Kristen Taekman earned her "eagle wings" by the end of filming The Real Housewives Ultimate Girls Trip: RHONY Legacy.
"I really think I did, I think I kind of held my own," the Real Housewives of New York City alum tells ET, sitting down to discuss her return to the Bravo-verse after exiting the franchise in 2015.
The wings are a nod to Dorinda Medley, Kristen's outspoken season 7 castmate with whom she reunites on the first-ever single-city casted season of Peacock's Housewives offshoot, premiering Thursday. They're joined by Ramona Singer, Luann de Lesseps, Sonja Morgan and Kelly Bensimon on a getaway to St. Barts, staying in the same villa where the cast vacationed in season 5. In the new season's trailer, Dorinda warns Kristen -- who has the least shared history with the group, having only appeared on two seasons of RHONY before relocating to Los Angeles -- "Eagles don't fly with pigeons."
"I'm definitely not the same girl that I left off with," she laughs, noting she's far more outspoken and sure of herself than she was when she originally held an apple.
"I am, obviously, 10-plus years older and my kids are grown up, so I think when you are in the trenches with small children -- we were living this crazy, busy New York City lifestyle and, you know, California has this great way of just slowing everything down and putting things into perspective," she teases of how she's changed since viewers last saw her. "I think I have evolved into... I don't know, a stronger person in general."
Kristen is mom to a son -- Cash, 15 -- and daughter -- Kingsley, 11 -- whom viewers met when they were only 5 and 1, respectively. She was also in the midst of a big of a career pivot point, figuring out how to age in the world of modeling, all while navigating a "seven year itch" of sorts with her husband, entrepreneur Josh Taekman.
"Ramona right away said, 'You are a different person,' and I am like, could you not change in 10 years?" she continues. "When I came in season 6, it was intimidating, you know? I know I was quoted as saying, 'You need to respect your elders,' and I think I went into this show originally kind of thinking like, OK these are the OGs. I am coming in, I am the only new girl, I kind of know my place, and I feel like going into a Girl's Trip -- especially this one being 'Legacy' -- we are all on the same playing field, you know? It's not the same show that they all left. This is a new show. ... We are all equal players."
Not everyone seemed to go into filming with that same mindset, as Kristen faces off with both Dorinda and Kelly early on, on the vacation. With Dorinda, Kristen pushes a button: the "pause" button, the euphemism Dorinda chooses to use when discussing her dismissal from RHONY after season 12. That term dangled the promise of a would-be return for the longtime star, which never came to fruition, as Bravo opted to reboot the flagship series with an all-new cast for its recently wrapped 14th season. Still, Dorinda isn't a fan of the term "fired," maintaining her exit is different from Kristen's and, really, anyone else who was let go.
"The show [we were on] doesn't exist anymore," Kristen scoffs. "Call it 'pause,' call it 'fire,' we're all in the same boat, girl!"
When Kristen parted ways with RHONY, she kept to the verbiage that was common at the time, saying it was her choice to step away. In the near-decade since, it's become far more commonplace for Housewives stars to own that they had no say in their exits.
"What it comes down to, people don't realize, it's a contract for a season-- for anything! You can be on a scripted show, and it's like, you are either used, like your character is gone, or you go another couple seasons or whatever," she explains. "There’s no 'fire,' it's just, they don't ask you back."
"Listen, I was happy to my two years. I put my two years in-- sounds like a [prison] sentence!" she cracks. "I served my two years of time, and then I quietly went into the background and I was living my life and, you know, eight-plus years later, I get this phone call."
It's actually Kristen's friction with Dorinda that leads to her issues with Kelly. Kristen says she was only aware of the "paused" conversation because she saw Dorinda discuss it at length (and get into similar arguments about the term) on The Real Housewives Ultimate Girls Trip: Ex-Wives Club, which co-stared one of Kristen's best friends, The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills fan-favorite Brandi Glanville. They've known each other for decades, their history pre-dating reality television. When Kristen tries to explain this to the group, Kelly misinterprets it as Kristen being a super-fan of the franchise, which seemingly makes Kelly uncomfortable.
"One of my best friends is also on the franchise, I watch for her," she notes. "So, call me a 'super fan,' I just I call myself a good friend, to be honest. A supportive friend."
"I felt good about being knowledgeable about the eight years that I had missed, whereas I feel like Kelly wasn't as knowledgeable," she notes. For what it's worth, Kelly also only has one season on Kristen, having appeared on seasons 2 through 4. The two never overlapped as apple-holders.
"I went into it kind of feeling, like, I don't know... I want to be part of these conversations," she adds. "In my mind, this trip was going to be a really beautiful, packaged bow of, like, a RHONY recap. Like, all the best moments, and I am a planner -- and I like to be prepared. ... That is just the difference between Kelly and I. Respect to her for not preparing. That is how she operates. I don't operate that way."
This misunderstanding shoots RHUGT into "Scary Island" territory, with Kelly appearing to operate with a series of alternate facts -- facts to which the other women are not privy, try as they might to get clarity. It's a callback to the season 3 trip to St. Johns that turned Housewives trips into a thing in the first place. Fans of the franchise are more than familiar with the phrase, associated with a cringeworthy, three-episode arc crescendoing with Kelly having what co-stars and viewers alike dubbed a "breakdown," which Kelly's reclaimed as a "breakthrough."
"I learned a lot from that trip," she told ET at BravoCon in November. "I'm a mama bear, and so I'm always taking care of everyone and making that everyone’s happy, their hair is good, they've eaten. Like, I'm just constantly mothering every single person, and some people just don't want to be mothered, and they think that's being smothered."
