Oh Ramona Singer, you are something else. The Real Housewives of New York star appeared on Amy Phillips’ radio show Reality Checked this week and she was your typical Ramona (just speaking a little slower now, which she mentioned a few times during the interview). Ramona gave the scoop on Luann de Lesseps‘ new man Tom D’Agastino, claiming that Sonja Morgan dated him for ten years – right up until Luann got with him, and so, so much more – like nicknaming herself The Caregiver.
Ramona starts off sharing with Amy her thoughts on the current season, “we all know each other so intensely that it all shows up on camera. It’s like fireworks, not superficial fireworks – like deep burns.”
Is she glad that Kristen Taekman and Heather Thomson are out of the picture this season and that Bethenny’s back? “Well, when Heather and Kristen left they not only brought Bethenny, but Dorinda on because I knew Dorinda. She’s very magical.”
Ramona says she’s the one who convinced Dorinda Medley to join the show. She says Dorinda couldn’t have done the show before her husband passed because he was a top business man with ties with the Clintons, the Reagans, and on the board at Harvard, so it wouldn’t have worked for her to come on then. But after he passed she thinks Dorinda seemed a little lost and so Ramona threw the idea out to her and she liked it. She says she wanted Dorinda because it’s all about having a genuine friend and a real connection. Ramona then quips that Sonja has asked if she’s been dumped for Dorinda.
Amy admits that sometimes it does feel like maybe Sonja is taking a back seat. How does Ramona manage both friendships? “Dorinda, for me, because you know I was with someone for a long time and got divorced and that’s like a death and she could really relate to me going through my divorce, which was probably the most difficult thing I went through in my life, even my mother dying of cancer. Sonja just wasn’t there for me. Sonja a lot of times is just about Sonja and that’s just who she is. And I kind of found out. I’m a caregiver type. I take care of everybody. If I like you, I help you, which you saw that. I’ll help people I like. So I was very disappointed in the way she did not help me going through my divorce. And Dorinda was there for me.”
Amy says that at the beginning of the season last year when Sonja was very “been there, done that” about her own experiences with divorce, she thought Sonja was joking around, but it was clear that Sonja wasn’t giving Ramona what she needed. Ramona agrees. “No, it was actually very hurtful. When I left that lunch I looked at the producers and I said, ‘what just happened here’? I felt it was all about her. I’m looking for my good friend to say ‘hey, it’s going to be okay. Hey, let me give you a hug, Hey, I’m sorry you’re going through this hard time.’ That’s what I was looking for from her, there was nothing nurturing. It was all about her.” She says when Sonja saw the scenes she blamed editing. Ramona says, “I didn’t have the heart to tell her ‘no that’s how you actually were’.”
“Sonja only gets what she wants to get and she’s in denial about a lot of things. I love Sonja and I adore her, but that’s just Sonja.” She adds, “No one’s perfect, I’m not perfect. That’s one of her imperfections. She doesn’t really care give other people.”
She then wants to talk about what Dorinda said in her confessional scene stating that Ramona was never invited to John’s party. “She invited me! I didn’t get the formal invitation but when I saw her, she said ‘Ramona I want you to come by’.” Ramona says she wishes she had never gone to the event.
Amy asks for clarification on who Rey is exactly. “Rey is an ex-boyfriend, lover of Luann’s, we were just speaking and I had no idea he was disrespectful for Luann. I just saw John coming up to me and getting aggressive.” She says that if John had just simply told her that the guy had been aggressive with Luann she would’ve stepped away from Rey. “But me, the caregiver, wanted to know why John was throwing him out.”
Ramona says, “there’s no excuse for him putting his hand in my face.” She says “did you ever see his hand up close? He scared the crap out of me. I was scared. I was literally scared. I was crying.” She doesn’t know how things turned so fast, she wanted to leave ASAP. She says “and then you know what he does? He calls it in to The Post because he wants his dry cleaning in The Post.” She thinks John could’ve pulled Rey to the side and didn’t need to get aggressive with her.
Amy says she’s never seen Ramona go to bat for someone like that before and Ramona says it’s because of how aggressive John is and how he was with Bethenny and it also reminded her of how her father would get with her mother. “I just felt I should defend him, that’s part of my caregiving role. I defend everybody and help everyone.”
Ramona says she’s fine with John right now and has been with him socially three or four times since.
