Giving the audience what they want. Luann de Lesseps took the stage for her Countess and Friends cabaret show at the Borgata Hotel Casino & Spa in Atlantic City on Friday, August 24, and she didn’t hold back when it came to throwing shade at her Real Housewives of New York costars … and herself.
After making jokes about her own repeat stint in rehab this July after six months of sobriety (“I actually loved rehab, I loved it so much I went back again. You get to take care of yourself for weeks at a time”), the reality star, 53, threw a few jabs at her television cast mates — starting with Dorinda Medley.
As fans of the show will recall, the two women got into a heated exchange during the show’s season 10 finale on August 15 after de Lesseps snubbed Medley’s longtime boyfriend, John Mahdessian, by leaving him without a ticket to her show.
Medley, 53, who claimed to have helped de Lesseps procure Jovani performance outfits “worth thousands of dollars” for the affair, was visibly upset.
Prompted by chants of “Jovani” from Friday’s crowd, the former countess addressed the feud, saying, “It is a Jovani and he actually loves me! To hell with Dorinda. She’s probably in the back cutting up my dresses.”
Later, during a Q&A portion of the evening with the audience, de Lesseps took a swing at Ramona Singer when asked which of her costars she would “F—k, kill or marry.” “That’s easy,” she replied. “F–k Sonja [Morgan], marry Bethenny [Frankel] and kill Ramona.”
The Class With the Countess: How to Live With Elegance and Flair author, who missed the show’s reunion taping during her two-week treatment, also praised Frankel, 47, for handling the explosive show in her absence. “Well, I couldn’t be there, sorry, I was in rehab. I watched five minutes of it and it was so dark I had to turn it off,” she answered a fan’s question. “Bethenny did a great job, she had her hands full and Carole [Radziwill]’s gone now.”
Expanding on Radziwill’s departure from the show, which the journalist announced with a statement in July, de Lesseps added, “I think it’s sad and I think it’s Carole knowing that Bethenny is now throwing shade for her and it’s sad.”
Frankel and Radzwill, 55, have been sparring since the Skinnygirl founder accused Radzwill’s on-again, off-again boyfriend Adam Kenworthy of declining to work on a mission trip without pay.
Radziwill later tweeted that Frankel’s late boyfriend, Dennis Shields, who died at the age of 51 on August 10, “was a good man.”
With additional reporting by Travis Cronin