Kelly actually coined the term "Scary Island," saying she was alone on it with "no friends," seeing as her main confidants on the cast at the time, Luann and Jill Zarin, did not attend the "renewal" trip hosted by Ramona.
"I just learned that I just have to take care of myself, and put on my own safety belt first and just take care of me," she added last month.
The most memorable parts of "Scary Island" played out during a dinner with Ramona, Sonja, Bethenny Frankel and Alex McCord, at which Kelly made a series of non-sensical, mad-lib-like statements, ranging from claiming Bethenny attempted to kill her in her dreams, to bringing up her "friend" Gwyneth Paltrow (Gwyneth claimed to not know Kelly years later on Watch What Happens Live With Andy Cohen) and mixing up O.J. Simpson defense lawyer Johnnie Cochran with civil rights activist Al Sharpton. It spawned some of the first Housewives memes, including Bethenny's infamous "Go to sleep!" and Kelly's sour reaction face, captured mid-jelly bean bite. Kelly left the trip after that night, her exit still a bit of a mystery.
Kristen was the only member of the RHUGT ensemble to have not seen the ordeal -- in a meta move, Dorinda actually watches it on the show, while in St. Barts -- until ET pulled out a highlight reel for her to screen mid-interview. She sneers and winces throughout the two-minute supercut, murmuring a series of "huhs" and "whats" to Kelly's many confounding comments (see it all play out in the video above).
"This puts everything in perspective now," she says after screening, noting it reminds her a lot of the Kelly she faced off with RHUGT.
"I think she has, like, her own narrative in her head, and then she's just kind of saying it out loud and it's making sense to her, and we don't have the full story, maybe?" she ponders. "I'm not sure..."
Kristen didn't necessarily expect to find herself feuding with anyone during the week-long shoot, but she did know something from her past would come up: her husband's name appearing in the data leak for AshleyMadison.com -- a website that connects married people looking to have affairs -- that coincided with her RHONY departure. The ladies never got a chance to discuss the so-called scandal with Kristen, aka drill her a bit about it. Now, she answers all their questions, but it's not necessarily what the women want to hear.
"My husband actually didn't cheat on me," she declares. "We're happily married, I love him. He is so supportive, he's the best husband, father that I could ever ask for and it's just, it's a shame -- it's like a shame."
"This was eight, nine years ago," she continues. "I had dealt with this privately a long, long time ago. This wasn't yesterday, you know? It's like, I'm sorry that my reaction wasn't this crazy, huge blow up as you wanted it to be, and I just... I don't know. I just think it's unfair that that's how these women are trying to get to know me again. There's a lot of other questions that should have come first before this."
Kristen points out that she is the only married woman of the bunch; the rest of the cast is divorced (or widowed, in Dorinda's case).
"I always joke that I'm a first wife, that I want to stay a first wife," Kristen says. "There's something to be said about the 'first wives club,' and it's not ever easy. So, I'm proud of our marriage and who we are in our bond and a bright future.
"We just had out 19th wedding anniversary, we've been together for 22 years," she continues. "I think there's something to be said for going through a hard time, really working through it, coming out even stronger on the other end."
Kristen shouts out Dorinda and Ramona for being the only two to stand up for her during the grand inquisition, especially Ramona. She and Kristen did not gel during their time together on RHONY, which included the oft-quoted "who are you to get me wet" fight. Ramona even claimed to not know who Kristen was when her name was announced as part of the Ultimate Girls Trip cast. She's since apologized for the comment.
"She just seemed at a little a lot more grounded," Kristen says of the Ramona she interacted with in St. Barts.
Ramona changed the most "for the better," Kristen says, though she remains a controversial figure within the realm of reality TV. Behind the scenes of the final season of RHONY in its original form, investigations into Ramona's conduct were launched after Eboni K. Williams, the franchise's first Black Housewife, voiced concerns of racist behavior to production. That included alleged use of the n-word, which Ramona denies. That allegation resurfaced this year ahead of BravoCon, thanks to a Vanity Fair "exposé" on the "reality reckoning," partially backed by Bethenny.
Ramona found herself disinvited from the Las Vegas event after attempting to correct the record on her alleged use of the racist term by partially invoking the word in her rebuttal to a reporter seeking comment. However, roughly a month later, she was present for the RHUGT premiere party in New York City on Tuesday night.
While it remains to be seen what Ramona's future with the franchise looks like, chances are RHONY Legacy could become a recurring series within the Ultimate Girls Trip spinoff. The "Legacy" show was originally intended to be a sort-of sister series to the refreshed RHONY, following past 'Wives in a similar format to the original. Kristen isn't sure she'd return for more, though.
"Never say never, but I would like some more married ladies," she admits. "Like, no more picking up 20-year-old guys at a bar and bringing them back to the house!"
If she could do a non-New York version, though, she might be more inclined. She names Miami's Larsa Pippen, Orange County's Emily Simpson, New Jersey's Melissa Gorga and Beverly Hills' Kyle Richards as her dream cast, alongside her bestie, Brandi.
"It's like riding a bike," she says of getting back into the swing of Bravo. "They're all my besties!" she adds, with a strong eye-roll -- just as a Housewife should.
The Real Housewives Ultimate Girls Trip: RHONY Legacy starts streaming on Peacock on Dec. 14. The first three episodes drop on premiere day, with new installments coming every Thursday thereafter.
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