Sydney’s stylish seven:
They’re bossy, brassy and Botoxed – and soon to take over our lounge rooms. Melissa Field shoots the breeze with the first Real Housewives of Sydney.
meet the latest Real Housewives
They’ve come to blows, some swear like navvies and one housewife has even accused another of throwing a sex toy “during a girls’ lunch”. Welcome to the wild, uncensored and – at times, unedifying – world of the
Real Housewives of Sydney, which looks set to become (for some) the latest in guilty-pleasure, must-see, watercooler TV.
“Did I call some of the other girls malevolent molls on Instagram? Absolutely. That was sparked by some of the most appalling actions I’ve ever seen at a social event,” says the controversial, no-filter housewife, Lisa Oldfield. “I’ll call out bad behaviour wherever and whenever I see it, no matter who you are. If some of the other housewives – and, by the way, I do think there’s one too many, no names – but if the others are too precious to handle criticism, they shouldn’t be here.” A genteel, CWA meet of a show, this is not.
So who are the Real Housewives? Joining Lisa among the cast is jewellery maven AthenaX Levendi. Then there’s beautician-to-the-A-List Matty Samaei. Many readers will know blonde bombshell Melissa Tkautz from her E Street and pop star career days. Pragmatic divorcee Victoria Rees, softly spoken former Miss Australia Nicole O’Neil and the sunny-natured model-turned-realestate mogul Krissy Marsh make up the rest of the Botoxed and Birkin-bag toting crew.
(“Have I had a little work before filming? Of course, darling!” says Matty with a laughter-line-free smile.)
With old-name families, lucrative businesses and, most importantly, reputations to uphold, why have the well-connected Sydney housewives opted to lay their undeniably glamorous lives bare?
Melissa’s taken a practical approach. “I’ve been in the industry for a very long time, but I’ve never done reality TV,” she says. “The way things are now, if you want to work and be current, you have to do reality TV.”
The “spiritual and eccentric” AthenaX admits she’s keen on the limelight. “I’ve always loved the arts and creativity and, as a personal challenge, this intrigued me. I’ve always wanted to be something in entertainment.”
Victoria, though, took some convincing. “Krissy is an old friend and she asked me to do it,”she says. “At first, I said, ‘No, you’re out of your mind.’ But then she said, ‘Why not? You’ve just got divorced and you’re sitting at home doing nothing!’ I wasn’t quite doing nothing, I had just launched my beauty business Wrinkles Schminkles, but then I thought, ‘Why not?’”
The socialites have been cast/pitted against one another in the Real Housewives of Sydney. It’s the latest branch of the hugely successful reality TV franchise. Nine versions air in the US, alone, as well as nine (including Sydney) international instalments.
The 10 one-hour episodes of the first season will begin on February 26 as a companion to the Real Housewives of Melbourne, which has completed three successful seasons. But, if you think the Melbourne ladies – who include the impossibly glamorous barrister Gina Liano among their number – are out-there, the Harbour City girls plan on giving their southern sisters a run for their money.
“Please. Sydney is the Emerald City;
it’s international, so it makes sense to base a version of Real Housewives here,” says Lisa. “I’ve made some jokey gibes about Melbourne being an also-ran, but their housewives don’t like it. Gamble (Breaux) took offence and said she had mops with a better head than mine and that she’d never heard of me. I replied (via social media) that I don’t do my own mopping, so I wouldn’t know what one looked like – and that she wouldn’t have heard of me, because I made my name in the boardroom and she made hers in the bedroom. Clearly, those girls are rattled! Don’t bring a knife to a gunfight!”
