‘HOUSEWIVES’ GET REAL
New season reflects time of COVID, Black Lives Matter
The real world has intruded on the Real Housewives.
Mad dashes to packed parties are out at New York City landmarks. Designer shopping bags have been traded in for masks, and reunions are restricted to homes.
Season 13 of “The Real Housewives of New York” is set to premiere Tuesday on Bravo, but it’s not the “RHONY” its audience is used to.
Don’t expect to see lavish Hamptons clambakes or Ramona Singer scampering from one double-booked event to another.
“We filmed during Black Lives Matter, COVID and an election,” Luann de Lesseps told the Daily News. She and Singer are the only original cast members currently on the show.
“It was very tumultuous, in terms of making it a very different season from others,” said the “Money Can’t Buy You Class” singer, who along with Singer will star in Peacock’s currently untitled “Housewives” mashup series.
Despite the departure from past seasons, the 55-year-old cabaret star “felt very blessed” to be among friends during an otherwise “isolated” time.
There are two empty seats left vacant by longtime “RHONY” powerhouse Dorinda Medley and Tinsley Mortimer. Medley departed after last season and Mortimer in the midst of it to marry her on-and-off boyfriend. She’s since separated.
One of those seats is now filled by the arrival of lawyer, author and TV host Eboni K. Williams, the show’s first Black cast member.
“I was happy because we live in New York City and we’re a very diverse city,” de Lesseps said about welcoming the “strong, beautiful” Williams. “I think she fits very well into the mix of the group.”
Sonja Morgan and last year’s new addition Leah McSweeney are both back in action, too.
International trips spanning multiepisodes are being replaced this season by domestic outings —like a trip to Salem, Mass. — because of the COVID-19 pandemic still raging around the world.
“We went to Salem, which was great,” said de Lesseps. “We took in a lot of the history around the area and the witch culture, which I didn’t even know was still existing.
“And the hotel was haunted,”
she laughed. “So you’ll see that going down.”
The premiere also sees de Lesseps — who went to rehab after her 2017 arrest for, among other charges, disorderly intoxication and resisting arrest with violence
— open up about a recent relapse.
“Relapse is a part of recovery,” she told The News. “And each time, I get closer and closer to the woman that I wanna be, you know what I mean? And I feel like, sure, we all make mistakes. We all slip up, but it’s about how you pick yourself up. And listen, I’ve had some rough things happen in the past, as you know, and I was able to get on stage and perform and build a cabaret career out of it. And so I feel the same about drinking. It’s like every time, I get closer and closer to where I want to be, and that’s being sober.”
De Lesseps also has some projects underway, including an alcohol-free sparkling rosé and a Christmas song, for which her proceeds will go to the formerly incarcerated women supported by the Fortune Society.
“I feel totally blessed that during what’s happened in the world and COVID and everything else that we’re working. And we’re, hopefully, giving a lot of pleasure to people during a time which has been so difficult,” she said.