Jenna Lyons Admits More Opportunities Arose After She Was Cast in Bravo’s 14th Season The Real Housewives of New York City — but she was still hesitant to return to the series.
On Friday, it was confirmed that Lyons and all of her season 14 castmates – including Leave Silva, Ubah Hassan, Erin Lichy, Jessel Taank It is Brynn Whitfield – are in their 15th season.
However, ultimately, the former J. Crew beauty executive had some non-negotiable demands that needed to be met before agreeing to return.
Rumors began to turn on whether Lyons would be returning to RHONY after she skipped BravoCon 2023. ET asked her about missing the event, and she simply said she “had some things to do.”
“I had an event and some other things I needed to do that were personal,” she shared in November, right after BravoCon. “…Did not work.”
In a new interview with The New York TimesLyons says Bravo was “very responsive” when it came to her requests.
One big condition surrounded Lyons’ romantic life. “I have a relationship, but I would like not to mention her. I want to keep her out of the press,” she says of what’s off limits on the show. “That’s my commitment to her. It’s out of the question. I participated in this process. She didn’t.”
The style-savvy 55-year-old star also says she wanted to make sure she had time for her new romance while filming the show. “There was some concern about my ability, time-wise, to commit to this, and that was a big issue,” she explains. “I also have a new relationship and I wanted to keep it private. It wasn’t just me. We all had to figure out, like, can this work? I wasn’t sure. I’m definitely not sure.”
When it comes to rumors that she’s engaged, Lyons is coy about the ring she’s wearing what finger. “This is a very serious answer,” she jokes. “She kept telling me, ‘Jenna, your shirt is buttoned too low.’ And I thought, ‘If you want me to button my shirt, you have to put a ring on my finger.’”
In addition to her romantic life, Lyons is protective of her son, Beckett Mazeau, and how much he appears on the reality show. “There was a lot of filming at home and it was exhausting. It’s very disturbing,” she says. “They were very open to reducing that exposure and not having so much ‘time at home.’ My son is preparing for college. It’s a very intense moment.”
A big reason she decided to return for another season was the RHONY fans.
“I paid attention to my comments. I was shocked, and one of the reasons I felt comfortable coming back is that the people were so nice,” says Lyons. “I thought I would be criticized for a few things here and there, but I didn’t. Especially in the beginning, I would look at the comments, like, let’s see if anyone is coming to me. I was scared that it wouldn’t really happen.”
RHONY it also helped his career. The times notes that Lyons’ Instagram following has quadrupled and her beauty business, LoveSeen, has flourished. “It was shocking to see the results,” she admits, noting that before the show, her false eyelash company was “struggling in places where people didn’t know who I was.”
And Lyons isn’t shy about saying he’s returning to RHONY “for my business.” As for whether she’s getting paid more in Season 15, Lyons confesses, “Everybody gets paid more and I’m not going to say too much about that.”
That said, Lyons is happy with how her presence on the show is reaching the women who watch. “But I will say that what is always surprising to me, and at such a tender time, is the number of people who text me or come up to me on the street and say, ‘It’s amazing to see an openly gay woman on national television.’ television being themselves,'” she notes. “I know it sounds trite. It’s not the reason I’m doing this, and I wouldn’t lie to you and say it is. I don’t think I’m here to be the spokesperson. That’s been a really nice side effect of the show.”
RELATED CONTENT:
