Real Housewives Of New York season 9 is here and it’s clear these women have been fighting, downing pinot grigio, and going on terrible-but-gorgeous vacations together for nearly a decade. Premiere episode “Talk Of The Town” shows there’s tons of history here, as all the ladies visit each other’s palatial NYC digs as a way to remind both themselves and the audience of who hates whom. LuAnn (de Lesseps) D'Agostino is mad at Ramona Singer, but will still sip goblets of wine with her. Dorinda Medley and Carole Radziwill have no clue why they’re not closer. Bethenny Frankel just wants to ditch her “money pit” apartment.
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A lot of this is rehashing the past — and that’s why we need to blow the entire grigio-soaked thing up. Thankfully, we have just the right person to supply the dynamite in the form of Sonja Morgan’s new roommate, Tinsley Mortimer, who will make her debut as a Housewife next week.
With many battle lines are already permanently tattooed into the reality TV sand, RHONY needs a wild card to shake things up.
Housewives are notoriously cagey about difficult parts of their lives: Take LuAnn’s decision to ignore the many suspicious infidelities rumors trailing her new husband Tom. Tinsley isn’t playing that game. In an introductory interview with Bravo's The Daily Dish, the East Coast It girl-turned-polarizing socialite explains why she’s joining New York. “I was arrested. Had a mugshot,” she admits. “After something like getting a mugshot and having it plastered all over every paper and all over the Internet, I felt like I hit rock bottom a little bit. So I felt like [there] was no hesitation to join the show.”
Tinsley, who’s both a former Gossip Girl guest star and apparent descendant of Thomas Jefferson, was arrested in April 2016 for allegedly trespassing on ex-boyfriend Nico Fanjul’s Palm Beach property after their "terrible" relationship "blew up." She spent about three hours in jail and isn’t hiding that fact from anybody.
Unlike every other New York Housewife, Tinsley doesn’t have any major alliances other than Revolving Door Grey Gardens roomie Sonja. Even Sonja’s closest friends like Ramona have only heard of the newbie through investigative Google searches, as the Turtle Timer confirms in a preview for episode 2, "It Girl, Interrupted."
“They had a very bad co-dependent relationship. I read, I read online,” Ramona says of Tinsley and Nico's breakup, making sure we understand she hasn't hung out with the new girl yet.
Soon enough Ramona, along with the rest of the RHONY crew, will experience Tinsley in the flesh, and we can't wait to see what happens next.