do with a chemistry degree?
“Nothing,” he says. “Absolutely nothing. The reason I did this is because when I was 11, I was fostered. Before that I went through social services, and I ended up with a family and what they do is they try to give you a degree that’s going to make you work straight away. And for some reason, they thought that I would be perfect working in the lab. I was petrified when I was mixing chemicals and other things. I don’t know why they thought I’d make a good chemist. … I can barely cook!”

Chemistry was just not in the cards – but Martinez knew that from a very young age.

“I’ve always had stars in my eyes,” he says. “(As a child), I would look at my surroundings, and it was so horrible and disgusting and we had no food. We’d end up watching The Young and the Restless, and it was so beautiful. I used to watch the soap operas and I used to tell myself, ‘This is where I need to be. I need to be with people like that, because they look nice. They’re pretty, they never fight, and they have food.’ So since then, it’s been like a motivation, and as soon as I could leave France, I did. I taught myself English from the age of 16. I was so obsessed with the language, because I felt that, if I could speak English, I would be different and it would open doors, and I was right.”
He landed in the UK, where he got into modeling and acting, and now he is in Los Angeles, where anything is possible. And he is planning for a future that includes more than just fame.

“What I’d like to do right now is go back to acting,” he says. “I’d love to act in a soap, because it would be a dream of mine – be an openly gay soap actor. This is something that I really want to do. And in five years, I want to have a great career, but I also want to be married and have kids. That’s really, really big for me.”

So we may find Martinez on RHBH Season Two – or not. We might find him on a soap opera soon, or in the pages of our favorite men’s glossy. Or we might see him pushing a baby carriage down Rodeo Drive. We’ll just have to wait and see.

For more information, go to www.cedricmartinez.biz
and www.bravotv.com.