Dorinda and Bravo Producer List the 2 Major Rules for Filming RHONY: “If You Don’t Like It…”
Plus, hear why Dorinda said being put on pause was "the best thing that ever happened" to her.
Dorinda Medley knows a thing or two about being a Housewife, and she’s giving listeners the inside scoop on Bravo’s Hot Mic Podcast.
The Real Housewives of New York City alum sat with Bravo producer Alex Baskin for Bravo's official podcast, leaving no stone unturned about life in front of the cameras. Known for her up-front ways, she and Baskin noted there are a few rules that Housewives must abide by if they want to, well, make it nice!
And with Dorinda known as a woman who likes to make the rules — as fondly remembered in The Real Housewives Ultimate Girls Trip — fans would be wise to listen up.
What are the rules for being on Real Housewives?
Dorinda and Baskin agreed that one of the "central rules" for being in the Housewives franchise is boldly speaking your mind, even though to do so in real life would be “deemed rude,” according to Baskin. Secondly, Dorinda added, you must let secrets see the light of day.
“Well, you know, we grew up with that book, Everything I learned in Kindergarten. You take that book and throw it away. You take everything you learned in kindergarten and throw it out the door and do all the opposite,” Dorinda told Hot Mic. “If you don’t like it, you say it. If you have a secret, you tell it. You share, share, share, and you’re right. You have to be thinking out loud all the time.”
Dorinda said she’d be less inclined to tell someone if their dress looked horrible, for example, under different circumstances.
“I may think it, and I may talk about it when I have a couple of drinks to my friend in the corner, like, ‘She just looks terrible,’ but now you’re saying it all,” Dorinda continued. “It takes a certain type of woman to be able to do that with each other.”
It also took a certain kind of woman to accept being put on pause.
Is Dorinda Medley still on pause?
Dorinda, who maintained Housewife status from Seasons 7 through 12 of RHONY, also discussed the phone call in which she learned she was "put on pause," as she put it, from the series. She admitted to Hot Mic that the news was “hugely surprising” and left her “heartbroken.”
“I’ll be honest with you … I thought I was a great Housewife,” Dorinda admitted.
Dorinda said she knew it was a hard phone call on both sides, and even though she “cried [her] eyes out” after the call, she continued to move on, forging new paths to success.
“I was kind of like, ‘You know what? I’m good,’” she told Baskin. “I built the cake; I gave you the frosting; I’ll go back and mix up some confectionary sugar and water and put a new frosting on this cake.”
Dorinda didn’t hold back when saying she loved being on the Housewives, but said her exit came at an opportune time and that she was “lucky for a couple of reasons.” One of which was she was busy penning her 2022 book, Make It Nice, with Simon & Schuster publishers, and the other was because COVID-19 was just around the corner.
“I got to go back and spend COVID at Bluestone Manor next to my parents and have Hannah be home,” she said of her time off. “I just kind of worked on my book and dug in, so we were all in a bit of silence at that point in the world. So, if you were going to take a pause, it was the most beautiful time so I could lean into being at home, being a mom, being with my parents, writing a book, working on my branding, thinking out of the box again, and just leaning into that.”
She said it was “the best thing that ever happened,” just months before she was signed for Real Housewives Ultimate Girls Trip: RHONY Legacy.
“In the end, cosmically, it made sense,” Baskin agreed.
Dorinda’s success continues, especially as the most recent Housewife confirmed to join Peacock’s The Traitors for its upcoming third season.
See Dorinda in past episodes of The Real Housewives of New York City, now available on Bravo and Peacock.
Listen to her full Bravo’s Hot Mic Podcast interview on Bravo and anywhere you listen to your favorite podcasts.
