Will Jill Zarin reprise her full-time role on The Real Housewives of New York City for the show’s upcoming 11th season?
Over the weekend, during her sixth annual luxury luncheon at Bridgehampton’s Topping Rose House, Jill spoke about her future on the show and confirmed whether or not she would be replacing Carole Radziwill during next year’s new installment.
“Somebody started a rumor that I was in talks with Bravo. That’s not true. That’s not true,” Jill said, via E! News, of the rumors claiming she has been added to the cast following Carole’s sudden exit last week.
Although Jill won’t be taking on the empty space left by Carole, she said she would love to come back to the show “as a friend” if Bravo asks.
“I would like to come back as a friend,” she continued. “I’ve said that before. I would. I don’t know if my friend would like to do it, but, yeah, ’cause I think I have the time now. I couldn’t do it for many years because of Bobby, and I was talking care of him. But now I have the time. And I think Luann needs me.”
When The Real Housewives of New York City premiered on Bravo in March 2008, Jill was one of five full-time cast members. The others were Ramona Singer, Luann de Lesseps, Bethenny Frankel, and Alex McCord.
Jill went on to discuss Luann, who she still maintains a close friendship with till this day.
“She texted me this morning and she wished me good luck today, ’cause she’s always here,” Jill shared. “I think she missed one year and there was a really good reason. But she’s always here for me and she was thinking of me this morning, which meant a lot.”
As we reported over the weekend, Luann announced her plans to leave rehab to return to doing her cabaret shows. There is however speculation that she might have already left her rehab facility after just two weeks.
As for Jill and Bethenny, the two had a solid friendship throughout their first couple of seasons with the Bravo show, before having a falling out during the series’ third and fourth season which led to Jill being removed from the full-time line-up.
While Jill and Bethenny remained estranged for some time, they reunited for the first time in nearly eight years at the January funeral of Jill’s late husband, Bobby Zarin.
“We’re good, we’re good,” Jill said of her current relationship with Bethenny on Saturday. “She came over to my house with her daughter. Without the cameras, I thought it was very authentic. I felt like she really reached her hand out and was saying let’s open — not a friendship, but a dialogue, so it’s all good.”
“I’m glad that I attended and spoke to her and that it’s clean,” Bethenny said of attending Bobby’s funeral months ago. “It’s one less thing for her to be upset about because I do feel for her having such a tremendous loss. And we are where we are. Everybody wants to make something into something. Everybody doesn’t have to be tied up in a perfect box. … Life must go on.”
Photos Credit: Callahan/ACE/INFphoto.com, Bravo
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