Leah McSweeney vs. Ramona Singer is The Showdown ‘RHONY’ Needed

Leah McSweeney has been the real gift both we as viewers and The Real Housewives of New York City as a show have needed. For a lot of reasons: she’s fun and open and honest, the way all the best Housewives should be. But she also stands up to Ramona Singer, also the way all Housewives should be, but aren’t. Ramona has spent 12 seasons on the Bravo show, periodically issuing useless and meaningless apologies for her unapologetic behavior, but that stops with Leah.

After last week’s episode where Leah enjoyed herself at Ramona’s birthday party, having more fun than Ramona was having with 50 of her closest girlfriends, Ramona yelled at Leah and production, breaking the fourth wall and threatening to quit because a line of grinding began with a handful of women from the show. Translation: if Ramona’s not having that much fun, then no one is.

Not that this was the first time the two have butt heads, or that Leah’s had more fun than Ramona. When in the Hamptons, Ramona wasn’t happy that she went out on the town and Leah stayed back at the house to get naked in the pool and throw tiki torches around the yard (100% more fun than flirting with creepy old white dudes). Their trip to Rhode Island was…an event, especially after Ramona went back and forth about allowing Leah’s sister to come join the group, and then Leah got drunk and had fun. Then Leah, not incorrectly, compared Ramona’s high-maintenance birthday to a “MAGA rally,” and these are only things that happened on-screen. On social media, Leah has alleged that Ramona is, shall we say, unable to control her bowels, and never shies away from calling her out on a variety of her own BS. Thank god! At this point, the other women often brush Ramona off with a “That’s just how she is!” but it’s 2020 now. Younger generations (Leah) aren’t standing for institutionalized bullying (Ramona) via racism or sexism or specifically in this case, classism and blatant selfishness. Leah calls it as she sees it and she’s not letting it slide.

When asked about why she’s been going after Ramona on social media, Leah told Andy Cohen on Watch What Happens Live last week, “I have done some self-reflection on this, and at the end of the day, I feel belittled, I feel betrayed, and when someone [tries] to make me feel as if I’m inferior to them, it doesn’t end well.” Fellow guest Michelle Buteau asked if it could simply be “hazing” as part of her first season on the show, Leah responded, “I don’t think I’m the only person that she does this to and next week she crosses a line that’s a very serious line.” She also went on to say her biggest problem with Ramona is that, “At first she was very warm and loving to me and then she took it away and changed it and that’s the issue.”

Another major issue, and the very serious line she crosses, is the fact that Ramona comments on Leah’s mental health and goes so far as to tell Sonja that Leah is bipolar in tonight’s episode. That’s a statement only a medical professional could make (and Ramona, most definitely, is not one) and even they would never because that is an illegal thing to do. That Ramona thinks it’s okay to a) go digging around for that type of into and b) throw around an unconfirmed and sensitive diagnosis is yet another example of how reckless and wrong she continues to be.

But hey, maybe this is all part of a master plan. As OGs of The Real Housewives have been dropping like flies in the last year (see: Vicki Gunvalson, Lisa Vanderpump, even Bethenny Frankel leaving RHONY, and who knows where NeNe Leakes actually stands), it’s not unreasonable to wonder how much longer Ramona might stick around. She would never happily make the decision to go on her own, but if another cast member, one that is quick and smart and also much more in line with the times such as Leah, were to point out her antiquated and rude ways, well, it could be a not-so-gentle nudge towards the door. Leah is young and full of energy and outspoken, and she’s brought new blood into a franchise that needed it. It’s hard to root against her, and the fact that Ramona continuously tries to only makes herself look even worse. You know how much Ramona means it when she says she’s sorry? That’s as sorry as we’d be to see her go.

The Real Housewives of New York City airs Thursday at 9pm ET/PT on Bravo.

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