Create a free profile to get unlimited access to exclusive videos, sweepstakes, and more!
RHONY Pal Elyse Shares That She Introduced Bethenny and Jill Back in the Day
Elyse Slaine, Ramona Singer's friend on RHONY, opens up about her history with the crew.
The Real Housewives of New York City fans are getting to know Ramona Singer's friend Elyse Slaine a little better during Season 12 as she hangs out with the group. But it turns out her relationships with the RHONY crew, past and present, runs deep.
In fact, Elyse claims she's the reason Bethenny Frankel and Jill Zarin became BFFs back in the day.
“I thought that they would enjoy knowing one another. I was having dinner with my then-husband and Jill and Bobby [Zarin] and I just invited Bethenny to come along because I thought, ‘Oh, they would really like one another,’ and I love connecting people," she said in a recent interview with Us Weekly.
Since that first encounter, they were tight-knit, but then Bethenny and Jill famously had a falling-out right in front of RHONY viewers — and reconnected again following Bobby Zarin's passing in 2018. And of course, both Bethenny and Jill have stepped away from RHONY.
As for where things stand between Elyse and Bethenny, she told Us Weekly that she has a “tremendous respect” for the entrepreneur and philanthropist. “If we see each other, we’re certainly very friendly to one another. But from what I hear, Bethenny’s always great, right? Regardless of the fact that we lost touch with one another, we had a falling out. It was really over nothing," she said.
She's also “mended fences” with Jill. “A few weeks after Bobby died, we went on a group trip with a bunch of friends to Morocco and we’ve been in touch since,” Elaine explained. “We’ve had dinner together with another mutual friend. We talk on the phone.”
She's even met Jill's boyfriend, Gary Brody (who she began dating in 2018), who Elyse called a “sweetheart.”
“It’s funny because after Bobby passed, I thought, ‘Oh my God. Poor, Jill. Will she ever find another guy as smitten with her as Bobby?’ And then comes Gary who looks at her like she’s his long-lost puppy," she said.
Want more RHONY? New episodes air every Thursday at 9/8c or catch up on this season through the Bravo app.
Preview, below.
