How to Watch
The Real Housewives of New York City airs on Tuesdays at 8 p.m. ET/PT on Bravo. Episodes stream next day on Peacock.
“I haven’t been back since the summer of ’99,” Carole revealed, describing that trip as “terrible.”
“To be honest, in 20-something years, I’ve never thought of coming back to Martha’s Vineyard. I never even thought it — it was like it didn’t exist,” she added.
Her journey comes 27 years after her late husband’s cousin, John F. Kennedy Jr., and his wife, Carolyn Bessette, were killed in a plane crash off the coast of Martha’s Vineyard on July 16, 1999. Carole and Anthony Radizwill were close friends with the couple, and Anthony passed away after a cancer battle just weeks after his cousin’s crash.
Carole described that it almost felt like fate when she learned the RHONY Season 16 cast was set to travel to Martha’s Vineyard. “‘Okay, you signed up for this,’ and then the universe is putting this in front of me. Like, I’m I guess I’m supposed to go to Martha’s Vineyard,” she told Bravo Insider. “So, it was just like ripping the Band-Aid off, and I didn’t know what to expect.”
The RHONY Season 16 midseason trailer (watch above) previews the trip to the Cape Cod island, and shows aerial views of Carole laying on her back on the beach alone, speaking to her late husband and family. “I came back,” she says. “I wish you were here.”
“It was internally difficult,” Carole admitted of the experience, but added fights and arguments by the other ‘Wives helped to distract her. “And then the quiet moments were more difficult,” she concluded.
Carole Radziwill opens up on navigating the “surprising” popularity of Love Story
Carole has been forthcoming about the difficulty of balancing her filming RHONY Season 16 with the release of the show Love Story, which covers the marriage of JFK Jr. and Carolyn Bessette, as well as their tragic deaths. Carole revealed during Episode 2 that she only found out about the new show because one of her dates auditioned to play her late husband Anthony and she called Love Story’s popularity “surprising.”
“There were so many other things that just came and went,” Carole told Bravo Insider, and pointed out that she’s been “asked to participate in hundreds of films and books” about JFK Jr.’s life and death over the years. “I kind of thought this is just going to be another one of those things, but it wasn’t.”
“It was just a little bit of a body slam,” she continued. “So, I wasn’t prepared.”
Carole added that it’s been tricky to navigate her family history with both fans and her castmates.
“It’s hard to move in and out of that emotion. Like I can’t be like, in that emotion of that story, and then be like, ‘Hey, welcome to Bravo!’ [It] is a bit of a balance,” she said.
RELATED: Go Inside Carole Radziwill’s Renovated NYC Apartment (BEFORE & AFTER PHOTOS)
Carole also addressed her late husband and his family’s mentions on RHONY Season 16, as well as her conversations with Jessel Taank on the subject.
“I didn’t even think they’d have no clue how hard that was,” she said. “Very few could really imagine what that’s like. Like, to see not only the most traumatic part of your life, but like your family, dramatized on a show.”
Ultimately, though, Carole admitted that there’s actually a silver lining to the dramatization of her family’s life and tragedy: “Because then, in a way, you get to hold on to the truth.”
Carole Radziwill shares what feels different about RHONY this time around
Reflecting on what’s changed in the time since she left RHONY after Season 10 and rejoined for Season 16, Carole said, “I feel like I’m part of the family, which I’ve never felt before, because I felt like a little bit like an outsider.”
“Just seeing how the people respond…It’s funny, they just love that I’m there…It’s like they just love that I’m honest,” she added.
