One of the greatest mysteries in “Real Housewives” history has seemingly been solved.
In a podcast interview with Heather McDonald released Thursday, former “Real Housewives of New York City” star Carole Radziwill revealed that former Donald Trump lawyer Michael Cohen took the photo that nearly ended her costar Luann de Lesseps’ engagement to Tom D’Agostino back in 2016.
Back in Season 8, Bethenny Frankel showed de Lesseps a photo she obtained of her then-fiance D’Agostino kissing another woman at the Regency Hotel. De Lesseps confronted D’Agostino about his infidelity, though the two did end up getting married and divorced seven months later. It was never revealed who took the cheating photo and how Frankel obtained it, until now.
“At the time, I was like, ‘There’s just no way Bethenny happened to have a friend’ — she doesn’t have a lot of friends — one happened to be at The Regency on a random Tuesday night and Tom would walk in with an ex-girlfriend and kiss at the bar,” Radziwill explained to McDonald. “It just seems so implausible and unbelievable. But it’s a storyline. And there’s a photo.”
Radziwill then explained how a few months ago, Cohen joined her and a friend for dinner.
Cohen, who served as former President Trump’s attorney from 2006-2018, revealed during the meal that he was the one who took the photo of D’Agostino kissing an ex at The Regency.
“He said ‘I took the picture,’” Radziwill recalled of Cohen’s admission. Radziwill, a former journalist, cautioned Cohen was speaking “allegedly.” Cohen sent the picture to Dennis Shields, Frankel’s boyfriend at the time, and that’s how Frankel came into possession of it.
In a now deleted TikTok, Frankel denied that Cohen was the one who took the photo, claiming she was in contact with the woman who did. “It’s dangerous to listen to just anybody spew their mouth off about something they know nothing about,” Frankel cautioned Friday.
For years, Radziwill and the other housewives thought that Frankel and/or production had set up the photo incident to drive storyline.
“I thought, actually, production had set something up, but in a million years, I would not have thought that Michael Cohen was gonna sit down at dinner and tell this whole story about how he took the picture,” Radziwill admitted.
Indeed, de Lesseps and D’Agostino’s tumultuous relationship was covered for several seasons on the show. Not only did his cheating create a rift between the couple, but also between de Lesseps and Frankel.
In Season 10, a divorced de Lesseps apologized to Frankel. “Between you and I, I just want to say that I should’ve heeded your warning. I just couldn’t see. I was in love and love is blind… you were f–king right.”
As for Cohen, he had a falling out of sorts with his friend and former client. In 2019, he sued the Trump Organization for failing to pay his legal fees.
Check out Radziwill’s interview with Heather McDonald in the clip below: