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Luann de Lesseps is looking back on Bethenny Frankel‘s encounter with Kelly Bensimon on “Scary Island.”
Over 15 years after the iconic moment played out on The Real Housewives of New York City season three, Luann, 60, recalled Bethenny, 54, instilling fear in their castmates and admitted that Kelly, 57, stood no chance against her as Sonja Morgan, 61, admitted to being so rattled that she went and hid in Ramona Singer‘s room amid their trip to St. John.
“Bethenny had it in for [Kelly] and most women cannot handle the thrash of Bethenny,” Luann noted in a June 9 publication by Bustle. “I can deal with her … But Kelly, the gorgeous and fabulous woman that she is, isn’t equipped for this kind of scenario.”
While Luann wasn’t present when the spat between Bethenny and Kelly went down, she received text messages throughout the evening as Bethenny highlighted Kelly’s bizarre and erratic behavior and demanded she “go to sleep.”
“I said, ‘Just take a deep breath, don’t let them get to you because they will.’”
“Kelly didn’t want to go without me or [Jill Zarin], her backers, and I told her, ‘You will not survive without me,’ but I’m so glad she did because it wouldn’t be Scary Island if I was there. I would never let that go down,” she continued.
According to Luann, she was upset by the drama that took place and made a point to assist Kelly in her reinvention, even reaching out to Andy Cohen, 57, in an effort to get her cast on The Real Housewives: Ultimate Girls Trip for its RHONY: Legacy season, which featured former cast members of RHONY.
“Andy said, ‘You know what, I love that because Kelly’s done so much work on herself, got a real estate license, and rose from the ashes,’” she recalled.
However, “Scary Island” did come back to haunt Kelly amid filming when she was confronted about her encounter with Bethenny by Dorinda Medley, 60.
“This story never really left her side, which always upset me because she’s not crazy. She’s not equipped for that kind of drama,” insisted Luann.
As for Sonja, she admitted to being taken aback by Kelly’s outburst.
“I had never seen Kelly behave like that ever in my life. I was like, ‘Girls, she needs help right now. We don’t need to make this worse,’” she shared.
Sonja then noted that she stayed with Ramona, 68, for the rest of the night.
“The rooms had sliding doors and I only had one umbrella and I needed two [to barricade myself]. So I took mine and went over to Ramona’s room and we wedged our umbrellas together,” she revealed.
