What Really Happened on Scary Island? Looking Back at the Memorable RHONY Vacation
Scary Island's legacy lives on more than a decade later, as many of its original participants take another vacay on The Real Housewives Ultimate Girls Trip.
Historic. Memorable. Classic. Fans of the Real Housewives use all sorts of words to describe The Real Housewives of New York City Season 3 girls trip, including “iconic” as they rank it near the top of all vacays seen on the franchises. It was one of the first vacations ever to be featured on a Real Housewives, all the way back in 2009.
The episode with the most explosive dinner of the trip is called “Sun, Sand and Psychosis,” but many fans instead call it “Scary Island.” How did it get its name? From Kelly Killoren Bensimon herself.
“I’m here by myself. I’m alone on Scary Island,” she famously uttered during a confessional on vacation in St. John in the Virgin Islands, giving fans the name that would live on more than a decade after the girls trip.
What happened on RHONY's Scary Island vacation?
Kelly, Ramona Singer, Alex McCord, Sonja Morgan, and the rest of the cast traveled to St. John for a getaway during Season 3. Kelly had been having difficulties with a few of the ‘Wives, and the chaos amped up when one of them decided to leave a bag of goodies outside each of the women's room, claiming it was a nice gesture.
But that’s not how Kelly interpreted it.
“I don’t get why she did this. I don’t get why she did this,” Kelly said when she opened the bag. “It was so impersonal, and it just rubbed me the wrong way.”
Kelly began crying on her bed shortly after, before telling the cameras she was “alone on Scary Island with no friends.” She decided to call Jill Zarin and told her the trip was a “disaster” so far.
Jill was concerned about Kelly after the call.
“Kelly called me from the Virgin Islands, and I got really worried,” Jill said in her confessional. “She’s not making any sense to me. I can’t get a full thought out of her, and I like her so much. And I don’t want anything bad to happen to her.”
Later that night, they had a home-cooked meal at their vacation home, and Kelly continued to share her concerns about the trip with the 'Wives, claiming one of the women went after "her little girl" in the press.
“If you’re telling me you’re going off the deep edge because you were like torn apart in the press and your kids were involved, I get that,” Sonja said to Kelly but the dinner was soon thrown into chaos, with Kelly choosing to leave the table.
“Does anybody want a jellybean? Or a lollipop?” Kelly asked when she returned, as she ate some of the jellybeans. “Can we just calm down and stop?”
Sonja tried to diffuse the situation and said the ‘Wives were “picking on [Kelly],” but Kelly continued with her accusations, leading to a confusing fight.
RHONY producer Matt Anderson gave his first-ever interview about Scary Island during BravoCon 2022. He revealed there was “a lot they didn’t show” for editing, including Kelly being the first Housewife to break the fourth wall.
“It was a crazy night. Kelly felt like she had to stay at that dinner … and we kept saying, ‘If you’re agitated, you can leave,’” Anderson said. “She didn’t like where it was going, so she just said my name over and over. She goes, ‘Matt, Matt, Matt, Matty, Matty’…and that’s where [it was like], ‘Go to sleep!’”
Anderson revealed Kelly then went to bed, and they decided it was time for her to go home and leave the trip early.
“She quit the show the next day,” he said. “And happily, she decided to do the rest of the season, but she was really upset with how things went.”
How did Scary Island impact the RHONY women?
Andy asked Kelly on Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen about the impact of Scary Island on her life, and she admitted the reaction was difficult.
“It’s not easy to come back from crazy, Andy,” Kelly said. “Like that doesn’t brand well. I was toxic. You couldn’t touch me. Not touch me at all. No one wanted to go around me. No one wanted to be near me. Everyone was like, ‘What’s wrong with Kelly?’ All these people that I’ve grown up with. That I’ve built to this name, and had so much integrity, and so proud of was literally like destroyed by someone that didn’t even know me that was calling me crazy."
Alex also gave her take on Scary Island to The Daily Dish podcast in May 2017.
“Scary Island was actually really, really, really, funny until it wasn’t,” she said. “... I think that was anxiety gone mad. I don’t think that there was anything nefarious happening. Kelly’s threshold for being uncomfortable is different than everyone else’s.”
The cast of The Real Housewives Ultimate Girls Trip: RHONY Legacy has referenced Scary Island while discussing the new series.
“It’s kinda Scary Island Part Two,” Luann de Lesseps teased to Andy of RHUGT on WWHL in July 2023, but didn’t reveal what that means.
Watch the first three episodes of RHUGT: RHONY Legacy, which also includes Dorinda Medley and Kristen Taekman, on Thursday, Dec. 14 on Peacock, with new episodes available on Thursdays after the premiere.
