"You Know When a Man Likes You": Luann de Lesseps Tells All About Her "Hot" RHUGT Hookup
Her fellow Housewives also gave their reaction to the Manu reveal, and some of them were very surprised.
Luann de Lesseps always gets her man — or, in this case, her Manu.
Turns out that Luann heated up more than Eggs a la Francaise during her recent getaway to St. Barts.
She admitted as much at the close of Peacock’s The Real Housewives Ultimate Girls Trip: RHONY Legacy. “I had a party in my room,” Luann declared as the group headed back to New York.
“Now that’s what I call a happy ending,” Luann said, smiling at her cheeky double entendre as she revealed the identity of her hookup in a confessional unseen by other former Housewives.
In exclusive interviews with the Daily Dish, Luann and her fellow Housewives offered characteristically candid — and divergent — takes on the libidinous liaison. In fact, some of them didn't even know the identity of Luann's paramour until now.
Who did Luann de Lesseps hook up with on RHUGT Season 4?
The lucky guy was none other than Manu, the sexy sous chef at the villa where Luann, Kelly Killoren Bensimon, Dorinda Medley, Sonja Morgan, Ramona Singer, and Kristen Taekman chilled out for six nights.
“I had no idea that I was going to hook up with Manu at the end of the night,” Luann confessed.
Manu flew under the radar in terms of screen time during RHONY Legacy compared to other virile men at the villa. That includes the ever-courteous concierge, Martin, as well as the dashing chef.
Instead, the handsome Manu simply popped up every now and then when the ladies stopped by the kitchen, where they dished about food, drinks, the day’s events, and, no joke, gigolos.
But eagle-eyed and attentive viewers of the Peacock series will recall that Luann and Manu shared a cute “Hello” in the kitchen of the villa in Episode 1. In retrospect, maybe that subtle meeting lit a spark that turned into a fiery farewell in Episode 6.
Then again, a little romance was always on Luann’s agenda during the trip: She’d acknowledged she was keen on finding “a new pirate.”
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That, fans know, is a reference to Luann’s much-discussed time spent with a Johnny Depp Pirates of the Caribbean lookalike in a Season 5 visit to the same St. Barts villa in The Real Housewives of New York City.
Is Luann still seeing Manu?
In a chat with Daily Dish, Luann revealed that sous chef Manu heated things up in the kitchen and on the dance floor.
"It was the cooking. It was the dancing disco party," she said, adding that they "hit it off."
The attraction was mutual, too.
"You know when a man likes you? Right? So I was like, 'OK, he's hot ... all right,'" she reminisced.
Thanks to a slightly fuzzy image of a naked Manu caught on tape in the series' final seconds, viewers can see that. And so can Luann.
"I'm excited to see that episode because I have not seen it yet," she told Daily Dish at the time.
She's in good company. Sonja, Dorinda, Kristen, and Kelly had yet to see the last episode of RHONY Legacy, where the Manu revelation comes out. When asked by Daily Dish for their response to the covert connection, they differed.
Sonja saw it coming.
“No surprise to me,” she said, as she reflected on Luann’s actions at the end of the stay.
On the other hand, Dorinda was blindsided by the sexy secret: “I didn’t see that,” she said. “I think it’s the guy from the kitchen, right?”
“Yeah,” Sonja said, serving up a pet name: “Manuchi. The little guy.”
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Kristen was totally in the dark about Manu, though. “I don’t remember even meeting him,” she gasped.
“It’s gonna be so funny when you see it,” said Sonja. “Yeah, because she’s so tall and he’s so little. Oh my god, but hot!”
“I don’t remember,” said Kristen.
“He was in the kitchen,” said Sonja. "What, do you think [Luann] was in the kitchen, ‘cause of that air conditioning?! She was in there because of the guy!”
Kelly, meanwhile, had a hunch something sexy was going on because of Luann's good mood that morning.
"I knew something was up because when we were going to the airport, I'm like, 'Why is Luann smiling like that?'" said Kelly. "Luann is like beaming. I was like, 'Something's going on over there.'"
Luann acknowledged she liked having a sexy secret in the end.
"That was my little private, you know, farewell," she laughed.
In the end, Luann traded a swashbuckler for a sous chef. Jolly roger that!
Daily Dish reporting by Stephanie Gomulka.
The Real Housewives Ultimate Girls Trip: RHONY Legacy streams on Peacock.
