Vanderpump Villa star Grace Cottrell was in it for the long haul when it came to her time working as a housekeeper at Chateau Rosabelle.
"Of course I had moments where I was like, 'Aw, man, this is exhausting. I don't know if I can do this,'" she reveals in an exclusive interview with OK!. "But I never had a moment where I said to Lisa [Vanderpump], 'I need to leave.'"
"I knew in the back of my mind, like, this such a once in a lifetime opportunity," she explains. "Even in the hard moments, I gotta power through because I don't want to pass this up."
Throughout her time working at the sprawling French estate, Cottrell shares she was also able to learn important lessons and gain self-confidence. She confesses that in the beginning, she was "really unsure" and frequently questioned why she had been chosen for the highly-coveted spot on Vanderpump's staff.
"I think what I learned is — man, I'm here for a reason. I have so much to offer," she says. "My confidence just really grew from this experience."
"There were so many times I was like 'heck yeah, I did that!'" she adds with a grin. "Just standing up to people that like, in my regular, day-to-day life I probably wouldn't. I'd probably just let it go. Those moments where ... I didn't let it slide, I did stand up for what I thought. I think those are probably my proudest moments."
But gaining that boost of confidence only happened from overcoming challenges at the villa — and one of her biggest struggles was learning how to live with her 12 co-workers.
"That was not something I'd ever done before and none of us really knew each other going into it," she admits.
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As OK! previously reported, costar Nikki Millman felt similarly about the living arrangements.
"It did at certain points feel a little bit like camp counselors," she quipped in an interview published earlier this month. "People don't realize, we fight and stuff, but then a few hours later they might ask to borrow your shampoo."
"It really felt like we were kind of a dysfunctional family and we had to get along and like each other no matter what," she continued. "That's why some people would go pretty hard with screaming at each other, because at the end of the day, you're still gonna have to live together and break bread together."
