Dorinda Medley Reveals Daughter Hannah’s One Condition for Filming RHONY (EXCLUSIVE)
Dorinda Medley admitted her daughter Hannah Lynch prefers a more private lifestyle.
Dorinda Medley recently sat for Bravo’s Hot Mic Podcast with producer Alex Baskin, and she just gave some juicy inside secrets from her time as a Housewife.
In Season 3, Episode 6 of the podcast, Dorinda — who famously made it nice as a main cast member for six seasons of The Real Housewives of New York City — caught listeners up on life since RHONY, and she isn’t resting on her laurels. But when asked about an update on her daughter, Hannah Lynch, Dorinda said the academic writer was “doing great” but warned she didn’t want to say too much.
“She hates when I talk about her, so we gotta be very careful,” Dorinda told Baskin.
Dorinda said she is “just Mom” and “there’s no mentioning Housewives” around her daughter. Still, she did reveal that Hannah — Dorinda’s only child from her first marriage to Ralph Lynch — had one requirement when filming RHONY.
What was Hannah Lynch’s one condition for filming RHONY?
It was Baskin who initially revealed on Hot Mic that Hannah agreed to film “once per season.”
“Once per season,” Dorinda confirmed. “It was like trying to pin down water.”
When Hannah did make her one-off appearances, however, they were “incredibly impactful” and “incredibly correct," according to Dorinda.
“No one knows me like my daughter, and my daughter’s a Capricorn, and I’m a Sagittarian, so Capricorns are more like earthy mothers," Dorinda said on the podcast. "I always said Hannah’s the map maker, and I’m the warrior, you know, so she’s really good at bringing me back to the map and saying, ‘Mom!’ So, she would come on once a year, and give her opinion, and off she went.”
According to Baskin, Hannah would “make it count.”
Dorinda even fondly recalled one occasion in particular in which Hannah called Dorinda’s ex, John Mahdessian — who appeared on RHONY multiple times during Dorinda’s tenure — a “slob kebab.”
When Baskin asked if John was pissed, Dorinda said, “Probably.”
“That’s a good thing about Hannah,” Dorinda continued. “She says it, and she drops the mic and keeps it moving.”
Dorinda on decision to join RHONY after raising Hannah
Dorinda said joining the RHONY cast in the beginning “just didn’t work” over the years while Hannah was still enrolled in private school. Off camera, Dorinda was close with several of the Housewives, but it was Ramona Singer who encouraged her to be a friend of the series after the death of Dorinda’s second husband, Richard Medley, and Hannah leaving for college.
Dorinda agreed to try RHONY for a year, figuring she wouldn’t return if she didn’t like it.
“I really was like, ‘You know what? I’ve gone through so much transition; I’m obviously a little bit lost because things didn’t work out the way I had planned them — because we all have a blueprint for the perfect life we’re gonna have,” she continued. “I thought, ‘I’m gonna give it a shot.’”
Dorinda said the decision to sign up for the show came at a time when she was “slightly discouraged.” However, her vulnerability made her “rawly honest” and allowed her to not “give a s--t.”
“Richard’s gone [and] all these titles I carried for years: ‘Mother,’’ Wife’ … I was just like, ‘That’s all gone now. Now, I’m just gonna be a badass Housewife.’”
Since her RHONY exit in 2020, Dorinda’s badassery has only continued. She joined two seasons of The Real Housewives Ultimate Girls Trip (first hosting Season 2 at her Bluestone Manor for the Ex-Wives Club installment, and then joining her former costars for RHUGT Season 4, dubbed RHONY Legacy).
She will soon compete in the third season of Peacock’s The Traitors, cloaks and daggers included.
See Dorinda in past episodes of The Real Housewives of New York City, now available on Bravo and Peacock, and listen to her full Bravo’s Hot Mic Podcast interview on Bravo or anywhere you listen to your favorite podcasts.
