Brynn Whitfield is opening up about that wild Real Housewives of New York finale.
The second season of the rebooted series ended in dramatic fashion on Tuesday night after Brynn and Ubah Hassan went at it during a cast vacation to Puerto Rico.
But it was beyond a typical housewives fight, and perhaps the darkest we’ve seen in Bravo history. After Ubah made a claim that Brynn might have slept with someone at Bravo to get onto the show in the first place, Brynn told the rest of the women that the comment was particularly hurtful because she was a survivor of sexual assault — before claiming Ubah knew she had been raped and still said made the hurtful comment.
The admission stunned Brynn’s costars, as she had not yet disclosed her history with assault with them. The women began to turn on her, however, when Brynn later admitted it’s possible Ubah “didn’t clock it,” or didn’t realize Brynn told her about the assault. It’s then that some of them felt she was lying about telling her in the first place or believed she was unfairly weaponizing the situation.
Speaking with Rolling Stone in a new interview, Brynn shared more about what allegedly went down that night.
“I feel so safe with everyone at the production company and at Bravo, and I felt safe with how they handled sharing my sexual assault story in Central Park with my brother,” Brynn said. “It was never my intention to share it with the girls and then that transpired, but I felt so weird that night. I remember they were taking off my microphone and I was like, ‘How do I talk to these people now that they know this thing about me?'”
After hearing what her cast mates had to say about her after she departed the cast trip earlier than the rest of them, Brynn said she felt “mortified.” In addition to doubting she told Ubah about her assault, they also criticized her for — in their mind — acting as if nothing happened when they woke up the next day.
“I was so irritated when I saw what they were saying about me because they’re like, ‘She’s psycho. She looks like she’s fine and she left.’ No, I was mortified. In the moment, I’m very much like, ‘Everything’s fine,’ and I can make a joke or distract from something, but I was like, ‘Just get me out of here,'” she recalled. “‘I don’t feel comfortable anymore, and I feel like everyone’s looking at me differently. It wasn’t like, ‘Oh, I’m cool with everything, everything’s normal, and I’m just going to leave.’ I requested to leave. I requested to be put on the first flight out.”
Brynn also doubled down on telling Ubah about her assault — saying Ubah could’ve missed the revelation during a frantic call about her friend’s suicide. She said any allegation of trying to take her costar down by weaponizing her trauma is “shocking.”
“You’re telling me that in the three minutes from when I’m called horrible names [by Ubah] and I’m obviously upset that I somehow devised a plan? It’s disgusting that I’m talking about two things that I would hope that no woman or person would have to experience — suicide and sexual assault — and everyone’s like, ‘Brynn, we feel taken advantage of.’ Maybe don’t use those words to describe the situation. I just feel like I wasn’t shown much [respect],” Brynn explained. “These are difficult, serious things we’re talking about. That’s how it felt for me the whole season, like I was always being attacked. I would go into filming a lot of the time and I would feel dread and despair. I was just like, every single thing is going to turn into something. It was weird energy from the very first scene.”
As for where she feels she stands with her castmates now, Brynn says the reunion helped bring some clarity, telling RS, “I did feel better after the reunion to clear the air on these things. The reunion felt like going to a workout: You don’t really want to go workout and might even not enjoy some parts of it while you’re doing it, but you know afterwards you’re going to feel better for it. No pain, no gain.”
“It was like, ‘I want to hear where you’re coming from, can you listen to where I’m coming from, and can we at least not have this massive void between us? After the reunion I personally felt like — are we in a position where everything is fixed and perfect? No, not remotely. But at least we’re now, maybe hopefully at step one,” she added before breaking down where she stands with each castmate individually.
“I’m always cool with Jenna [Lyons] and Raquel [Chevremont]. Erin [Lichy] feels like a sister. I was just texting with her and [her husband] Abe the other day, I feel like I’m fine with them. I think Sai [De Silva] and I still have stuff to work on. I miss my friendship with Sai a lot. And then with Jessel [Taank] I didn’t realize, but I should have realized, I said something that upset her, so I need to work on my friendship with Jessel,” Brynn shared before revealing where her and Ubah are at now.
“With Ubah, I think what’s done is done. Ubah’s a great person. She has a heart of gold. I think she loses her temper, but she has the most beautiful heart and at the end of the day I know I’m also a good person, so I feel like we will get back. But it takes time to repair.”
While Brynn appears to be on a road to repair with her RHONY castmates, there was one person who took issue with Brynn’s comments after the interview was published — and it wasn’t Ubah.
Erin took to the comments of a post about Brynn’s interview, shared by Bravo fan page, Queens of Bravo, to respond to the claim that she and Brynn are like “sisters.”
“To say we are sisters is quite the reach… we haven’t spoken or seen each other in months other than Brynn thanking Abe for clearing up the intention for the call. I really wanted Brynn to win so bad. I was excited to watch her shine like I am with all my girlfriends. Each woman on this show is so special and smart and I really really excited for us collectively but Brynn always had all this childhood trauma that I was particularly excited to see her break free from,” Erin began.
“Yet, here we are again… An article doubling down instead of saying hey, I messed up. It’s upsetting to read for all of you viewers, can you imagine how it feels for us?” she continued. “This show is supposed to be FUN, it’s all I tried to do throughout yet somehow things just keep getting twisted and turned and I will take ownership that I very much was naive and feel victim to much manipulation. I swore I wouldn’t comment but this article is so triggering to me and I just can’t stay silent.”
Erin also took a moment to address that trolls that have come for her over the “color of her skin,” insinuating that her comments about Brynn have something to do with her being white, and Brynn being biracial.
“Honestly f u. I spoke out when she called Ubah an angry black woman, I was the only one who heard the SA story that night and immediately said NO way that doesn’t sound like Ubah she wouldn’t forget that, which lead to to the ‘she didn’t clock it’ comment. I am not saying I’m perfect but I’m fair and I stand up for what’s right when it counts. So respectfully, f–k off.”
Brynn has yet to publicly respond to Erin’s comments.
See the drama unfold when part of RHONY’s two-part reunion kicks airs January 28 on Bravo.
