The ladies of The Real Housewives of New York City are still filming for season 12, but there have already been some major developments. Of course, Bethenny Frankel sent shockwaves through the Bravosphere earlier this year when she announced she was leaving Bravo to pursue her own projects. We didn’t quite know what to expect, but obviously the show must go on. Last month at BravoCon, streetwear designer Leah McSweeney was announced as the newest Housewife, triumphantly joining her new castmates onstage at Watch What Happens Live. But this week, we lost another beloved apple, when it was confirmed that Tinsley Mortimer is no longer filming for the upcoming season.
Earlier this fall, Tinsley got back together with her on-again-off-again boyfriend, Scott Kluth, causing speculation that she would leave RHONY. As you might remember, he biggest problem with Tinsley and Scott was always that he lived in Chicago, and she obviously needed to be in New York for her job. For a few weeks, there were rumors that she would get her own Real Housewives franchise in Chicago, but that proved to be false after Salt Lake City was announced as the new Housewives city.
Ultimately, Scott and Tinsley got engaged last month in Chicago, and that turned out to be the final nail in the RHONY coffin for her. She wasn’t on the girls’ recent trip to Mexico, and this week, Luann de Lesseps spilled the tea about Tinsley during one of her cabaret shows. When asked about Tinsley’s mother, Dale, during the Q&A segment (yes, her cabaret show has a Q&A segment), she said “I think she’s more upset that Tinsley’s not filming anymore now that she’s marrying Scott than Tinsley is.”
Luann continued about Tinsley, saying “I wish her all the best. She seems very happy and I want her to be happy and get married. That’s what she wants to do. She’s very traditional. She wants to have a baby. It’s time.” This makes sense, considering we watched Tinsley freeze her eggs on the show, and she cried about her eggs as if they were already actual babies.
But there might be a bit more to the story, with another source telling People that Scott played a major role in her decision to leave the show: “Scott gave her an ultimatum: ‘me or the show,’ and she chose him. He loves the limelight, but hated the negative effect the show had on their relationship. And Tinsley, she’s desperate to make the relationship work and was on the outs with the group as it was.”
Okay, so a few things here. First, I’m never a fan of an ultimatum like this, and it feels kind of shady on Scott’s part if this is really how it went down. I’m personally never a fan of ultimatums, because one person is usually going to end up unhappy. But whatever, not my relationship. It’s also no secret that the show has messed with their relationship in the past, and some of their scenes from a couple seasons ago are truly tough to watch. I hope Tinsley really is happy with her decision, because obviously being wifed up in Chicago is going to be a lot different than getting sloppy drunk with the RHONY ladies.
But speaking of the RHONY ladies—what does this source mean when they say that Tinsley was “on the outs with the group”? This is a low-key juicy piece of information, and it makes me very excited to see what happens in the first part of season 12, before Tinsley leaves. She’ll still be on the new season, at least for a while, and I hope her last episodes don’t disappoint.
