The Real Housewives of New York launched in 2008 and quickly became one of Bravo’s crown jewels. Viewers loved watching the drama, friendships, and feuds unfold among the Big Apple’s most glamorous and outspoken women.
However, in 2022, Bravo shook things up. The network scrapped the existing cast and announced a total reboot for Season 14—while promising fans a spinoff called RHONY: Legacy, which would feature the original stars and come at a later date. The reboot premiered, but Legacy never materialized.
Now, RHONY OG Luann de Lesseps is pulling back the curtain on how things fell apart.
Jill Zarin “didn’t want to do” RHONY Legacy, according to Luann de Lesseps
Luann explained why the Legacy project stalled during a recent appearance on Gibson Johns’ Gabbing With Gib podcast. She admitted that Bravo had taken a flawed approach from the start. “Well, it was a big thing, too, to swap up the cast completely,” she said.
Luann noted that trying to juggle both the reboot and the spinoff backfired. “But they decided to do both, and one after the other sort of fell off the wagon in terms of, you know, Jill [Zarin] didn’t wanna do it. I mean, she did, but you know, there were contractual things.”
According to Luann, behind-the-scenes negotiations created major roadblocks. “So, there’s a lot of politics that go on with it, and then all of a sudden we’re replaced. You know, they tried something out, it didn’t work, and I think they’re going to try it again.” She added that she hopes “they’ll bring one or two or three of the OGs around for a little visit.”
Luann also criticized how Bravo assembled the reboot cast. She claimed they “threw this new cast together who didn’t really know each other.” As for her own wish list, she suggested, “At least send us on another [season of] Ultimate Girls Trip. Let’s go Below Deck with Captain Sandy.”
Money, unsurprisingly, was a sticking point. Luann revealed she wasn’t happy with the contract Bravo offered for Legacy. Jill confirmed she also turned it down, calling her paycheck unfair. Jill explained, “Bravo put out a story that I was asking for a million dollars an episode. They wanted to make me look bad, which wasn’t nice.”
Jill talked to The Cut last year and claimed that she pitched the idea of making Legacy into an Ultimate Girls Trip season. Bravo went forward with that for Season 4, which premiered in late 2023, but left her off the cast. “They wanted to punish me, so they didn’t invite me. But really, the punishment was for the fans,” she said. Jill did end up on Below Deck at one point; it DID NOT go well.
So, for now, the mystery of RHONY: Legacy remains unsolved, and fans may never get the closure they’re waiting for.
The Real Housewives of New York streams on Peacock. Viewers in the U.K. and Ireland can watch on Hayu.
TELL US – DO YOU THINK WE’LL EVER GET RHONY: LEGACY IN ANY FORM?
