Luann de Lesseps Declares ‘Success Is the Best Revenge’ as She Embraces Post-‘RHONY’ Renaissance (Exclusive)
Written by Rtradio on June 14, 2024
Luann de Lesseps is letting “pure joy” dictate her life these days.
“My team cracked me up, they’re like, ‘It’s the Lu-naissance,'” Luann quips to ET, speaking over video chat.
Nearly three years after signing off The Real Housewives of New York City (though, once a Housewife, always a Housewife, thanks in part to the Ultimate Girls Trip spinoff), the 59-year-old is leaning into her pop-star fantasy full-time. What began as a hobby (or maybe, a storyline) on RHONY is now a full-fledged career, with Lu selling out venues across the globe with what seems to be a never-ending cabaret tour. The latest iteration, Marry F Kill, just made its UK debut, including a first-ever festival performance for Luann at Mighty Hoopla earlier this month.
“It was like a sea of people,” Luann recalls. “It was, like, 30,000 people! I’ve never played to do crowd that big. … It was like Willie Wonka and the Chocolate Factory.”
While she wants to get back to reality TV (and has some potential projects in the works), Luann is proving that there’s staying power in the kind of fame that comes from the Bravo universe, if you work it. A new “right-hand man,” Roger Dawley, is helping her “be cool” to connect with younger fans, reinvigorating her social media with hit after hit.
Her TikTok presence is quite different from that of her former castmate Bethenny Frankel, who’s spent most of the past month flooding her followers’ feeds with videos lambasting luxury brand Chanel for not allowing her in a store, when the store was hosting a private event. Bethenny’s seemingly shared more than 100 videos on the topic.
“I don’t follow Bethenny, and so, no, I have not been following, but I have heard,” Luann purrs. She and Bethenny did not end their time on TV together on the best terms, things only getting worse as Bethenny began criticizing RHONY in the years after she exited the show.
“I have heard, as I am doing British Vogue, she is getting kicked out of Chanel. So, there you go,” Luann jabs. “Success is the best revenge.”
As for what Luann’s next viral video might be, she’s down to team up with Bridgerton star Nicola Coughlan on an official remix of the actress’ invented the “Housewives … pop song exclusively for gay men” she improvised during an interview promoting the Netflix hit (the lyrics of which are simply, “Shoes and private yachts, caviar, more shoes” repeated over a club beat, a riff on Luann’s “Chic C’est La Vie”), or try her hand at the “Man in Finance” trend, laying out three must-haves for her next love match.
“I am looking for tall, a man with hair — I have PTSD from the last one,” she laughs, a dig at her second husband Tom D’Agostino, “and a big PP — private plane!”
While tabloids connect Luann with everyone from Mary Kate Olsen’s ex Olivier Sarkozy to Southern Hospitality star Joe Bradley, she cautions not to believe everything that’s available to read. She is dating, but there’s no one special in her life. Spending most of her time on the road, she’s surrounded by the straight women and gay men who attend her shows.
“I am enjoying just being single,” she shares. “I am enjoying having a good time, you know? ‘Cause I am busy, but like I say in the new song, ‘Marry F Kill,’ three times the charm, so catch me if you can!”
Luann released the music video — featuring cameos from The Real Housewives of New Jersey‘s Margaret Josephs and Sex and the City scribe Candace Bushnell — for her latest single on Thursday.
“I am a hopeless romantic, what can I say?” she says. “I love love. I love men, and so three times the charm, they say, so I am not in a big hurry. I am having a great time, but this is my year of manifestation and love. I have manifested Marry F Kill, and this year, by the end of the year, there will be a man in my life.”
She’s also manifesting a potential tour doc, along the lines of the one The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills star Erika Jayne shot for her Las Vegas residency and loves the fan-suggested idea of doing a “Lady Marmalade” cover by forming a super group of sorts from the Bravo universe. She might find some women willing to take part in just that should she land a spot on season 4 of Peacock’s The Traitors, another dream on her manifestation wish list. Her pal, Dorinda Medley, is currently filming the third season, alongside a gaggle of other Housewives, including New Jersey‘s Dolores Catania, Dubai‘s Chanel Ayan and Potomac‘s Robyn Dixon.
“I am sure she is doing a great job,” Luann muses. “I don’t know how good her poker face is. I am not a great liar, personally, but I love the show.”
And who knows, a stay in the Scottish castle where they film could inspire a new song… and her next tour!
“That would be amazing,” she smiles.
Tickets for Luann’s Marry F Kill tour are available now at CountessLuann.com; she hits Pennsylvania and New York next weekend.
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