Four score and seven years ago (otherwise known as March 2022), Bravo execs announced that they would be ending the original Real Housewives of New York as viewers knew it. Instead, they split the franchise into two different shows: RHONY proper and a RHONY Legacy show, incorporating members of the former cast, whose show Bravo retooled. Somewhere along the way, negotiations stalled on Legacy, and the network conveniently folded the side project into the fourth season of The Real Housewives Ultimate Girls Trip, premiering December 14 on Peacock. (Full title: The Real Housewives Ultimate Girls Trip: RHONY Legacy—what a mouthful.)
Shelving the original spinoff show was a blow to fans excited for a double dose of what I would call the most consistently watchable Real Housewives franchise. But luckily, the RHONY cast’s trips are the stuff of legends. Hundreds of memes have been born from the New York Housewives boozing it up abroad, bringing Buster Keaton-level physical comedy everywhere from Miami to Morocco. Even a seven-day micro series could have a wealth of potential, if the women of RHONY were at the helm.
No two RHONY Legacy cast members know that quite as well as Luann de Lesseps and Kelly Killoren Bensimon. Both together and apart, Bensimon and de Lesseps were the (often inadvertent) architects of some of the franchise’s most mythic moments. Anyone who witnessed Bensimon becoming frenzied under Bethenny Frankel’s magnifying glass during RHONY Season 3’s “Scary Island” trip to St. John, or watched de Lesseps’ dodge accusations that she had cheated on her boyfriend in Season 5’s journey to St. Barths—where the RHONY Legacy cast reunites this season—can’t help but completely enamored by their antics.
No matter what transgressions or faux pas they might make on screen, it’s easy to understand why we’re so quick to fall in love with these women. De Lesseps and Bensimon are effervescent, even over Zoom. From the moment Bensimon turns toward the camera, coffee in hand, flashing a big smile and greeting me by name, I’m glamored by the duo’s charms. Perhaps that’s because I’ve spent so much of my life watching theirs play out in front of a camera, or maybe it’s because both women come to RHONY Legacy unafraid to butt heads and prove themselves all over again. Whichever it is, I come away from our chat about their history-making reality television moments confident that fans will see both women—and Bensimon particularly—in a whole new light.
This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.
I think fans assume that you two have very similar personalities: You’re both very outgoing and social. But Kelly, you reveal to Dorinda Medley in the season premiere that, when it comes to friendships, you’re actually more reserved and cautious. Do you both think that your personalities complement each other, and that’s why you’ve been friends for so long?
Bensimon: I gravitate toward very strong, nurturing women. Lu is one of those, and that’s just what I look for in a friend. Maybe it’s from the relationship I have with my mother—we don’t have time to go into that [laughs]—but I just enjoy women who are very strong, very successful, very confident. It just makes me feel very solid and grounded.
De Lesseps: Dorinda has a big heart. Her reaction to Kelly was, “Ooh, I don’t understand that about you.” [Kelly’s] can come off as someone who isn’t being friendly or doesn’t really care—somebody who doesn’t engage in a group. But really, it’s about sometimes being uncomfortable, being shy, and feeling like you don’t want to engage. Dorinda didn’t understand that about Kelly, and then she was like, “That opens up a whole new window. I see why you’re always the first to leave the party.”
That shyness is something Kelly always talked about during her time on the show, but that we were never able to get into.
De Lesseps: I think there was a lot to learn from that moment in Legacy, and I think that people are going to fall in love with [Kelly] because of that.
Luann, I think that makes you the perfect person to bring her into this, because you’re still in front of the camera pretty frequently. We’ve seen you on the first season of Ultimate Girls Trip and, just this summer, on Crappie Lake. You seem like a reality TV pro, but do you ever get apprehensive when you get the call to come back?
De Lesseps: When it was for Legacy, I was probably more apprehensive about that, because there’s so much more to share. You get into what storylines [you had] and life, as opposed to just going on a girls’ trip for a week. I was a lot happier—let’s put it that way—to actually do [this show] instead.
Was it nice to reunite with your old friends—the RHONY OGs—in this way, as opposed to in a full-on spinoff series in New York?
De Lesseps: I know the fans want to have more series with us. Maybe [it can just be] OGs are just traveling—going on Below Deck, finally getting those Latin lovers in Argentina. I just feel like it was time. We’ve had a great run. I moved onto Crappie Lake, I’m very busy with my cabaret career, which is kicking off a new tour in February, by the way. I have children! I’ve been super busy, so a week on vacation with the OGs was just perfection for me.
Kelly, you made such a splash during your three seasons on RHONY, but I have to imagine that came with many challenges as well, especially because—maybe more than any other cast member in RHONY history—your behavior was under a microscope. Did you have nerves coming into this show because of your history with Housewives?
Bensimon: The last trip that you guys saw me on was in Morocco. Luann and I had the greatest time—Luann falling off the camel…
De Lesseps: Well, luckily, I didn’t fall off the camel, because I’d probably be dead. It was terrifying!
Bensimon: We’ve been on other trips apart from Scary Island. It was really fun filming this because, like Luann said, it was seven days. [I was moving] out of our apartment literally the day before I went on the trip, so, for me, it was just a cathartic moment. Scary Island was a totally different time and a totally different narrative.
De Lesseps: If I had been there, it would have gone down differently.
Oh, I believe that.
De Lesseps: I would’ve pushed somebody over the edge of the boat, saying, ‘Stop bullying her now.’ Maybe it’s good that I wasn’t there, because it wouldn’t have turned out to be the iconic moment it turned out to be, but I certainly felt for Kelly. I’m not one to allow people to bully other people like that, so I’m sure there’s a part of you that feels very protected when I’m around.
That’s a nice thing to have with a friend, too, when you can rely on someone like that.
Bensimon: We’ve been talking all day. Luann and I know each other very well, and the core of that friendship is based on trust. So, whatever happens, if she’s yelling at me—
De Lesseps: I didn’t yell. When did I yell? It’s not very classy.
Bensimon: [Laughs] Alright, if she raises her voice at me… I know that she loves me and she’s doing it because she wants me to be better. A real friend wants you to be better.
From left: Kelly Bensimon, Sonja Morgan, and Luann de Lesseps.
Bryan Steffy/BravoI’d call your trips to Scary Island and Morocco two of the best in RHONY history. Those vacations happened at a time when Housewives cast trips were still a very new concept. Do you think part of fans’ strong reaction to those trips was because they’d never seen anything like that before—a group of very headstrong women thrown into a remote location together?
De Lesseps: We were never able to stay in hotels, because the hotels were like, ‘We don’t want cameras in our lobbies. We don’t want Housewives arguing in our restaurant.’ So we always ended up in these houses under one roof, which makes a lot of sense when you’re filming a TV show. But I think Morocco was one of our most incredible trips. From the camel, to [Alex McCord’s] Herman Munster shoes, to the henna tattoo, [there was] so much good stuff in there. Jill Zarin in her fanny pack in the souk, I’ll never forget that.
And her ringlet curls and the Diet Cokes.
De Lesseps: We’ve had so many incredible moments on trips. Fans, they’re living vicariously through us. They’re losing themselves, immersing themselves into our lives, and that’s what they love is that they get to lose themselves for a minute and travel. And I think that we should just keep doing that.
Bensimon: All women who go on vacation—whether it be a long weekend or they go for a week—there’s always going to be drama. There’s always going to be some people getting along, some people aren’t getting along. That’s just their nature. My youngest daughter was telling me, “Female friendships are so incredibly strong, and it’s so hard for women to find that same kind of intensity [with men] that you have with your female friendships.” It makes me realize how much time I’ve lost.
That’s a really beautiful way of looking at it.
Bensimon: I need to stop focusing on work so much and start focusing on my friendships.
Kelly, you end up going toe-to-toe with Kristen Taekman in RHONY Legacy. It seemed like you were intent on coming into the show from a genuine place and being transparent, as a way to change the perception of the Kelly we knew. Do you think that’s why you disagreed with Kristen, because you said that it didn't seem like she was coming from the same place as you were?
Bensimon: I can’t speak for her. I can speak to myself. All of the fans know I’m 100-percent authentic. I come into the room and I am who I am and I bring every single thing that came through that door with me—good, bad, or ugly. If I’m in a bad mood, I’m in a bad mood. I don’t just turn on for the cameras, because I don’t do that, period.
I’ve always been myself and I think that’s one thing the fans really like about me: They can rely on me. I’m not going to Google search [myself], I’m not going to watch every show back and forth [like Kristen says she does in RHONY Legacy], and I’m not going to figure out what people’s storylines are. I know if you’re a good person, believe me. I’ve got a very good radar for humans.
I think that your refusal to be anything but yourself is what makes you such a compelling Housewife, and what has made your particular seasons such fan-favorites.
Bensimon: When we were at BravoCon, I almost started crying, because I was so moved by the fans. I didn’t think they even liked me! It was so beautiful. We’re having so much fun.
Speaking of BravoCon: Luann, you suggested during the panel that if fans were responsive to this season, the producers should send a RHONY Legacy cast to other places as well. If you could go anywhere else with each other, where would it be? And would you change the group to bring in someone else from RHONY history?
De Lesseps: I was hoping that Tinsley Mortimer was going to make it on this trip, and she didn’t for obvious reasons: She’s gotten married and she has a family now. I would’ve loved to see Jill Zarin come back, which didn’t happen, but maybe next time around. And I relax when I’m on a boat! Maybe it’s Below Deck, or maybe we’re just island-hopping. Putting it out there.
Bensimon: I can definitely see Captain Lu on the tender and me in tow.
Kelly, anyone that you’d leave out or would want to bring?
Bensimon: We had such a great trip and we’re such a great team, I love [this current cast] together. When we were at BravoCon, Luann was literally like the captain of all of the Housewives. I met so many incredible other Housewives, there are so many I’d love to work with. But for now, I think we’re really solid.
De Lesseps: We only need New York girls, darling.
Bensimon: I want more Legacy, though. I want to get in there. Now that I’ve had the seven days, I’ve got the taste of it, and I’m like, ‘Oh, the devil I know!’
The Real Housewives Ultimate Girls Trip: RHONY Legacy premieres December 14 on Peacock.
