Carole Radziwill Will ‘Answer Everything’ About Her Controversial Ties to Jeffrey Epstein in ‘RHONY’ Season 16, Andy Cohen Promises
Carole Radziwill will address the elephant in the room in The Real Housewives of New York City Season 16, Andy Cohen says.
Radziwill returns to Bravo in September, eight years after her departure from the show. She’ll not only have to find her place in an entirely new cast of Housewives, but she’ll also have to answer some tough questions about her connection to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
Andy Cohen says fans will be ‘missing out’ if they boycott ‘RHONY’ Season 16
Radziwill’s name is in the infamous Epstein files because of her former friendship with the disgraced financier’s associate Ghislaine Maxwell. (Maxwell is currently serving a 20-year sentence for sex trafficking.) In an interview with The New York Times earlier this year, the former journalist admitted that she was friends with Maxwell for five or six years in the early 2000s. But she said she never knew Epstein.
On Sunday, Cohen took to Threads to answer questions from Bravo fans. One person wanted to know why Radziwill was invited back to RHONY given her Epstein ties. The added that “many” outraged fans would be boycotting the upcoming season in response.
“Then they’re missing out,” Cohen said, in response to the boycott threats. “And [Radziwill] answers everything you’d want to know about it on the show.”
Radziwill’s ties to Epstein are addressed directly in the RHONY Season 16 trailer.
“She’s the one from the Epstein files!” a person yells out as Radziwill walks down the street.
Fellow cast member Sai de Silva also asks Radziwill about her Epstein connections.
“You never went to this island?” she said.
“No. You think I’m part of an international sex-trafficking ring?” Radziwill replies.
Carole Radziwill called Ghislaine Maxwell ‘a monster’
In her New York Times interview, Radziwill said she was stunned to learn of Maxwell’s crimes once they became public knowledge.
“Imagine knowing someone… and then they turn out to be, like, a monster,” she said.
“The thing about her that made it easy for me to spend any time with her at all was that she was very intelligent, she was educated,” she added. “If you lined up 10 women, and you asked, like, pick the woman who would be involved in an international sex trafficking ring, it would not be her.”
The RHONY trailer also shows Radziwill grappling with the release of FX’s American Love Story. That show focuses on relationship between John F. Kennedy Jr. and Carolyn Bessette. Radziwill’s former husband and JFK Jr’s cousin, Anthony Radziwill, who died just weeks after his famous relative) is also a character in the series. (Although Radziwill was close with Bessette, she is not a character in the series.)
“Everyone’s American love story is my American horror story,” Radziwill says in a voiceover in the RHONY teaser.
In another comment on Threads, Cohen promised that the new season of RHONY – which features three all-new Housewives – would be a must watch.
“[P]eople are going to fall in love hard for the new HW very quickly,” he said. “And the returning HW will surprise you. And Radziwill is CLOCKED IN.”
The Real Housewives of New York City Season 16 premieres Tuesday, September 8 at 8 p.m. ET/PT on Bravo. Episodes stream the next day on Peacock.
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