Ubah Hassan chats with ET about her debut season on 'The Real Housewives of New York City,' previewing the feuds still to come.
Ubah Hassan doesn't just eat her meals with a butter knife, as her The Real Housewives of New York City co-star, Sai De Silva, not-so-subtly called out during the cast's trip to the Hamptons. She identifies with the utensil, too. Or maybe, as the utensil.
"People know that I'm a butter knife," she quips to ET. "I don't usually cut. I'm a knife that cuts only room-temperature butter. When I'm poked properly, I do turn into a machete, and I think that's what happened in Anguilla. Don't poke the bear."
Anguilla is the RHONY reboot's first international girls' trip, set to air in the back half of season 14. The just-released teaser for what's still to come previews more friction between model/hot sauce entrepreneur Ubah and fellow apple-holder/realtor Erin Lichy. While in the Caribbean, the two exchange words (some of them expletives) across a hot tub, with Erin accusing Ubah of attempting to turn the group against her.
"If you think ... I am making everyone against you, then there is something you're [feeling] guilty about," Ubah muses. "That should now be your first thought, because what did you do for other people to be against you, right?"
Viewers will have to wait and see what exactly the two get into it over, with Ubah only offering up that Erin "had something of mine and I wasn't really happy about it."
"I just woke up, I was, like, a b***h!" she recalls. "I was not talking to anyone, you know, one of those days. Some days, it’s just, stay away from me ... I need to make myself better, but in Anguilla, I couldn't do that, right? We're in the same house and I think I mentioned her name or something, and she said, 'Don't mention my name...' and I said, 'Oh, you are here?' And she's like, 'Yeah, don't ever mention my name again,' and I was like, 'Oh no, this is not gonna work.' This is not gonna work. Don't talk to me like that...' and, yeah, then I just saw black for, like, nine hours."
"It was so long," she continues. "It was so long. It was so long. It was so f**king long. I didn't know how to shut up, but this is the thing, though: I don't pretend. I don't know how to be like, 'I’m mad at you! Da da da da da...' and like, 'OK, now we're friends.' I’m about to bury you. Like, we're doing a funeral, you know? So it takes a long time for me to calm down. That's why I don't get mad."
Tensions seem to boil over when Ubah snatches Erin's sunglasses off her face, shades Ubah maintains were purchased off Canal Street in New York. Erin is adamant they're designer frames from fashion house Alaia.
"They sell Alaia on Canal Street," Ubah deadpans. "Maybe they spell it wrong."
She wouldn't take back the boundary-crossing move -- "I don't regret and I don't apologize" -- but admits she's not looking forward to watching it back.
"Yeah, I think I'm going to travel that week," she laughs. She might need a little R&R around then, too, in order to gear up for her very first reunion taping.
"I'm not looking forward to that," she confesses. "I wanna be cool like a cucumber, dipped in chocolate, but I know people are gonna come for me, so I only-- listen, I only match energy. You give me love, I give you triple love. You give me hell, I give you volcano."
"I'm sure Erin and I will have to speak about our feelings and what happened," she says.
For the record, Ubah says she and Erin are all good now. "I love Erin, we're friends, we made up," she shares. "I don't hold grudges, I don't, but I also don't apologize, because I don't do things to apologize. I cannot stand people will be like, 'I'm sorry, I didn't mean it. I'm sorry.' If you didn't mean it, don't do it. It's end of story."
"I try to live my life in a way where I don't say I'm sorry, I don't get in people's business," she adds. "I don't gossip. I don't backstab, and If I go 'Ubah hot' on you, you deserve it."
Ubah's not the only castmate Erin's faced off with so far this season; there's friction brewing between her and Brynn Whitfield, over Brynn's flirtatious vibes toward Erin's husband, Abe, and her ongoing issues with Jessel Taank. The two sat down for what's become the most memorable scene of the season so far, a coffee date in which Jessel described the established neighborhood of Tribeca as "up and coming" and confronted Erin over a series of perceived digs, which amounted -- in Jessel's mind -- to Erin calling her a privileged princess. Erin did call Jessel a "crazy person" upon the meet-up's end, pondering whether the British transplant had a "chip missing" after so many crossed wires.
"It's not nice to tell someone that they miss a chip," Ubah reflects. "Like, you did not create them, how do you know-- what are you, Steve Jobs, telling what the computer is missing? Like, you're not God. Jessel is not missing anything. I think you can disagree, and you cannot like someone, but unless you created them, you should not know what chips they miss, or didn't miss."
The Jessel situation only snowballs from here, though, as Sai joins Erin in asking questions about Jessel's personal life. Her sex drought after welcoming twins remains a talked-about topic among the group, with her husband, Pavit's, planned solo vacation to Vietnam raising eyebrows.
"We take that to Anguilla," Ubah teases. "A lot of time, the girls will ask a question to Jessel, and Jessel will answer it, but then they will not be satisfied with the answer. So it's very, very tough to watch, to be a part of, because, like, if you don't believe someone’s answers, then why are you asking? 'Cause there's no point, right? So there's a lot of that rigmarole."
The one thing Ubah is looking forward to about reunion is seeing how Jessel goes up against the other ladies.
"I'm excited to actually see Jessel, how she’s gonna handle it," she shares. "I think she should tell all the other cackling hags to eff off. She's so sweet. I don’t know if she's gonna do that. Also Brynn and Sai, I don’t know how they are gonna resolve [their issues], but I miss them together."
Sai made headlines earlier this season for revealing she no longer considers Brynn a best friend, calling her out for being a bad secret keeper. It seems whatever that secret is comes to light at the finale party, Brynn's birthday, as previewed in the midseason trailer. Sai and Brynn get into a shouting match over whether something was previously revealed on camera or not.
"Sai took Brynn under her wing, and she got bruised a little bit, you know?" Ubah shares. "There was a little character switch. I mean, that's how you get to know people. That's how you get to know human beings, right? I think Sai got hurt a little, but people are going to be very surprised, like, why they arguing."
The Real Housewives of New York City airs Sundays at 9 p.m. ET/PT on Bravo.
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