‘RHONY Legacy’: Sonja, Dorinda, and Kristen Break Down Their Big First-Day Fights

Bravo might be betting it all on blonde for Erika Jayne’s new limited series next year, but Peacock beat them to the punch when it comes to rolling the dice on a certain flaxen-haired Real Housewife. In the latest iteration of the streamer’s Housewives spinoff, The Real Housewives Ultimate Girls Trip: RHONY Legacy, former New York Housewife Kristen Taekman returns to the RHCU (Real Housewives Cinematic Universe) to stir up trouble among her fellow alums in a reunion trip to St. Barths. Given Taekman’s relatively short time on RHONY during its original run, fans were surprised to see her thrown into the mix among other, more seasoned OGs with a longer tenure on the show.

Though Taekman was only a cast member during two seasons of the original RHONY, she left a lasting impression. She was the rare Housewife willing to go toe toe-to-toe with Ramona Singer—a move that nearly got her clocked in the face with a wooden oar. And then there was her cast trip to Montana in Season 6, which created a ripple of drama that spun fellow cast member Aviva Drescher into such a tizzy that it ultimately resulted in the leg throw heard around the world.

But Taekman’s return is a welcome one, and any stray skeptics will quickly have their minds changed by RHONY Legacy. Taekman wastes no time getting into the muck with her fellow RHONY OGs, including Dorinda Medley and Kelly Killoren Bensimon, two women known for their legendary reality television fights. In a Zoom conversation ahead of the premiere, Taekman and two of RHONY’s most feisty, hilariously unpredictable OGs, Medley and Sonja Morgan, told The Daily Beast’s Obsessed about what it was like to reunite almost a decade after their last season with each other. Together, they broke down their squabbles, their legacies, and what it has been like to put their whole lives in front of a camera.

Kristen, I want to start with you. You’re the wildcard of this group. A lot of people might be underestimating you coming into this, maybe not remembering what you were like on Seasons 6 and 7. You’re very scrappy!

Taekman: Scrappy?! Wow! I don’t think I consider myself scrappy.

Morgan: Feisty.

Taekman: I guess maybe vocal? I spoke my mind.

I think you know how to defend yourself. We see that again in the first three episodes of RHONY Legacy, especially with Dorinda and Kelly. You’re willing to call Dorinda out about being “on pause” and talk to Kelly about the differences between your individual perceptions of authenticity. Do you think you had something to prove coming back with these ladies?

Taekman: No, I don’t think so at all. Like you said: wildcard. We just let the cards fall, and wherever they settled we picked up. It was a nice energy because we were on vacation and I hadn’t seen the girls together in that big group for a long time, and the girls hadn’t been together in a minute. It was a great energy because everybody was catching up, not just myself and Kelly. We picked up right where we left off, it was nice. “Wildcard,” wow, okay!

Morgan: You just hit the ground RUNNING. Okay, Kristen?

Medley: Kristen’s found her voice! It’s nice and loud and strong, I love that.

I think so too. People are going to be very surprised to see Kelly and Kristen back and becoming just as vocal and present as the rest of you. Dorinda and Sonja, I’m curious what you both thought about Kristen when you got to St. Barths. You both have been doing this very recently, on Luann and Sonja: Welcome to Crappie Lake and RHUGT Season 2. But you three all worked together on Season 7, so you all knew each other—

Morgan: I’ve gotta say this: The thing about me and Dorinda—and I don’t want to speak for Dorinda—but for us girls to have a married, younger woman with children? I forgot how far removed I am from that! So when we first got together in St. Barths, Kristen’s dialogue was about soccer and going on a second honeymoon right after this trip. I’m just coming out of the muck. My daughter’s 23, she just graduated, I’m still paying for her. But after we spent some time together, I remembered how fun Kristen is and how fun it is to be with Kelly. Dorinda, what’d you think about it?

Medley: I only had one season with Kristen, right? And the Kristen that was on that last season is a very different Kristen than the one that came back this time. This Kristen is very confident, vocal, open, and fun. I was very impressed that she was willing to take a hit at me!

Taekman: [Laughs]. I didn’t mean to, it just happened!

Medley: I didn’t expect it. I wasn’t prepared for it. But I certainly welcomed it! As I said in the episode, she pulled the tail of the lion. I say well done!

Morgan: I was shocked, for one. People always ask me, “Who’s going to bring the drama?” And I’m like, “Dorinda and Ramona.” And then when I saw Kristen poppin’ off, I was like, “What’s going on here?!”

You three have got a great repartee.

Medley: The Kristen I met before would let things slide a lot more and maybe wouldn’t say anything. But she’s not like that this time. She’s much more engaging and much more involved.

Taekman: For me, the whole dynamic of this girl's trip was… not an even playing field, but it was just like we were all there for a short amount of time. We don’t know if there’s going to be [another RHONY Legacy season]. We’re not waiting until the next lunch or the next party [like we were filming RHONY]. This season was like, we’re just going. I felt more relaxed because we were on vacation and away from our families. When I’m home, it’s harder to let loose because I’ve got so much going on with the kids. Get me on vacation with a little bit of rosé? Look out.

You have all been very vulnerable showing your struggles with marriages and relationships on television. I wonder if that creates a kinship with you three even when you haven’t seen each other in so long, or does it take a while to fall back into that groove?

Medley: I think that’s one of the beautiful things, not just with this group but all of us. What haven’t we been through together? On camera and off camera, we’ve seen it all. The good thing about this group is, good times or bad times, they’re only a phone call away. It bonds us. I think the audience feels that. This isn’t us going on and doing a show, this is us being who we are and bringing it to the show and letting the viewers be a part of it. So I’m hoping that when people come back and see us they’ll be like, “Oh, there they are. There’s our girls.”

Morgan: Dorinda, I felt the same way! “Oh there they are!” When we’re not filming for five months together and sharing Thanksgiving and Christmas, I miss them. And I almost forgot how much I miss them, because I was going off into a different lane at one point. But after doing Crappie Lake for six weeks with Luann, I was like, I need to see Dorinda, I need to see Ramona. And what better way than going to St. Barths?

Medley: Sonja and I saw each other about eight, nine months ago at the Women’s Expo, and we literally caught eyes with each other and started crying on stage. Everybody’s like, “What’s going on?” Nothing, we’re just happy to see each other. We can all go our separate ways, we all have busy lives, and our children are grown now—there’s a different connection when you all have young children because you all are in New York running into each other all the time. But we always pick up where we left off, it’s never different. And you see that in the first episode.

Kristen, you’re very much in the Housewives sphere. You have friends on these casts, you’re going to events. I imagine it was slightly trickier for you, or was it like seeing an old friend?

Taekman: Oh yeah, it’s like riding a bike. I just jumped back into it. When I got that phone call, it was so nice that it was with all of these OG women that I knew really well from filming before.

We’ve got more great meme moments cooking this season. Dorinda, did you ever figure out those closets in your bedroom that all looked the same?

Medley: No! And it only got worse when I tried to find an outlet, it only got worse when I tried to find the TV. That room, I swear to god, you feel like you needed a strait jacket to go to bed. Every time I put something away, it took me a day to find it again. It was a magical room.

Morgan: You invited me up to your room to give me some beauty treatments, and I don’t want to go back in that room again, it was so scary.

Medley: Somewhere between the Guggenheim, Mars, and an insane asylum., And the funny thing is, in that scene, I’m talking to the cameraman. I’m like, “Where’s the bathroom? There’s no bathroom here?” I forgot that they were filming me.

I think “legacy” is an interesting way to look at you three women and your time doing these shows. If—and God forbid—this is the last time we see you three on our screens for a while, what kind of lasting legacy do you hope that RHONY Legacy leaves for the viewers who love you guys?

Morgan: Are you kidding me?! Do not even say that or manifest it! First of all, I don’t like the term “OG.” I don’t like the word “Legacy.” I look at the new RHONY cast as a whole ’nother show. I call them the new wives, and we are the first wives. That’s the way I look at it. I’m not even thinking about my legacy. If I had, at this age, I would’ve already written a book. Okay? No! Way too early in our careers. I don’t even think about that.

Medley: Well, I think that put a period on that!

Morgan: Dorinda just had a tour of Blue Stone Manor with her bourbon, her bourbon is selling nationwide. I have my Sonja Sangria, I’m on tour doing my comedy. Luann has her cabaret. Kristen is still in the stages of being with her children and her husband.

Medley: Let me just say this: When people are as thirsty as they are for us girls, how can you only give them a drip of water? They need a full glass. I think this is a great little taste of water.

Morgan: They’re thirsty!

Medley: In fact, I think there might be a little anger over it just being six episodes. Like, what?!

I’m praying for more.

Morgan: Crappie Lake, we’ve got a lot of requests for people to go to their cities and help them.

Taekman: I vote Blue Stone Manor, we’ve got to get there.

Medley: We can have the next trip at Blue Stone Manor. We can have the next trip with the girls back in New York, staying at Sonja’s house. This is just a little frosting on a beautiful cake. And let me tell you: We are the cake.