Heavy/Getty/NBCUniversal RHONY season 14 cast.
Erin Lichy spoke out about her debut season on “The Real Housewives of New York City.” The revamped version of the Bravo reality show aired in 2023 and starred Lichy, Jenna Lyons, Ubah Hasan, Jessel Tank, Sai De Silva, and Brynn Whitfield.
While there were some shady moments— infidelity speculation flew and Lichy and Hassan got into a fight over a swiped cellphone—a lot of the “drama” was about food and clothes. Compared to the former cast’s blowout fights, the new RHONY was mild.
Speaking with Today.com in February 2024, Lichy admitted that the new New York City cast could use a little more drama. But she also explained why they will likely never get to the level of “The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City,” which ended its fourth season with a major bombshell that no one saw coming.
Lichy told Today that SLC and NY “have the same production team,” so she knew ahead of time that something big happened on the finale.
“Everyone kept saying, ‘The finale! The [RHOSLC] finale is crazy!’ I did not know that it would be at this level of crazy. Like, it’s beyond,” she said. “When I finished it, I was like, OK, well, they crushed it. That was unbelievable.”
Lichy admitted she was “stunned” by the ending of the Salt Lake City-based show. “Then I started thinking about our show, and it’s just so different,” she said. “If we were to have a similar scenario, I don’t know how we all would have reacted. To a certain extent, maybe we do need to bring the drama.”
The RHONY star noted that her cast mates are “actually friends.” She also pointed out that their show has more “comedy” than the other franchises.
The RHOSLC Finale Ended With a Twist Uncovered By Heather Gay
Heavy/PeacockHeather Gay in a scene from ‘The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City’ finale.
Lichy’s description of the RHOSLC was spot on. In January, the RHOSLC season 4 finale, titled “Mysteries, Revealed?,” featured Heather Gay exposing newcomer Monica Garcia’s secret past as the alleged mastermind of the troll Instagram account “Reality Von Tease.” The “Bad Mormon” author called out Garcia after getting information from her hairstylist, Tenesha Luckett. The troll account tormented the RHOSLC cast for more than two years.
“Monica is not who she says she is,” Gay told the rest of the cast during a trip to Bermuda. “She’s not our friend. She’s someone that has schemed and worked to infiltrate our friend group. And the name that you all know her as, the woman whose birthday was celebrated, who we’ve been trying to champion and support and defend is Reality Von Tease.”
Garcia later admitted Reality Von Tease was launched in early 2021 to target former RHOSLC star Jen Shah, who is currently serving prison time for a telemarketing scheme that defrauded the elderly.
Erin Lichy Said There Was ‘Contention’ Among Her Castmates After the RHONY Reunion
BravoPictured: (l-r) Ubah Hassan, Brynn Whitfield, J.essel Taank, Erin Lichy, Jenna Lyons, Sai de Silva.
In the Today interview, Lichy hinted that some things have happened between some of her co-stars in the months since the RHONY reunion taped.
“After the reunion wrapped, things got hard,” she said. “There was discord and a lot of contention. There are things that have happened since we wrapped that I’m really disappointed with. It’s like any friend group where you go through things with your friends. Sometimes you realize that certain people aren’t exactly what you thought. Or they will do things that don’t align with you.”
Lichy declined to elaborate on the “discord.”
In January, Bravo host Andy Cohen told Us Weekly that he was happy that fans tuned in for the RHONY reboot. But he noted that some areas need to be tweaked when the 15th season of the show kicks off.
“I was incredibly relieved by the reception and also the grace that people gave. Because the original RHONY women were just chef’s kiss and they held such a special place in people’s hearts,” he said of the cast changes. “So I think for people to kind of be able to say okay we’re going to give this a chance. And I think that there were some growth areas and I think that those will be dealt with next season.”
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RHONY Star Reveals the 1 Thing the New Cast Needs to Do Next Season