Kelly Bensimon Reveals What Really Happened on ‘Scary Island’

Kelly Bensimon

Hulu/Bravo Kelly Bensimon

In a new YouTube video, former “Real Housewives of New York” star Kelly Killoren Bensimon is finally revealing what really went down on “Scary Island” during season three.

During the new video, Bensimon gave some behind-the-scenes context as to why the cast trip to St. John ended up going so wrong for her. “We find out that one of the castmates has a very traumatic health issue,” Bensimon revealed. “I immediately was just like, ‘I don’t want to film.’ I can’t be around this, I can’t be a part of this, I’m not here to be a part of any of this. And it really, really, sets the tone for a very, very bad trip. I wanted to leave immediately.”

Bensimon continued, explaining, “I just did not want to engage with someone who had a health issue in front of me. I just wasn’t going to film and have someone have some kind of issue. So, every single time there was a scene that was raised voices or people were getting aggressive or heart rates were going up, as you could see by all those scenes, I was always leaving. I just didn’t want to be a part of that conversation or have any kind of bad things happen to anybody while we were filming.”

Bensimon was a cast member of “The Real Housewives of New York” during seasons one through four.


Bensimon Said That Her Daughters Wanted Her to Come Home

In the video, Bensimon then explained what things were like when they arrived at the second part of the trip, where the cast stayed at a vacation home. The former “Real Housewives of New York” star revealed that during one of the nights at the home, she got an alarming phone call from her daughter, which set the tone for the rest of the trip. Bensimon received the call during the same night of the infamous dinner where Bethenny Frankel yelled at Bensimon to “go to sleep.”

“I got a phone call from my daughter screaming at me…if you do know this about me, I am a serious mama bear,” Bensimon explained during the video. “My children come first, I’ve always put my children first, they are my number one priority. She’s screaming and crying, and my nanny gets on the phone, and tells me that she is leaving…When a child is crying and tells you when you’re on a trip, whether it’s for work or play, and says, ‘you need to come and get me immediately, I hate my nanny, I want you home,’ that really, really affected me.”

Bensimon continued, explaining after she had talked to her daughter, she told producers that she was going to be leaving the next morning. “The thing that was going through my head was, ‘were my kids going to be okay, were they going to be happy?'” Bensimon said about the night. “Some ladies were snapping at me because I wasn’t responding to their conversation, which I just wasn’t in the mind space to listen to their conversation.”


Bensimon Also Unpacked the Infamous Dinner on ‘Scary Island’

That night, after Bensimon had received the phone call from her daughter, the ladies went out to dinner, which went down in “Real Housewives” history.

“I just remember being yelled at by another adult. I’ve never been yelled at by anyone in my entire life, and I was just so dumbfounded,” Bensimon said about her time at the dinner. “I was shellshocked. It was just so much built up … At the time, the women who were on the show were more concerned with being on another show with the woman with the health issues than to be a good, solid, friend. There were a lot of things that were happening. My children were bawling their eyes out, I had to organize their safety.”

“I just couldn’t wait to get off the island,” Bensimon said. “I couldn’t wait to get home to my family. Not to get away from the filming, I just couldn’t wait to get to a place where I can make sure my children are safe. The following days afterward, I didn’t sit at the restaurant with everyone else and badmouth people…it wasn’t the right fit. I had an issue with my family and I made the decision to go home, and I went home.”

At the end of the video, Bensimon reassured her fans that now, she is doing well, and considers herself to be very “lucky.”

“I have so many people in New York who were so incredibly helpful to me,” Bensimon said. “And who were like, you have to pivot, and let this go behind you.”

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