Credit: Astrid Stawiarz/Bravo
Eboni K. Williams is speaking out about Ramona Singer‘s departure from The Real Housewives of New York City.
With a season 14 premiere date looming and a RHONY: Legacy cast not yet confirmed, Eboni looked back at her time on the series, explaining why she and Leah McSweeney are no longer friends, detailing the “nasty” drama that took place after season 13 wrapped, and revealing plans to welcome her first child.
“I think Ramona, if I recall her on-the-record statement, something like, ‘My time has come and gone,’ I think that’s accurate,” Eboni admitted of Ramona’s exit from the show on an episode of Access Hollywood‘s Housewives Nightcap.
While Eboni believes Ramona is a RHONY legend and a representative of nostalgia for the series, she doesn’t feel her former castmate has evolved in the way she should have, especially considering the world is “more globally and culturally diverse and interesting” than it was when the show began.
“Ramona is a woman of a particular age, [but] I’m not just gonna give her an age pass. It’s her personality. She’s a woman who understands a very white-centric, Upper East Side New York, and that is the limitation of New York society for her,” she explained.
Then, after suggesting Ramona isn’t as wealthy as many think, saying “neither is she” when one of the hosts mentioned that they weren’t making tens of millions, Eboni seemed to indicate that she believes Ramona was actually fired.
“[That’s] why she’s so bothered by the disappearance of this $1.whatever check she was getting,” Eboni noted.
According to Eboni, she didn’t think Ramona should be fired from the show, but she felt she should’ve made space for other views as Sonja Morgan had done.
“Sonja stayed Sonja, and Sonja said, ‘It’s time for us to fall back a bit, make a little space for a new era of New York boss b-tches.’ And that’s why it really should’ve went on with me and Sonja and some others,” she declared.
Although Eboni remained on good terms with Sonja, the same can’t be said about her and Leah. They became estranged shortly after production on season 13 came to a close.
“Leah and I had an authentic friendship … [But] we were work friends. That’s all it was,” Eboni noted of their relationship, proceeding to suggest Leah dropped her as a friend because she felt doing so would keep her on the show.
“When I became kind of a hot button item, you either were a huge fan or really really unhappy with me being on the show,” Eboni explained. “I get it. Leah’s a single mom and this was like, more money than she’d ever seen in her life, and just more opportunity and it is an incredible platform and she said, ‘I wanna cut my losses and I’m going to align myself with what [I] believe [is my] best chance of continuing on the platform.’”
Looking back at how the 13th season ended, Eboni said she and her castmates actually landed in a “sweet, fun, light place.” So, in terms of continuing, she felt that if producers had added one or two more, they would’ve been “golden.”
“I think it could’ve just been a revolution and an expansion of old and new,” she explained.
But instead, as cameras went down, feuds began to erupt.
“I was expressing how I felt and reacted to the episodes in live time as they aired. Some of my castmates did not take too kindly to that so then it started this really nasty kind of press wars and leaks,” she recalled. “It all got so nasty behind-the-scenes, post-production, that then it got to a place that anyone, including the network, knew how to bring us back together again.
Although Eboni wishes the show had continued, she said appearing on it for one season was “worth it” because it not only further elevated her brand, but also allowed her to grow as a woman, and she noted that the idea of two shows is “genius.”
As for her future, Eboni is releasing her second book, Bet on Black, on January 31.
“There’s just so many amazing books that are about the Black experience, about Black Americana, and the global diaspora of Africa and it’s amazing. But a lot of those narratives are steeped in a trauma story and something that’s very heartbreaking and just difficult, the difficult realities. And they are real. And yet there are a lot of really fantastic stories of celebration and of iconic evolution and elevation and ascension when it comes to Black folk in this country both historically and today and those just happened to be the stories I wanted to tell,” she said of its content.
In addition to being prompted by the lack of information she wanted to read, Eboni was also motivated to write the book by a former RHONY castmate, who told her, “Well, Eboni you don’t look like you struggle. I can’t tell by looking at you [that] there’s a problem with being Black and I’m confused because, you know, you dress better than me.”
“I thought two things: Number 1, how idiotic, but also how sad that the only narrative of Blackness that you have in your brain is this sad trauma stories of down-trotting, woe-is-me,” Eboni admitted. “It kind of affirmed how important this book is. It’s so important that people, including other Black people, have an understanding that that narrow, unfortunate narrative is so far from the only thing to know about blackness.”
Eboni also seems to be considering a return to television.
“RHONY and Real Housewives… It’s not the only iteration where we can see amazing personalities and authentic — authentic groups of friends navigate amazing cities like New York so stay tuned,” she teased. “You might see me on a Girls Trip; you might see me on a whole brand new show with a whole brand new branding.”
Also during the interview, Eboni revealed she’s in the process of becoming a mom.
“I am actually pursuing a single motherhood journey,” Eboni shared. “I have embryos and I’m looking to transfer later this year so I’m in it for real. Hopefully, God-willing, baby coming soon.”
As for dating, Eboni said she recently reconnected with a man she dated years ago.
“We are just getting to know each other. It’s all very chill, very casual but he is of interest,” Eboni confirmed. “I’m not gonna force it and I’m not gonna fight it.”
