Carole Radziwill on the Two Words Bravo “Hated,” Slams Bethenny Friendship as “Transactional,” Plus How She Got Cast on RHONY

Carole Radziwill has just revealed why she was cast on The Real Housewives of New York City despite being very different from the other women.

During a podcast appearance this week, Carole explained what sealed the deal for Andy Cohen before opening up about why she nearly didn’t join, her “transactional” relationship with Bethenny Frankel, Tinsley Mortimer‘s unexpected romance with Scott Kluth, and more.

“Andy found out I was technically a princess and he nearly fainted,” Carole recalled on the March 30 episode of Not Skinny But Not Fat. “I was telling this story about how the Radziwill family got back the castles that were taken from their family during World War II. And Andy was like, ‘You’re a princess? Would you consider being on the show?’”

Although Carole hadn’t yet seen the show, she quickly watched a couple of seasons sent to her by Andy and immediately became hesitant about her potential role.

“I was like, ‘I don’t think I [can] do this because I’m not [going to get] drunk on television or take my clothes off.’ I wasn’t going to call any of the cast all the really sexist, misogynistic names that they all call each other or age-shame. But I said, ‘If you want me to just to be who I am… I’ll do it,’” she explained, noting that she found the women of the show to be much different than her.

“I didn’t look like the other women. I lived downtown. I think that I was more thoughtful than the other women and more articulate in the way that I expressed myself,” Carole continued.

Still, she was able to form friendships with the RHONY cast after joining for season five in 2012, one of which included her now-ex-friend Bethenny.

“We did have, I thought, a genuine friendship. In retrospect, a lot of her relationships are transactional,” Carole shared. “If she [acted] upset about the demise of our friendship, it was by her own creation.”

According to Carole, Bethenny decided to fabricate a storyline in which she was no longer her ally and wanted to end their friendship.

“I think she decided it was a good business decision,” Carole suspected, adding that “none of the other women are really friends.”

“They’re colleagues. It’s a business. You sign contracts, you get paid,” she explained.

In addition to her short-lived friendship with Bethenny, Carole also appeared to be close with Tinsley at times, and as fans saw on the show, she actually set her up with her now-ex-fiancé, Scott.

“I thought that was just going to be a one-off fun scene,” Carole shared, looking back. “I didn’t know [Scott] that well. I had met him through a friend, but I thought they would really get along. He likes this kind of messy woman and she likes the kind of guy he is.”

After Carole and Bethenny’s friendship blew up amid season 10, Carole was informed that her role on the show was no longer “working out.”

“I was very upset [with] production. It’s a toxic environment. It was what I called the Bravo machine. They hated when I said that. I think I’m like forbidden to say those two words,” she admitted.

Following her July 2018 exit from the series, after which she “had PTSD (Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder),” Carole said the “Bravo machine” reared its ugly head yet again as Tinsley allegedly lied about the status of her relationship with Scott.

“It was really bothering [Dorinda] because she was laying it all on the line. There are people on the show that just aren’t really honest about what’s going on with their life. Again, it’s part of getting caught up in the machine of creating a storyline,” Carole explained.

Also during the interview, Carole opened up about a “date” she went on with Alec Baldwin while working as a columnist for Glamour magazine that nearly turned into something more.

“Every month, [I would] take a celebrity out to lunch. And Alec Baldwin was one of the first ones. He was so funny. I was single at the time. He wanted to go after the lunch to have a drink. But I was like, ‘I gotta go,’” she revealed.

The Real Housewives of New York City season 13 premieres on May 4 at 9/8c on Bravo.