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‘The Real Housewives of New York City’ Reunion Recap: Bethenny Frankel Calls Luann de Lesseps a ‘Complete Whore’

Is it still slut-shaming if you don’t know what slut-shaming is? This was the question of the hour on the first installment of The Real Housewives of New York City‘s season 8 reunion special. During the Wednesday, August 31, episode, Bethenny Frankel and Luann de Lesseps took turns hurling insults at each other while debating who between them was the bigger whore. “Once a countess, always a countess,” Luann said to host and moderator Andy Cohen. “I don’t think that’s true,” Bethenny’s bestie Carole Radziwill chimed in. Luann shot her a look but left it at that — probably because she was saving her energy for Bethany (that’s how Bethenny’s name is spelled in Luann’s phone, apparently).

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A Trio of Divorces

As they all settled in, Andy asked Bethenny, Ramona Singer and Jules Wainstein how their divorces were going. Bethenny reported she felt like hers was “almost done” (after a mere four years), while Ramona confirmed hers was completely behind her. Jules didn’t get into specifics, but assured Andy she was doing well. “My kids are happy, my health is good and those are the only two things I have to worry about,” she said with a solemn face.

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Though Dorinda Medley couldn’t divorce John Mahdessian (since they weren’t technically married), she did provide an update: She didn’t see herself marrying him — but she also didn’t see herself breaking up with him. Ramona then admitted that she hadn’t used the best judgment when telling Dorinda about John allegedly saying he took Viagra and “banged” her for “six hours a night.” This was about as self-reflective as Ramona would get.

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Bethenny Accuses Dorinda and John of Using Cocaine … Kinda

After playing back some of Bethenny’s more cryptic comments about (and to) John during the season, Andy said, “It sounds like you’re referring to coke.” Bethenny didn’t miss a beat. “I am,” she replied. Dorinda tried to press Bethenny to come out and say whatever it was she was implying, but Bethenny refused and told Andy to move on to the next question. “I’m not here to ruin people’s lives. I’m not here to f–k with people,” Bethenny said. (Luann disagreed, but no one really paid any attention to her.)

Dorinda kept insisting she never used drugs. “We all have social lives, and we party, and it happens,” Bethenny shrugged. “Well, I don’t!” Dorinda shouted. “Why are you insinuating that I do drugs?” At that point, Sonja Morgan helpfully chimed in, “Everybody knows you do drugs!” Luann then told Dorinda to just “drop it” because they decided they’re “not going to go there.” It seemed there was more to this story, but viewers weren’t going to hear it.

Let the Slut-Shaming Begin

Somehow the conversation then turned to Luann’s pre-engagement dating habits and the married man she hooked up with when they were on vacation. “Yes, indeed, he was a married man, and he cried on my shoulder all night!” Luann admitted. “The real hypocrite in this room is Bethenny.” Luann almost smiled as she added, “You’re going out with a married man!”

Bethenny didn’t miss a beat, correcting Luann by explaining her boyfriend is separated.

“But she was going out with him for a while while he was still married and living at home. Everybody knows it!” Luann said. “This has been going on for a long time, so as much as you want to say he’s separated, you’re separated, that is not the case! That’s a lie, and you’re a hypocrite!” Then Luann challenged Bethenny to give the name of a man Luann had slept with who was married.

“Luann, there’s not a guy in Manhattan that you haven’t slept with!” Bethenny shouted back. Luann added that Bethenny’s situation was even worse because Bethenny went to high school with the wife of the guy she’s dating. But when Andy asked the Skinnygirl mogul if her boyfriend left his wife because of her, she definitively denied it and told a somewhat bizarre story about the two of them having a dinner “as friends” at the Polo Club and running into some of his friends from his neighborhood.

Real Housewives of New York
‘The Real Housewives of New York’ Mathieu Young/Heidi Gutman/Bravo/NBCU Photo Bank

Bethenny argued that she didn’t want his wife to get the wrong idea and think anything was going on, so she actually called her to tell her what happened. “You were covering your tracks,” Luann barked. “I wasn’t interested in him!” Bethenny shouted before explaining, “It took a while. I liked him as a friend.” Bethenny said when she’d called the wife to explain that nothing had happened and they’d never been intimate, the wife shrugged it off, saying she “knew nothing would happen.” (Apparently, the wife was wrong, but whatever.)

Luann continued to challenge Bethenny’s story until Bethenny snapped and said, “Luann, you’ve never been out with a man you haven’t had sex with, and everyone knows that!”

At that point, Andy intervened. “How is that not slut-shaming?” he asked. Bethenny paused and said, “Maybe it is. I don’t know the exact definition of slut-shaming, but if it is calling out the fact that Luann has written books on etiquette and behaves like a complete whore when she’s out, I am guilty.” So … there.

Bethenny Calls Her Boyfriend’s Daughter to Confirm Her Story

In an even weirder twist, Bethenny then whipped out her phone and called someone who was allegedly her boyfriend’s daughter, but because she wanted to protect the identities of both the boyfriend and the girl, she didn’t say any names (which meant the woman on the other end of the line could have been basically anyone). The supposed daughter did confirm that Bethenny had not been romantically linked to her father while he was still married to her mother, and Bethenny sprang from the sofa and did a sort of victory dance.

“Say it again that I was dating a married man while I was in his house!” she cheered.

“You are a liar. You are a horrible person,” Luann replied. “You were born a liar, and you will die a liar!” Bethenny blasted back. Then Luann called Bethenny evil.

Tell Us: Are you Team Bethenny or Team Luann — or neither?

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

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