TV

Eboni K. Williams says RHONY castmates weren't willing to 'negotiate a future that involved me'

"Only Sonja Morgan was willing to come to the table," according to Williams.

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Published on April 6, 2022 09:48PM EDT

The Bravo-sphere was shook to its martini-soaked core following the announcement last month that The Real Housewives of New York would be split into two different shows, one with a completely new cast and another with OG fan faves. According to Eboni K. Williams, the first Black Housewife on RHONY, the decision came down to her former castmates' unwillingness to meet at the negotiating table.

In the latest episode of former Bravo producer Carlos King's Reality With the King Stitcher podcast, Williams went in depth about her experience on the show — and her potential future. Season 13, Williams' first on the hit reality series, was a turbulent one, marked by some truly uncomfortable moments between the lawyer-turned-commentator and RHONY vets Ramona Singer, Luann de Lesseps, Sonja Morgan, and Leah McSweeney.

Williams said that splitting the show in two was "the result of getting to a bridge too far to go with myself, as the first Black woman on the show, and the women who were on the show previously."

EW has reached out to representatives for Singer, de Lesseps, Morgan, McSweeney, and Bravo for comment.

Eboni K. Williams on 'The Real Housewives of New York'. Sophy Holland/Bravo

Clashes over race, class, and privilege between Williams and her seemingly clueless and out-of-touch white castmates reached a boiling point during a "Black Shabbat" dinner, and the episode proved so trying for Williams that she still refuses to watch it or any RHONY episode that aired since.

The season was such a dud no one seemed to miss the usual season-culminating reunion that never manifested. Granted, the ratings were the lowest they had ever been for RHONY — though Williams noted that ratings across the Housewives franchise have been steadily decreasing every season — but Williams said the real nail in their collective coffin was the refusal of Singer, de Lesseps, and McSweeney to meet her "even halfway" in negotiating a return for all of them.

"Only Sonja Morgan was willing to come to the table and negotiate a future that involved me as a part of this ensemble," Williams said. "Period, dot."

"If those same former castmates of mine had been willing to enter into the negotiation of coexisting and sharing space with myself and additional women outside of their particular New York world and bubble," Williams told King, emphasizing that this was strictly in her opinion, "you would have had a season 14 that was what everybody anticipated: a proper integration of old school, new school."

What we're getting instead is one RHONY featuring a more multicultural cast with pre-existing relationships and another series that will feature some familiar faces of yore.

Although Williams and Morgan remain friends, the friendship viewers saw between Williams and McSweeney was apparently just for the cameras. Still, it doesn't seem that Williams is completely done with the Housewives. If anything, she seems more committed to the idea since her first season was hampered by the COVID-19 pandemic, the 2020 presidential election, and the Singer Stinger. Season 14, she said, was supposed to be her do-over, but now "basically, I have to audition for my job again."

Undaunted, Williams said she's going through her groups of friends — and not Instagram friends, but real friends. (One of her biggest complaints about her castmates is that they "never knew who I was.")

"I keep a tight circle," Williams said. "I have lots of women I know in New York, lots of women I appreciate in New York, but when it comes to who I'm actually going to put a bra on for and go out my house with, by choice, no check attached, that's a small group of women. They just happen to be fantastic."

Maybe we'll get to meet them next RHONY season.

Listen to Williams' Reality With the King interview above.

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