The 'Real Housewives of New York City' star opens up to ET about her explosive fight with her co-star.
While Luann de Lesseps and Bethenny Frankel's big blow-up on the latest episode of The Real Housewives of New York City has been making headlines, de Lesseps says that things have "gotten much better" between them in the intervening months.
ET spoke with the 54-year-old reality star at a book signing event for RHONY star Barbara Kavovit's new novel, Heels of Steel, in New York City on Tuesday, and she shared that she had seen the episode and watched the big fight.
"It's something that happened, you know, over six months ago so it's always hard to see that again because we've gotten to a different place," de Lesseps said. "It was tough. I felt really bad because I know there were a lot of things going on in there and it wasn't just about me. I think I handled it pretty well considering."
The fight went down during a dinner with de Lesseps, Frankel and several of their RHONY co-stars while on vacation in Miami, Florida. After de Lesseps was confronted by Kavovit and Tinsley Mortimer for behaving in a way they felt was selfish, de Lesseps shut down their claims. That was when Frankel had enough and went off in a big way, calling de Lesseps "insufferable."
"It was a tough moment and I think, as we go back a long time, I think that friends do get angry at each other and they do yell at each other," de Lesseps told ET. "If you don't care, you don't bother with people, right? So I thought it was a true show of her love for me."
As for the issues and grievances her co-stars aired, especially Frankel, de Lesseps said, "A lot of it I don't agree with."
"I don't think people understand how hard it was to not drink on that trip because there was a lot of drinking going on in a big way…. You know it may come off as being self-centered, but I really had to take care of me. The most important thing to me is my sobriety, so that comes first," she shared. "It may get misconstrued as being a narcissist, but that's not me at all and people who know me a long time [know] that's not who I am."
"I just think that having to take care of yourself takes a lot of energy and sometimes you don't have anything to give," she added.
In regards to the explosive fight itself, de Lesseps said she tried to just let Frankel get out all her anger, much of which she doesn't feel was truly meant for her, but was due to other aspects of her co-star's personal life.
"I didn't say very much because I felt like [it was best to] just let her vent," de Lesseps explained. "It was not time to, like, stand up and go after her. She had a full on breakdown."
For more on the huge blow-up between the RHONY co-stars, check out the video below.
The Real Housewives of New York City airs Wednesdays at 9 p.m. ET/PT on Bravo.
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