Dorinda Medley on ‘The Real Housewives Ultimate Girls Trip: Ex-Wives Club’

What are you doing here without Doooooooorinda?!

If you know “Housewives,” chances are you know who Dorinda Medley is, due to her many iconic moments on “The Real Housewives of New York City,” and if you miss Medley, you’re in luck. : she’s back on the newest season of “The Real Housewives Ultimate Girls Trip: Ex-Wives Club.”

Eight star wives converge on Medley’s Blue Stone Manor for “RHUGT,” including “Real Housewives of New York” Medley wife Jill Zarin, “Real Housewives of Atlanta” Phaedra Parks and Eva Marcille, Vicki Gunvalson and Tamra Judge from “Real Housewives of Orange County” and Brandi Glanville and Taylor Armstrong from “Real Housewives of Beverly Hills”. Blue Stone Manor is the perfect setting for any Housewives fantasy, as it’s already the site of countless moments, including Bethenny Frankel’s “mention it all”! and Medley’s “I Cooked, I Cleaned, I Made It Nice!”

TODAY sat down with Medley to find out all about what it was like to welcome the ladies into her home…and of course, make it enjoyable.

Medley’s Blue Stone Manor is the perfect vacation setting

After taking a “break” from “The Real Housewives of New York City,” fans were thrilled to see Medley star in “RHUGT,” and they were even more excited when Blue Stone Manor was revealed as the filming location.

Away from the cameras, Medley has used her time to continue developing her entertaining skills and has worked on a number of other projects, including her book, “Make It Nice” (recently released in paperback!), her line of bourbon, aptly named Blue Stone Manor Bourbon and a house line – all culminating in making it ready to welcome the ladies and get back into the game.

Medley was instrumental in planning the activities for the ladies alongside the producers and explained, “Pretty much every activity you see I had to plan. … We were action-packed the whole time. Medley noted that Armstrong and Parks have also planned events for the ladies, teasing exciting times ahead.

With over 100 production members and the ladies converging on Medley’s estate, the experience was incredibly different from filming “RHONY,” as Medley explained, it took “the production value to a whole another level” and filled his property with “drones, command stations, port-o-potties, (and) COVID test tents.

Overall, filming at Blue Stone Manor was a welcome opportunity, and a Medley hopes to open viewers’ eyes to other aspects of his property.

Medley said: “You used to see that in the dining room, the living room. It was in November, it was gloomy. It’s the height of fall, the pool was still open, you can see the little maze, you can see, pretty much all 18 acres of the property, which I think is going to be a really new thing for the public.

The drama is endless on ‘RHUGT’ – and is still Go

It wouldn’t be “Housewives” without drama, and Medley wasted no time getting into it with his fellow wives.

Medley said she trains the most with Gunvalson and Glanville, noting that she “gets along really well” with Glanville, especially when the cameras aren’t rolling.

With Gunvalson, Medley noted that they are “very different people” and was “surprised” that Gunvalson apparently “didn’t really want to be there from the start”. It’s important to note that Gunvalson broke up with her then-fiancé Steve Lodge right around the time of filming, which viewers will see unfold on the show.

The drama boiled over when the press started for “RHUGT,” as Gunvalson said on a Well done Instagram Live that she would be ‘miserable’ living at Blue Stone Manor full time as it is old and in a rural area. Medley replied calling out Gunvalson in an Instagram post and saying on his podcast that Gunvalson has “no taste” and “dates people who claim to have cancer”. Gunvalson responded by an Instagram commentsaying Medley is “the bad guy” and reiterating that the experience was “miserable” at Blue Stone Manor.

Medley explained that she believes Gunvalson’s statement was due to a “lack of understanding or education about the area”, and added that the rest of the ladies were excited about the trip – and made the most of it.

Medley said she was shocked that Gunvalson was upset that she responded, saying, “you can’t expect a tough New Yorker with a big mouth like Dorinda Medley not to clap.” We don’t play on the east coast now. There’s East Coast and then there’s Beast Coast. We are the coast of beasts. We’re from Manhattan and the boroughs, and that’s how we ride. It’s just the daily interaction with a taxi driver for me.

As to why Gunvalson’s remark touched such a nerve, Medley said, “He’s (Blue Stone Manor) a beloved character, not only to me, but it’s like Housewives’ Disneyland. It’s iconic. Every day of my life, I literally have people at my doorstep looking up to take pictures. So I don’t know what she’s looking at, but I don’t think that kind of feeling is going to get along with the rest of the world.

Judge said on Jeff Lewis Live on Tuesday, June 14 that it looks like the beef “has been crushed”, but there hasn’t been an official update from Medley or Gunvalson…yet.

Medley answered quick questions about “RHUGT” and Ramona Singer’s latest snafu

On who is most likely to cause drama: Glanville

On who is most likely to make the group laugh: Parks

Who is most likely to brag about their own brand: Zarin

On who had the best outfits: Marcille, “Eva is an amazing dresser and she’s so beautiful, like you just want to look at her.”

On who spills the most tea: Medley! “I mean, as you know, my name is Dorinda Meddler!”

On who is the best team player: judge

On Ramona Singer accidentally leaking Teresa Giudice’s wedding info: ‘I swear to God, look, whatever we had, I’ve known her for 25 years, and I could almost say for sure she didn’t mean it maliciously. If we learned anything about Ramona, she just does stuff and then she goes, “I’m sorry, I’m sorry.” I really think it was excitement.