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‘The Real Housewives of New York City’ Recap: Bethenny Frankel Threatens to ‘Blow Up’ Luann de Lesseps’ Engagement

Love is blind … but is Luann de Lesseps

It sounded like the newly engaged former countess was about to prove whether that old adage is true. As the Wednesday, July 27, episode of The Real Housewives of New York City opened, Dorinda Medley was busy breaking the news to Sonja Morgan, Ramona Singer and Lu that they would not be going to Hawaii after all, since Bethenny Frankel couldn’t travel that far due to her recent health issues. Instead, they would be heading to Miami.

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“I go to Miami like I go to the bathroom to brush my teeth,” Ramona griped to the camera. But one person was definitely up for the venue change: Luann. Reminding everyone (again) that she was spending the winter at Tom’s place in Palm Beach, Lu added that she had a friend who had offered up her yacht for an engagement party, and now all the girls could come. Though Palm Beach is pretty far from Miami, and everyone else had been counting on a true girls’ weekend (not a celebration of Luann’s new love), they agreed to go.

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Ramona Is (Still) Upset With Luann

In search of flats to wear by the pool, Jules Wainstein joined Sonja and Ramona for some pretrip shopping. It took about half a second for Ramona to chime in that she was angry Luann had mentioned to the press that Ramona used to date Tom, and seemed especially miffed that she had been (wrongly) listed as Tom’s former friend with benefits. (That place of honor actually belonged to Sonja.)

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“Now my current boyfriends are reading it and going, ‘What the heck?’” Ramona griped. She added that “everyone” knew Luann regularly called to report stories about herself, and just how pathetic that was.

Bethenny Thankful for Her “Hall Pass” to Avoid Luann’s Engagement Party

Bethenny had Dorinda, Carole Radziwill and Ramona (Ramona was really making the rounds) over to her house for some tea sandwiches and catching up. After reporting that she’d spent most of her trip with her daughter in bed bleeding, Bethenny announced that she’d finally accepted she was going to have to have surgery to clear up her fibroids.

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While Bethenny was cleared by her doctor to travel to Miami, she thought adding a side event to West Palm Beach would be a bit much, and so she would be sitting out Luann’s engagement party. Calling her doctor note a “hall pass” to get out of going, Bethenny predicted that there would be drama with Sonja, Ramona and Luann all on the same boat with Tom. For her part, however, Carole was too curious about this guy, who had made the rounds with so many of her friends, to miss it. Basically, she was looking forward to watching whatever went down (which is not the worst approach).

Ramona Accuses Luann of Being a Sex Addict

Sonja, Ramona and Dorinda arrived in Miami and headed to Luann’s friend’s yacht for the party. As they drove, they discussed the impending doom of Tom being on board with all three women at once. (This was a hot topic these days.)

As they recapped the saga of Tom, Dorinda said all she knew was she set Tom and Luann up on a date. “No, they didn’t go on a date!” Ramona snapped. “She picked him up, took him home and did him that night, and has been doing him ever since.” Then she added, “I think she’s a sex addict.” Um. OK. Hope Ramona was ready to celebrate the sex addict’s engagement!

Tension Builds at Luann’s Party

After stopping by her parents’ house — where Jules received a tearful call from her son because her husband, Michael, was nowhere to be found (yikes) — Jules arrived at the yacht ready to celebrate. She was followed shortly after by Sonja, Dorinda and Ramona, who was too busy touring the boat to complain about Luann … for now.

Luann grabbed Sonja and giggled about how amazing the yacht was, which Sonja didn’t appreciate so much. “No offense to Luann, but don’t even mention this yacht in the same sentence as my ex-husband’s yacht,” Sonja said to the camera. “It’s in a totally different league, but it’s just wonderful to be included, and kudos to Luann that we are even on a yacht.” So Sonja was not impressed with Luann’s engagement ring or Luann’s boat — just for the record.

Things started out friendly enough as Luann joked, “Sonja, you’re going to sleep with me and Tom,” and Sonja replied, “We’re headed in that direction!” But once Sonja had meandered away, Dorinda leaned over and warned Luann that Ramona wanted to talk to her about the statements she may or may not have made to the press. “Nobody’s going to ruin my evening, and nobody’s going to ruin my life with Tom,” Luann quipped. “He wasn’t dating Ramona. She’s an idiot.”

When Ramona started complaining that Luann refused to provide adequate descriptions of the men on the guest list, Luann snapped that she wasn’t going to invite Ramona anymore. “That’s not being a good host,” Ramona pouted.

Carole arrived, followed by the man of the hour (which was Tom, in case that’s unclear). While Luann greeted her future better half, the rest of the girls holed up in one of the suites to get ready.

Real Housewives of New York
Real Housewives of New York

Sonja Was Feeling the Sting

The more Sonja thought about Luann being engaged to Tom (who Sonja claimed had been her friend with benefits for a decade), the less comfortable she felt about the situation. Asked by the other ladies how she was going to behave, Sonja mumbled something about “coquettish,” which didn’t seem that wise.

“I lost a companion, a lover and a dinner date,” Sonja reflected, adding that she was “sucking it up” for Luann (but she did not seem happy about it).

Carole, who had been looking forward to seeing this drama play out, said it was definitely going to be awkward.

Bethenny Has a Bomb to Drop

Since she was skipping the Palm Beach excursion, Bethenny chilled on a Miami beach with a friend — and revealed shocking news about Luann’s new man.

“Someone sent me a series of texts that are so incriminating that I can’t imagine how it wouldn’t blow up this whole engagement,” she explained. “This could possibly mean the wedding will be canceled.”

Bethenny told her friend, “It all checks out,” and argued, “I don’t want to be holding this information.” Her friend told her she couldn’t possibly not tell Luann — though she wouldn’t have the chance to tell her before her engagement party, it seemed.

Tell Us: Do you think Bethenny will go through with her plan to sabotage Luann’s engagement?

The Real Housewives of New York City airs on Bravo Wednesdays at 9 p.m. ET.

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