Like viewers at home, Kelly Bensimon will never forget The Real Housewives of New York City’s trip to Scary Island.
In 2010, the cast of Bravo’s reality show traveled to St. John for a vacation that has been called the greatest — and wildest — Real Housewives trip of all time.
Fifteen years later, Kelly still wishes the getaway had a little less drama and a lot more entertainment.
“I didn’t get to do anything fun,” Kelly, 57, exclusively shared with Us Weekly at iHeartRadio and Vrbo’s Pickleball Tournament in Lake Tahoe, California. “I didn’t get to get drunk. I didn’t get to roll around in the leaves or the bushes. I didn’t get to meet the pirate. I didn’t get to have any fun. All I got to do was, like, eat jelly beans and get yelled at. Like, that is not fair.”
The Real Housewives of New York City premiered in 2008, but not every Housewife has gone the distance. The season 1 cast of RHONY included Luann de Lesseps, Ramona Singer, Bethenny Frankel, Jill Zarin and Alex McCord. While Kelly Killoren Bensimon joined the cast during season 2, Sonja Morgan became a full-time cast member during […]
Cameras rolled as Kelly struggled to get along with Ramona Singer, Alex McCord and Sonja Morgan. At one point, cast member Bethenny Frankel famously yelled at Kelly, “Go to sleep!”
During the getaway, Kelly said she thought about quitting the entire show.
“I called my agent right when we were on the boat,” she recalled to Us. “I said to him, ‘This is where we’re done here. This is not going my way. There are things that are happening that are organized and I am going to be this villain for no reason.’”
Kelly Bensimon Clifton Prescod / Peacock / Courtesy Everett Collection
Ultimately, Kelly stayed with the show until the end of season 4. Before moving on to other things, the host of iHeartRadio’s “I Do, Part 2” podcast was able to experience a cast trip in Morocco.
“I watched Luann [de Lesseps] almost fall off a camel. It was amazing,” she said about the season 4 vacation. “I mean, listen. Life is good, bad and sometimes very ugly, and you can’t have the good without the bad, and especially on these shows.”
Despite her negative experience vacationing in St. John, Kelly said she still sent a thank you card to her cast members and the crew once she made it home to New York.
“I always send a thank you note,” the Douglas Elliman real estate agent said. “It’s important because it’s our job. We’re working, and I just want to say thank you. I appreciate what we do together, and the fans may see it a different way, but for me, I work really hard and I take it really seriously, and I make a concerted effort to be present. I really loved my time on Housewives.”
To this day, Kelly said she still gets approached by fans about the Scary Island trip.
When asked to describe the vacation in a few words, Kelly knew just what to say.
“Ferocious, feisty and fantastic,” she said. “I was running in this gorgeous dress with jelly beans.”
The Real Housewives of New York City is streaming now on Peacock.