On the Tipsy Girl controversy, “I think it was to provoke Bethenny. It was calculated. Not by Sonja, by the person who developed and trademarked it.” (Peter) She says that she had a contract with them (for AOA) and then they wanted to redo it all and “you can’t do business with people who want to redo contracts, so I just walked away. I could’ve taken it to court but I was already going through a divorce, why would I want to be in bed with someone who’s not legit?”
Was Bethenny too hard on Sonja? “I said to Sonja on the show, I’m not sure how much they’ll show of it, ‘Bethenny didn’t become successful until she was 40 or something and it’s her baby and if anyone goes after her baby, she’s going to be protective like a bear.’ And the fact that Sonja never spoke to her about it, I don’t think that was very cool.” She adds, “Sonja sometimes does things selfishly without thinking because she knows maybe what she’s doing is wrong. She knew I was friendly with Peter, she knew I was partners with him. Why wouldn’t she come to me also and say, ‘Ramona, he’s offering me this deal, what do you think?’ I would’ve told her ‘run, don’t walk, run away’.”
Amy asks how things work now with her businesses since divorcing Mario. “My business for a long time was the wholesale business. That’s why when I came on the show I was already extremely successful and in a very good place with many assets worth millions of dollars and then through the show, I did the show to help my ex-husband’s business and I helped with that. And through the show I got offered other opportunities like HSN, Ramona Pinot Grigio, But basically, you’re married and you divide assets, we had a pretty amicable divorce. It was done in three months.”
Ramona’s dating life is quiet right now. “Last summer I dated someone exclusively for four or five months and then I had another one for four or five months.” She says that in January a friend of hers asked why she was rushing into another relationship and advised her to date up a storm, so that’s what she’s doing. In Fall she’ll figure out where she wants to be. She’s meeting a lot of people and just enjoying it.
Ramona reveals that she went to visit Avery at college for her 21st birthday and Ramona went to a frat party with her until 3am. Ramona says they had the best time and Avery bragged to her friends about it.
Ramona says she’s looking for someone at least 45 years old, but that younger men like her. “They ask me out all the time.” She says she’s dating and skating so she does go out with them, but just on dates for fun.
On Luann’s man, “Oh let’s talk about that one! He’s the new Harry Dubin. He went out with me and Sonja. At least Harry Dubin spread it out over six years, this guy did it over three months. I dated him six times between August and September, Sonja’s been ‘with him with him’ over ten years and Luann started dating him in December, right after Thanksgiving.”
Amy asks “Wait, Sonja was with him for TEN YEARS? THAT LONG?” Ramona replies, “it was a relationship, that’s what she claims. But the point is that she was with him right up until Thanksgiving when Luann was with him. And she was with Tom when Luann was living with Sonja.”
Amy wonders if Tom is trying to get on The Real Housewives of New York and Ramona says, “Well, what would you think?” She then adds that the reason we didn’t see her or Sonja with him previously on the show is that they were never filming while they were with him. She then says there was nothing ‘romantic’ with Tom, but he tried to get romantic and she wasn’t willing.
Ramona says she didn’t know that Sonja was seeing him when she was dating him and Sonja saw it in the press but never reached out to tell her. “I don’t go where Sonja’s been, so I wish she HAD told me. But it didn’t matter because I didn’t go there.”
Ramona says Luann is supposedly so big on girl code, but when she saw the article about Ramona dating Tom that she should’ve asked Ramona later on if she was still seeing him. “Hello, why not give me the heads up? What kind of girl’s code is that?” She says it’ll play out this season and is off the wall.
She does say that Luann and Tom both seem very happy and who is she to judge? “God Bless them both.”
Ramona then vents about Luann’s surprise party, saying that after she was uninvited due to “the rain” that Tom called again and re-invited her but she declined. She says Luann isn’t the smartest woman trying to blame the dis-invite on Dorinda and John because by then they were fine.
On this season, “I think you’ll see me trying to mediate everyone and tryign to get everyone to get along. and I’m in a calm place.” She says it’s a good season because their indiscretions are about real things. It’s not superficial.
Ramona says she hates fighting with Dorinda the most because she cares so much about her. “Right now I’m a little upset with her and she doesn’t know it yet. Because of how she said I wasn’t invited but she did invite me so that she did “die-flect” off of John. She needs to protect him to make him look better. He is what he is.”
TELL US – DID LUANN BREAK GIRL CODE? DOES RAMONA COME OFF AS THE CAREGIVER OF THE GROUP?
Photo Credit: Bravo TV
