A little quarantine isn't stopping The Real Housewives of New York City. Well, at least not stopping the show from hitting the air.
The beloved Bravo series returns for its 12th season next week, and Ramona Singer promises ET it just may be the ladies' best season yet.
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"I think what’s interesting about this season, someone said, describe it and, right now, the word to describe it is, it is a very unique season," Ramona teases. "We're showing ourselves in a different way, we’re going deeper and exposing our fears and our weaknesses, and people can relate to that, because no one has a perfect life. No one has a perfect life. And if anyone says they do, they’re lying. So, I think fans will relate to that, and they’ll be, like, you know what? I relate to that."
The new season kicks off with Ramona in a new place, literally, having left behind the apartment she lived in for the last 25 years, in which she raised her daughter, Avery. As teased in promos for the new batch of episodes, Ramona is struggling with feeling lonely in her 60s. In one particularly vulnerable moment, she breaks down telling her friends she just wants a man to hold her at night. But, Ramona cautions, that's just the beginning; she says her new tagline -- "I don't need to find love. I love myself!" -- gives some insight into what her season 12 journey entails.
"When we do the tagline, it’s near the end, once I’ve evolved," she notes. "I realized that I’m very blessed in my life. I have a wonderful daughter, she’s wonderful inside and out. We fight sometimes, but that’s what mother, daughters do. But, I love her more than life itself. I have a great group of friends. Meeting men is never my problem. I’m very busy, I’m very social. I can’t even keep up with all my social engagements I’m invited to. I’m very active, I travel a lot. I mean, I tell Avery, I’m LL. She told me about the expression YOLO, you only live once. I’m like hey, I got a new one for you. It’s called LL. I’m living life. And I’m living my life. The best life ever, and I feel so blessed. And yeah, so I can’t complain. I’m really fortunate. I really am."
Ramona says all the women evolved with Bethenny Frankel out of the picture. The longtime star of the franchise announced she was departing the series back in August, which was a shock to her co-stars at the time.
"Even though Bethenny is a very strong character, she’s well received by the viewers, by us, she is basically -- we all walk on eggshells around her," Ramona admits. "We couldn’t really be ourselves. She’s such a big personality, she kind of took over the room. No air left for us. And I think, this season, the fans will be surprised to see a different side of most of us. And listen, we still have our arguments, we still fight, but there’s a bond that’s different. There’s something so special and unique. Very unique."
When ET spoke with Bethenny last week to discuss her work with her organization, B Strong, and the fight against the Coronavirus, she compared Housewives to "somebody that I used to know."
"Well listen, I don’t know if that’s true," Ramona says in response. "When we were filming, she’d be calling all the time. She’d be like, ‘What’s going on? What’s going on? What are you doing? What’s going on?’ It’s like she’d be calling us nonstop to find out the dirt on our group trips. I don’t know. FOMO, the fear of missing out, I guess. I can understand, when you’re so part of something, you know, it’s hard to disconnect."
Ramona is disconnecting a little from her regular life in New York City right now. ET spoke to the star via video chat from Boca Raton, Florida, where she's currently isolating alongside her daughter and her ex-husband, Mario Singer, amid the Coronavirus pandemic.
"Mario very graciously offered for me and Avery to come spend some time here, and my doctor thought … it would be very good for my health -- because I have a very low immune system -- to be right on the ocean, because Mario’s right on the ocean," Ramona remarks. The reality star revealed she was diagnosed with Lyme disease, an autoimmune condition, earlier this year.
Ramona says she, Mario and Avery have all been trading off making dinner every night and they're collectively binging Game of Thrones to keep themselves occupied, along with group workouts and other activities.
"Listen, we have a lot of history together," she continues. "Avery said, 'It’s nice to have the band back together again.' Listen, Mario’s been very gracious, he’s been very respectful. My immune system, he’s being very careful not to go to the store, the drug store. He goes through the drive-through, getting groceries delivered. Because my immune system is impaired."
While RHONY fans may be excited to see the Singers all back together, Ramona says she and Mario aren’t taking things further than friendship. Though, she is learning new things about her ex.
"You know what? Because Mario’s been on his own now for so long, it’s kind of nice because he really -- I never knew him to be such a great cook!" Ramona shares. "To make so many dishes, and he’s really good. So he’s in the kitchen. And he’s a real neat fanatic. So, God forbid there be any fingerprints on his Sub-Zero. He’ll be like, ‘I don’t like prints, you gotta wipe them off!’ Everything has to be, like, cleaned. Beyond. Like, you just-moved-in clean."
Check out the video above for more of Ramona’s thoughts on the new season of The Real Housewives of New York City -- including her read on the new girl, Leah McSweeney, as well as longtime co-stars Dorinda Medley, Sonja Morgan, Luann de Lesseps and Tinsley Mortimer. RHONY premieres Thursday, April 2, at 9 p.m. ET/PT on Bravo. Ramona’s skincare line, Ageless by Ramona, is now available on Amazon Prime.
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