Carole Radziwill’s past comes back to haunt her in “The Real Housewives of New York City” Season 16.
In the trailer for the hit Bravo show’s forthcoming new season, Radziwill, 62, is confronted by a fellow New Yorker over her alleged ties to deceased sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
“The Epstein files!” the stranger calls out, stunning Radziwill as she’s walking the streets with co-star Erin Lichy.
“She’s the one from the Epstein files!” the woman adds.
In the next scene, “RHONY” star Sai De Silva directly asks Radziwill if she has ever been to Epstein’s private island, where the American financier ran his sex trafficking and child abuse operation.
“No,” Radziwill promises. “You think I’m part of an international sex trafficking ring?”
Radziwill came under scrutiny earlier this year when her name surfaced in the Epstein files. While she later told the New York Times she “never knew Jeffrey Epstein,” she did open up about her former friendship with Ghislaine Maxwell, the British socialite who was convicted for her role in aiding Epstein’s sexual abuse of young girls.
“Imagine knowing someone… and then they turn out to be, like, a monster,” Radziwill said in the March interview.
The reality star explained she was friends with Maxwell, who is currently serving a 20-year prison sentence, “for five or six years” in the early 2000s, though never suspected she’d be capable of such egregious behavior. According to Radziwill, their friendship ended long before Maxwell’s crimes came to the surface.
Meanwhile, Radziwill is gearing up for her grand return to the Bravo universe. The journalist first joined “RHONY” as a full-time Housewife in Season 5, before stepping away after Season 10.
Her return marks yet another new era for “RHONY,” which traded in its OG cast for a new group of women for Season 14. Out of that cast, only Lichy, De Silva and Jessel Taank will be returning for Season 16, along with newbies Hailey Glassman, Daisy Toye and Erika Hammond.
Based on the trailer alone, the three new women appear to bring plenty of added oomph to the franchise. Hammond, a billionaire, hosts the cast on a private island, Glassman, a publicist, opens up about her “lavender marriage” and Toye, a celebrity makeup artist, convinces her boss — the Martha Stewart — to make a cameo in front of Bravo cameras.
Plus, Lichy appears to be feuding with both De Silva and Taank this season.
It looks like Andy Cohen finally figured out how to “make it nice” again with this beloved franchise.
“The Real Housewives of New York City” Season 16 premieres Tuesday, Sept. 8 at 8 p.m. ET.