Credit: NBCUniversal Media
Jessel Taank called Carole Radziwill “old” as she reflected on her “dingbat” diss after Tuesday night’s episode of The Real Housewives of New York City.
While Carole, 63, admitted that she could’ve said much worse to her castmate, Jessel, 46, addressed their feud, admitting that she didn’t realize how harsh Carole was being as other members of the show weighed in on their tense moments.
“Being British, I’ve never been called this before. She’s old, right? So I was like, ‘Oh, is she trying to be like, [upsetting] with this term?” Jessel admitted on the October 6 episode of the RHONY: After Show. “I know that it’s not a compliment, but I didn’t know it was that severe.”
Although Sai De Silva, 45, said that “dingbat” was the “ultimate insult,” Carole insisted that it simply referred to a flaky, airheaded person, claiming the term had “an element of charm” to it.
“I could’ve said, ‘Shut the f*ck up. You’re a f*cking idiot,'” Carole noted.
As RHONY fans witnessed, Jessel’s drama with Carole erupted after Jessel referred to the late Carolyn Bessette, Carole’s close friend and cousin through marriage, as an aesthetic.
“Jessel was just like, ‘I just did a photoshoot, and this is a Carolyn Bessette Summer,’ so I said, very nicely, ‘Well, that’s not really the takeaway,'” Carole recalled. “But I don’t think I ever got through to her.”
“I was saying it as a compliment,” Jessel argued. “I don’t know why her panties are in a twist.”
After Sai defended Carole, explaining that she was “hypersensitive” due to the release of Love Story, which was about Carolyn and the late John F. Kennedy Jr., Jessel admitted that Carole likely had a lot of emotion that was bubbled up due to the release of the series.
“I respect that,” Jessel stated. “I wasn’t trying to minimize what happened to her … [Carolyn] worked at Calvin Klein. Me being a fashion PR girl, I really, when I watched the show, I understood her career and her life a little bit … [And] by the way, I asked [Carole], ‘What do you think of this term?’”
Still, Carole was not happy with her comments about “Carolyn Bessette Summer.”
“The worst of it, she turned to me, she goes, ‘Well, you’re wearing a Carolyn Bessette aesthetic.’ I literally wanted to punch her in the face,” Carole admitted.
Meanwhile, after Erika Hammond, 35, pointed out that Jessel didn’t make up the term herself, Jessel said that if she were in Carole’s shoes, she wouldn’t have taken such offense to it.
“I don’t think anyone’s trying to demean her in any way,” she said.
Jessel then signaled Daisy Toye‘s questions about Carolyn.
“I feel like Daisy was gunning for her more than I was. I said that one thing. Daisy was like going in on her. Why not call her the dingbat?” Jessel asked.
Then, in response, Carole explained, “I appreciated the way [Daisy] was asking me questions because there was an understanding that this is my family.”
The Real Housewives of New York City season 16 airs Tuesdays at 8/7c on Bravo.