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Jill Zarin
The fifth season of “Real Housewives Ultimate Girls Trip” was filmed recently and it followed the theme of “RHONY Legacy” with some of the franchise’s most iconic personalities.
One of the notable exceptions from the cast was Jill Zarin, who was initially reported to be in talks with the network to return for a full season of “RHONY Legacy.” However, once the full season fell through and planning began for a one-week RHUGT-style show, Zarin was not included in the cast.
The OG star revealed in an interview with her former RHONY co-star Bethenny Frankel on Frankel’s podcast “ReWives” that not only did she feel that she came up with the idea for the RHUGT format but claimed she was left out of the cast because of her role in negotiations for the full “Legacy” show and pushing for all cast members to be paid the same.
Frankel asked whether Zarin thought it was “punitive” that she didn’t go on the RHUGT trip to St. Barts and she replied, “Yes, 100% punitive,” Zarin replied. “I felt that I gave the idea,” she explained. “I told people… it should be just a week and we should just have a good time. And it is what it is and then they did [the RHUGT trip] and they didn’t invite me and I definitely know it was for spite. Because I said no [in negotiations], they were mad at me.”
Zarin told Frankel she told Luann de Lesseps that the show should be done as an Ultimate Girls Trip instead of a full RHONY Legacy show. “It’s ridiculous. We all have different lives, we’re all in different places, we all live in different cities. It’s not realistic for us to be in one place,” she said.
“And then [Luann] took it to Andy, cause Andy told me Luann told him that idea,” Zarin concluded. While she admitted that she “felt FOMO” at missing the trip to St. Barts, she told her former co-star that she didn’t feel any resentment toward anyone.
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Jill Zarin Said the Offer She Received for a Full RHONY Legacy Show Was Terrible
While discussing the original negotiations for the full RHONY Legacy show with Frankel, Zarin revealed some details about what happened. “It’s very hypocritical, the networks,” Zarin pointed out. “They say you can’t talk to the press but then they do. Who blamed me for the negotiations breaking down? Where did that come from? Didn’t come from me.” Frankel suggested that one of the other potential cast members could have done it but Zarin said it wasn’t.
She explained that she got a terrible offer from the network for the Legacy show, and it was less money than she got for season 4 of RHONY over 10 years ago. “If they wanted me on the show, the offer would have been right,” she said but told Frankel she thought they didn’t want her on. However, she said she doesn’t regret turning down the show after getting that offer. “All I wanted was them to ask me back. And they did,” she said.
Zarin also claimed that she was told the salary they offered was based on the number of years on RHONY but that she found out Kelly Bensimon was offered more money. “She was on [RHONY] a year less than me so how is that possible?” Zarin asked. She told Frankel that she’d been arguing for everyone to be paid the same and to be on an equal playing field.
Jill Zarin Previously Said the RHONY Legacy Show Wasn’t Meant to Happen & It Didn’t Fail Because of Her
Zarin previously denied being responsible for negotiations on RHONY Legacy falling through as she told Page Six back in May 2023 that the show didn’t happen “because it just wasn’t meant to happen.”
She said it wasn’t because of her and essentially came down to the producers and what they wanted to do. Instead, several former RHONY stars flew to St. Barts in June 2023 to film the fifth season of RHUGT: Bensimon, de Lesseps, Sonja Morgan, Ramona Singer, Dorinda Medley and Kristen Taekman.
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