Kelly Bensimon Talks Post-RHoNY Life and Enduring Friendship with LuAnn de Lesseps

Wetpaint.com:

While some Real Housewives may claim you can’t make a meaningful friendship on reality TV, others have been lucky enough to find some of their closest gal pals through the franchise. Former Real Housewives of New York star Kelly Bensimon counts herself among the latter crew, remaining close with one of her co-stars long after she left the Bravo series. 

Not long ago, Wetpaint Entertainment chatted with Kelly about her life post-RHoNY (she left after Season 4), and she filled us in on her enduring relationship with LuAnn de Lesseps. In fact, it’s LuAnn who lured the former supermodel back to the show for a brief appearance this season! 

“LuAnn and I are really good friends,” Kelly reveals. “She’s so graceful and charming and makes everybody feel like they’re the only people in the room. She’s amazing.” 

Aww! We love that these two statuesque beauties are still taking on the town together, long after the cameras disappeared.

And speaking of model Housewives, we picked Kelly’s brain about the rising number of former cover girls within the popular reality franchise. As one of the originals, Kelly was once the face of Clarins, and appeared on a number of ‘90s magazine covers, including Elle, Cosmopolitan, and Harper's Bazaar. So what does she think of her successors?

“I think it’s a good opportunity to show that women of a certain age have different lives,” Kelly explains. “I worked with [RHoA’s] Cynthia Bailey; we did stuff for Macy’s a long time ago when I was modeling. She’s a beautiful woman. [RHoBH star] Brandi Glanville — I don’t know her modeling career, but she seems like a fun-spirited girl. I think it’s just interesting to show that women can have different opportunities in their lives.”

Even though Kelly may not be frequenting photoshoots as often nowadays, she is keeping busy... getting her MBA! Proving she’s got beauty and brains, Kelly has been plugging away at earning her business degree online — a slow, but rewarding process, she says.

“It’s not something that happens overnight,” Kelly says, “but it’s something that’s been really exciting for me, just to tie a bow on the past. Whether it was magazine, books, even the world of television, I just wanted to tie a bow on that. I wanted to really do what I love, and do it the right way.”

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