Kelly Bensimon is not the same woman fans first met when she opened the door to her life on The Real Housewives of New York City.
“I’m on a really strong personal journey of finding myself and really reconnecting with myself,” Kelly, 58, exclusively reveals in Us‘ annual Reality Stars of the Year issue, which features the Golden Life cast on the cover. “I just connected with [the cast] on a different level, and it was really — it just made me feel so good spending time with them. Like, I’m walking away with great, great new friendships.”
Nearly 15 years after stepping away from RHONY, Kelly is reuniting with Ramona Singer, Luann de Lesseps, Sonja Morgan and Dorinda Medley in the new E! series titled The Golden Life.
The beloved cast will bring decades of friendship, feuds and fun to sunny Palm Beach, Florida.
The chance to film with the ladies is an opportunity Kelly knew she couldn’t pass up.
“You know what brought me back is that we were just on The Real Housewives Ultimate Girls Trip [for season 4], and we had so much fun in St. Barts,” Kelly says when recalling the 2023 trip. “Then the opportunity [came] for me to spend time with my friends in Palm Beach, a place I know and where I grew up when I was very young. I was so excited to just really nurture friendships.”
She also wanted to showcase a deeper side of herself — someone who didn’t just love gummy bears and questioning if a certain Housewife was a chef or cook.
“I had just rented my apartment, sold an apartment that I was living in, packed up my entire life,” Kelly says about her experience on The Golden Life. “I broke up with a boyfriend. I just literally was like, ‘If I’m going to do this, I’m going to just be with my friends and just be completely open and share so many things I’ve never shared before.’”
Along the way, she hopes to clear some ongoing misconceptions about herself that can’t seem to disappear ever since she first appeared on reality TV and experienced Scary Island among other memorable scenes.
Alongside her “ride or die” Sonja, 62, and “north star” Ramona, 69, Kelly wants to showcase the strong but sweet woman she is.
“They think that ‘I’m up here, you’re down there,’ as if it is about finance or where you are in your social structure,” Kelly says. “It was really about, like, being childish or being an adult. Adults are up here and children are down there, clearly. I think that was a big misconception because I’m not like that. I’m from Rockford, Illinois.”
She continues, “I came here at 15 years old. So the way that I see New York, I have a lot of respect for New York. I’m just not that person. Anyone who knows me — if you ask any of [my] friends, they’re going to be like, ‘Kelly is the warmest person.’”
Another thing Kelly wants to make clear is she’s no dummy. While raising two daughters with ex-husband Gilles Bensimon, the iHeartRadio podcast host says she worked her butt off to give her children a good life.
For critics to say Kelly isn’t smart may just be the farthest thing from reality.
“When you work in so many different businesses as I do, and I’m under a lot of pressure — financial pressure with my kids and my family for the past 15 years — I need an outlet,” she explains. “My outlet is being playful and fun and giddy. Sometimes, people misconstrue that as me just being flighty. I am definitely not flighty.”
As fans prepare to watch a new chapter in Kelly’s life, the author hopes there is one thing they will remember from her story.
“I want my reality legacy to be playful and fun and charming and, like, life is so short,” she says. “Just really lean into enjoying their lives like I do.”
The Golden Life premieres on E! Tuesday, October 20, at 10 p.m. ET with a special 90-minute episode. The series will continue to air on E! Tuesdays at 10 p.m. ET.
For more from Kelly and the Golden Life cast, pick up Us‘ Reality Stars of the Year issue, out this week.
