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‘The Real Housewives of New York City’ Recap: Bethenny Frankel Isn’t a Fan of Newbie Tinsley Mortimer

Hang onto your hats — there’s a new(ish) girl in town! On the Wednesday, April 12, episode of The Real Housewives of New York City, socialite Tinsley Mortimer arrived to stay with Sonja Morgan. Apparently, Tinsley was ready to get back to the city after several years away in Florida, and was planning to crash at Sonja’s townhouse while looking for her own place. 

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In another part of town, Ramona Singer, Carole Radziwill and Bethenny Frankel all got reacquainted after some time apart, and Ramona was immediately bent out of shape that Bethenny wasn’t warmer to her. “Now that she has a boyfriend, her attitude has changed toward me,” Ramona whined in voiceover. Ramona got busy telling Carole and Bethenny about her argument with Luann de Lesseps over Tom D’Agostino. (ICYMI, Ramona thinks Tom is a no-good cheater, but Luann doesn’t want to hear it.) When Tinsley came up in passing, Bethenny quipped to the camera, “She had the whole world at her fingertips, and then she kind of crashed and burned.”

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The Real Housewives of New York
Tinsley Mortimer, Sonja Morgan, Bethenny Frankel, Ramona Singer, Dorinda Medley, Luann D’Agostino and Carole Radziwill of ‘The Real Housewives of New York.’ Patrick Ecclesine/Bravo

Luann Is Still Mad at Sonja

They were all gearing up to reunite at Sonja’s Mad Hatter party, though only Luann seemed to be taking the theme very seriously. She went shopping with her daughter, Victoria, and complained more about Sonja. “She says things like, ‘You know, I’ll be here if the marriage doesn’t work out,'” Lu recounted to her daughter, who agreed that Sonja was just jealous of Luann’s relationship with Tom. “If there was a love story [between them], he would be with Sonja, not me!” Luann reasoned to the camera.

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Tinsley Is Determined to Take Back New York

Catching up with her host, Tinsley said that she and her ex-husband, Topper Mortimer, got divorced because he was working a lot, they grew apart, and she didn’t feel like they were “teammates” anymore. “I had to part ways,” she sighed. Sonja empathized, noting, “I know what it feels like to have everything golden, and crash and burn.” Then they got busy making a list of requirements for any man that Tinsley dated. They decided he needed to be over 40, employed and not a mama’s boy. Also, Sonja wanted him to be super rich.

Tinsley admitted that she’d made some bad choices, most notably the last guy she’d dated, who’d actually had her arrested. “The last one I made was just the worst ever,” she sighed. She said it was a tumultuous relationship, and she thought he was acting out because he’d finally gotten the message that they could never be together. This led to him calling the cops on her when she showed up at his house to retrieve a purse. He’d apparently had a restraining order out on her, so she’d ended up in jail. Oops. On the plus side, she said she’d learned from it. “I literally walked away from my life for four years, and I just want it back,” Tinsley said as she got nostalgic over her glory days in the city. “I just want my life back.”

Ramona Rags on Luann a Little More

Dorinda Medley went for a special treatment that involved standing in a sort of tube in freezing temperatures. She’d recruited Ramona, but Ramona opted just to watch and then spent the whole time complaining about Luann. “Different strokes for different folks,” Ramona said of Luann and Tom’s relationship. “It’s pretty obvious Luann doesn’t want to know anything about Tom, so I’ll shut the Pandora box.” Dorinda then revealed that Sonja had been saying bad things about her. “Now I’ve had it, and now I have to figure out how I’m going to handle it, and I am going to handle it,” she promised the camera.

Everyone Wears Black to Sonja’s Mad Hatter Party

Despite the directions on her invites, Sonja’s party guests largely showed up clad in black to her Mad Hatter party. Luann and Bethenny both wore bright colors, but even that didn’t really bring the two together. Tinsley, meanwhile, was excited for this first reintroduction to society, and seemed pretty bummed that Bethenny didn’t give her the time of day. Luann tolerated Tinsley, saying they were “social friends,” but certainly wasn’t going out of her way to make nice.

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Of course, Ramona went right for the jugular. Asking Tinsley 20 questions about her failed marriage, Ramona honed in on a clear pain point. “Do you regret not having a child with him?” Ramona asked ever so sweetly. “Of course,” Tinsley said. “But it just wasn’t the right time.” 

Tinsley then announced that she’s 41 years old and does want a child, and then somehow segued into the fact that she was arrested. Ramona liked that Tinsley just put it out there, but Tinsley said she wasn’t sure why she always blurted that out — though she later suspected she found it strangely therapeutic.

Luann then confronted Sonja for talking smack about her relationship with Tom. “He goes out with very young, tall girls,” Sonja said. Luann pretty much rolled her eyes, insisted Tom’s dalliance at the Regency hotel of last season was a fluke and left it at that. Tinsley then told everyone that Sonja was helping her find a man, and the ladies pretty much laughed in her face.

Tell Us: What do you think of Tinsley joining the show?

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

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