"Life is not a cabaret," Bethenny Frankel declared during one of their many bust-ups on The Real Housewives of New York. But sitting down with Countess Luann de Lesseps ahead of bringing her Countess Cabaret show to Belfast's Ulster Hall next month, it is clear why, during a recent encounter between the women in the Hamptons, Bethenny admitted that she was wrong.
Having grown up in Connecticut where she previously worked as a nurse before becoming a Wilhelmina model and eventually shooting to international fame when she was cast in the Bravo reality series, The Real Housewives of New York City, Luann has seen the world. However, despite having brought her cabaret show to the UK and Ireland before, this will be the first time that she has performed in Northern Ireland and speaking to Belfast Live, Luann said that she is looking forward to it as she knows that the people here "know how to party and have a good time".
"People often ask me what is cabaret? It's a personal story. It's pop-culture with the Housewives that they have been watching and loving overseas, it's a comedy and it's a fashion show. It is all those things together," she said.
"I always say to fans in the UK and Ireland and you never get to see my cabaret show on the Housewives. You only see the drama surrounding it, so you have never got to experience my show because of music rights.
"I have free reign on the cabaret stage, which I love. I pick songs that I love and that have a personal story to me, I pick the perfect Jovanni dress to go along with it and it's a really immersive show. The fans are involved and we play games with the fans then we get into songs like Cabaret, because life is a cabaret my friend."
Luann promised that this upcoming tour would be unlike any other and would focus on her greatest hits, including Money Can't Buy You Class and Chic C'est La Vie.
While Luann tells us that her friends had been encouraging her to do cabaret for many years, especially after she launched her music career in 2009 following her divorce from Alexandre de Lesseps, it wasn't until she divorced her second husband, Tom D'Agostino, in 2017 that she decided to give it a try.
"The idea was there but I didn't really do anything with it until 2018 because in the meantime, I married Tom and that took up some time," she said.
"After I divorced Tom, I was down in the dumps and I picked myself up and I rose to the cabaret stage, which was not easy. I mean, I worked really hard on my shows, and people don't get to see that on Housewives. I work with the best in the business and I love it."
Luann's marriage to Tom lasted just eight months, and almost a year to the day after their wedding, she was arrested on charges of disorderly intoxication, resisting arrest, battery of an officer, and making threats against a public servant, which led her to enter an alcohol treatment programme.
When asked about this and how her relationship with alcohol has developed, Luann said that she is in a different headspace now and is looking forward to having a pint of Guinness while in Belfast.
"I spent many Housewives trips sober like the first Ultimate Girls Trip with Kylie from Beverly Hills, Teresa and Melissa from New Jersey and the girls from Atlanta. Then I was sober during Crappy Lake with Sonia, thank God!
"But I am in a really different place with my issues with alcohol and I drink on occasion now. My relationship with alcohol has changed to where I am in the driver's seat now, and I will have a Guinness when I am over there."
Reflecting on her 13 years on the Real Housewives, Luann told us that she didn't expect the success of the show at all and while her life has played out on screen, from her two divorces to her relationship with her French ex-boyfriend Jacques whom she tells us she is still friends with, she is thankful for the opportunities it has given her including the change to perform with the late Natalie Cole.
"I pulled myself out of so many tailspins on the show. It's not about how you fall, it's about how you get back up and another great quote that I love to live by is the minute you think you are ripe, you are already rotten."
Aside from her cabaret show, Luann revealed that she is also working on a new tv show with Housewives co-star Sonia Morgan which is set to be similar to their Crappy Lake spin-off. You can also see her later this spring in the new Bravo dating show The Love Hotel.
However, despite the cast changes on the New York Housewives franchise, Luann said that the OGs are "like family" and that she wasn't disappointed when the rumoured Legacy series turned out to be an Ultimate Girls Trip.
"I was very happy to go on a one week vacation back to St Barts because I had been on the show for so long. But I just think they should send the OGs of New York everywhere.
"I said to them that we should be on Below Deck Mediterranean. I mean, the OGs go Below Deck. It's genius let's do it! But if they were to come to us and say, hey, we need you girls back, I always say that I'll cross that bridge when I come to it."
While money can't buy you class, it can buy you a ticket to Countess Cabaret at the Ulster Hall which are available now from countessluann.com.
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English (United States) ·