Not all the housewives are quite as confrontational. The statuesque Krissy, whom Matty describes as being the “mother hen” of the group, says she’s been horrified by some of the behaviour on set. “I’ve had a sex toy thrown at me,” she says. “Athena threw a drink – meant for Victoria – over me. Thank God I was wearing my beautiful black Stella McCartney outfit, so no stains. Frankly, I’ve been gobsmacked.” Her old family friend Nicole O’Neil agrees. “My daughters are at a very impressionable age (they’re 12 and nine), so I don’t think I’ll let them watch every episode,” she says. However, she adds, the show isn’t entirely made up of bitching and backbiting. “Hopefully, you’ll get to see that we all work, we all have families we love dearly, and despite how lucky we are in how we live, we share common problems with other women too – like worries about our kids, our health and juggling work and family life. That’s what makes the Housewives franchises so watchable and relatable,” she says.
Melissa Tkautz says that, while the on-set drama might not be pretty, it serves a purpose. “If you put seven strong women around a table together, they’re going to have opinions,” she says. “If we sat around nodding in agreement, there’d be no show. It’s escapism and entertainment.”
Despite the drama, all the Housewives are active on the charity social scene.
I’ve been horrified by some of the behaviour on the set.”
The night before The Weekly met the ladies on a scorching Sydney summer’s day, they’d all attended a Cure Brain Cancer Foundation event.
“Krissy and Nicole pulled it together in just five weeks and Melissa sang and was just divine,” says Victoria. “We’re all very different and some of us haven’t known each other for long, but we’ll unite for the important things.” Nicole adds, “It’s very important to give back when you’ve been as fortunate in life as we have.”
The Housewives also support one another personally, too. “I had spinal surgery three months ago,” says Lisa. “I’ve had that many skiing and horseriding accidents, which have caused degradation of my vertebrae. It was a big operation, but when I came around, Athena and Matty were there. We’d only just started filming and I didn’t know them that well at the time, but it was lovely they came to see me.”
On a slightly less relatable – but entertaining – note, Athena has also used her meditative powers to help Lisa locate some lost jewellery.
“It was a brand new, $70,000 black and white diamond bracelet and I’d torn the place apart looking for it,” says Lisa. “David [her husband] was going mad at me, yelling ‘why don’t you ever put your jewellery in the safe!’ I was at my wits’ end, so I asked Athena to meditate on where it could be. A few hours later, she calls me and says, ‘It’s in your house in a white container’. Sure enough, when I looked again in my white laundry hamper, there it was, caught up in a pair of stockings. It was insane! Athena is eclectic, esoteric and just amazing. We’ve become very good friends.”
The Real Housewives of Sydney like to laugh, too. Matty’s catchphrase “fully booked”, in her lilting Persian accent, has already caught on among the ladies and is used tongue-in-cheek, to describe their crazy, busy lives. Krissy regales The Weekly with a story
about her, as she describes them, less-than-attractive pet poodles, who are fluent in Cantonese. “They’re redheads with overbites and I stupidly called them Bondi and Bronte when we were living in Shanghai,” she says. “It was cute in China, not so much when I’m yelling out to them on Bondi Beach. I have to yell at them to hurry up in Cantonese, though, because that’s what they understand. Chinese tourists think I’m yelling at them!”
Should you be interested, it’s possible to follow Krissy’s dogs on Instagram, where they have their own account, @bondiandbronte. Their bio reads: “We’re two dogs from China now living it up in Double Bay around fast cars, awesome people and our great owners.” Such is the world of a Real Housewife. “I love Instagram,” gushes Krissy. “I love that I can share my life as it’s happening with family and friends around the world. It’s all a bit of fun and that’s also why I’m doing this show. I thought, I’m 46, at best my life’s half over, so what have I got to lose? If the show – and anything I can bring to it – makes people smile, then I’m happy.”
The Real Housewives – from anywhere – TV show might not be for everyone. As Lisa describes it, “It’s entertainment; we’re not saving lives,” but, as fun, frothy and sometimes fiercely provocative escapism goes, it’s hard to beat. The Sydney ladies all say they’d be keen to sign on for season two – and beyond – in a heartbeat.
“I’m losing money by taking the time away from work to do this,” says Lisa, with her typical forthrightness. “But I’d hate to miss out, too. It’s been a wild ride, but I’d definitely come back for more.”