Kelly Bensimon on The Golden Life, Reinventing Herself & Why She Embraces Being Misunderstood
5/19/20261 hr 14 min
Reality TV icon, model, entrepreneur, author, and luxury real estate powerhouse Kelly Bensimon joins Rachel for a deeply personal conversation about reinvention, resilience, and why being misunderstood may actually be her greatest strength.
Fresh off filming E!’s highly anticipated new reality series The Golden Life — which reunites original RHONY legends in Palm Beach — Kelly opens up about what it was really like stepping back into ensemble reality television on an entirely different network with a completely new storytelling style and energy.
But this episode goes far beyond reality TV.
Kelly shares the truth about rebuilding herself over and over again — from modeling and publishing to becoming one of the top luxury real estate brokers in New York and Florida — all while learning how to stand firmly on her own two feet. She reflects on public perception, fame, heartbreak, and why she’s finally comfortable owning the parts of herself the world never fully understood.
She also addresses her complicated history with Bethenny Frankel, discusses the lasting tension from the RHONY years, and gives her honest thoughts on friendship, competition, and reality television today. The conversation also dives into love, dating, and relationships after the end of her engagement to financier Scott Litner in 2024.
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Executive Producer: George Carmona
Clips
Transcript preview
First 90 secondsSpeaker 00:00
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Kelly Bensimon· Guest0:29
[upbeat music] Misunderstood. Misunderstood. Misunderstood.
Rachel Uchitel· Host1:01
Kelly, I'm so happy to finally meet you and have you here on Misunderstood. Welcome to the show.
Kelly Bensimon· Guest1:05
Thank you so much, Rachael. This is so cool.
Rachel Uchitel· Host1:09
So, are we- We should have met so many years ago, by the way I, I know, and we were just talking about it. I- you finally have gone back to New York. You were here for a while. I wish I had met you when you were down in Palm Beach, but I'm so excited for your new show to be coming out. The, um, trailer just dropped and everybody's super excited about it. So I guess my first question would obviously be what made you decide to come back