RHONY: Kelly Bensimon Says Bethenny Frankel Is Fake On Camera
Kelly Bensimon, former star of The Real Housewives of New York City, threw some major shade at Bethenny Frankel, claiming she turns into a different person when the cameras start rolling. Kelly and Bethenny instantly took a dislike towards each other once Kelly joined the show in season 2. Bethenny was turned off from Kelly after they met up one night, and Kelly effectively told her she was below her in society. Things came to a head during the season 3 cast trip to St. John, known as Scary Island. During this trip, Kelly criticized Bethenny's profession, refusing to call her a chef, and referred to her as a cook. She then had what some refer to as a complete mental breakdown and refused to eat the food Bethenny cooked because she was convinced she was trying to kill her.
Kelly got her wish in season 4 when Bethenny left the show to film a spin-off with her then-husband, Jason Hoppy, called Bethenny Ever After. With Bethenny gone, Bravo executives tried to replace her with Cindy Barshop. Season 4 had a lot of iconic moments, but it didn't have quite the same spark as the first three seasons and is often forgotten by most of the fans. This was also the season in which Luann was demoted to a friend, but by almost falling off a camel in Morocco she gave fans a truly iconic moment. Due to the lackluster season, Bravo decided to completely rebrand the show and did some reworking when it came to the cast. Kelly, Jill, Alex and Cindy were all fired and replaced the following season.
Kelly is now opening up about her time on RHONY and what she thought about her co-stars behind the scenes, particularly Bethenny. During a recent appearance on the Behind the Velvet Rope with David Yontef podcast, Kelly spoke about what it was really like filming at Scary Island. According to Kelly, it was interesting to see how certain people reacted to their fear of being called out and said some people can do horrible things. She also said that Bethenny was a completely different person off-camera than she was when cameras were rolling. According to her, she liked Bethenny a lot more when the cameras were down, saying she was a lot more mellow and easy to talk to but put on her persona as soon as cameras started filming again. She said they would have gotten along had Bethenny taken a different method to try and get to know her. Kelly thinks Bethenny was all about getting attention, rather than being her authentic self.
Although Bethenny and Kelly hang out in the same areas, they reportedly haven't seen each other since they filmed their last RHONY scene together back in 2010. They both have homes in The Hamptons and vacation there often, but according to Kelly, they never run into each other there. Kelly attributed this to the two of them having completely different friend groups that really have nothing to do with each other. When asked if she'll ever return to the show, Kelly said Luann often asks her to come back and that she only has fond memories from filming, despite feeling like she wasn't able to tell her story the way she wanted to. She said that at the time, the network wasn't interested in telling the story of a single mom living in New York, so there was a big chunk of her life she wasn't encouraged to talk about.
If Kelly did come back, would she be the saving grace RHONY needs after the lackluster season they just had? It could be interesting to see how Kelly would mesh with Leah McSweeney, and whoever else is asked to return, without Bethenny there to egg her on. The New York franchise has always thrived when there are newcomers who have years of friendship history with the others in the cast. Considering Kelly has a history with Luann, Sonja and Ramona, she seems like she would be the perfect fit to join the cast for the next season. It will be interesting to see if Kelly will ever take the plunge and actually agree to appear on reality TV again. Something needs to change for the next season of The Real Housewives of New York City to be successful.
Source: Behind the Velvet Rope With David Yontef/Apple Podcasts