When Bravo's Real Housewives of New York City premieres its fifth season June 4, there will be three new ladies in the fray to bring the Big Apple drama. Joining returning cast members Countess LuAnn de Lesseps, Sonja Morgan and Ramona Singer this season will be Aviva Drescher, Carole Radziwill and Heather Thomson.
Here, Us Weekly uncovers need-to-know info about NYC's newest Housewives before the show's summer premiere.
1. Aviva's an authentic New Yorker. For the first-time ever, the Big Apple Bravo franchise will feature born and bred NYC native Drescher. A cousin of The Nanny's Fran Drescher, the new housewife raises her four children with her investment banker hubby Reid on the city's Upper East Side. And unlike her NYC Housewives counterparts, don't expect to see Drescher on the party circuit. "I can honestly say I've never inhaled…I've never even been drunk!" she tells The New York Observer.
2. A contributor to Glamour magazine who saw her first book, What Remains, sit atop the New York Times Bestseller List for 12 weeks, Carole has connections to American royalty. She's the widow of the late Prince Anthony Radziwill, the only son of Lee Radziwill, younger sister to the late Jackie Kennedy Onassis.
3. With 15 years of styling and design experience under her belt, Heather will give former NYC Housewife Jill Zarin a run for her money with her very own shapewear line, Yummie by Heather Thomson. A married mom of two, Heather helped Beyonce and Jennifer Lopez launch their respective fashion lines.
4. Philanthrophy is more important than partying to these three new gals. The National Spokesperson for One Step Ahead, an organization for amputees, Aviva also works with the Live4Life Foundation, while Thomson supports several initiatives, including the Kellner Family Pediatric Liver Disease Foundation and City of Hope.
5. At the age of six, Drescher lost her left leg in a tragic accident at an upstate New York farm when she got tangled in a conveyor belt in a barn that was meant to remove cow manure. "The problem was, as a child, they only amputated several inches above ankle, so the amputation was very awkward," Drescher told The New York Observer of her accident, which required a second elective surgery to remove more of her leg to allow for more skin and padding. "I'd get abrasions all the time. I constantly had infections."
