The legacy of “Scary Island” has lived on more than a decade later as the New York Housewives took another iconic girls’ trip.
True diehard fans of the Real Housewives franchise will remember, back yonder, in 2009 when The Real Housewives of New York City took a little season three girls trip. One of the first vacations ever to be featured on Real Housewives, fans have labeled it as ‘iconic.’ Many of the participants reunited for a second vacay on The Real Housewives Ultimate Girls Trip, bringing back up the legendary ‘Scary Island.’
Credit: Hulu YouTube Channel/ The Real Housewives of New York City
‘I’m alone on Scary Island’
RHONY season 3 episode 12 is officially titled Sun, Sand, and Psychosis, but it more popularly goes by the name “Scary Island.”
The phrase comes from Kelly Bensimon who, during a confessional, uttered those famous words: “I’m here by myself. I’m alone on Scary Island.”
The RHONY wives were on a vacation in St John in the Virgin Islands when all the drama began to amp up.
Kelly was already having some difficulties with her fellow cast when the ‘nice’ gesture of one of them leaving a bag of goodies outside each person’s door made her absolutely flip.
Bensimon opened the bag and said: “I don’t get why she did this. I don’t get why she did this.”
“It was so impersonal, and it just rubbed me the wrong way.” She explained. Kelly began to cry before claiming she had “no friends”, calling the trip a “disaster”, and making “Scary Island” stick in the Real Housewives lingo for a decade to come.
A confusing set of arguments were then had over dinner with Kelly becoming more and more distressed, the producers tried to encourage her to go to bed. The next day she quit the show but agreed to finish out the season.
watching rhony scary island episodes instead of a movie tonight 👍
— brianna (@justbrizigs) August 29, 2024
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‘It’s kinda Scary Island Part Two’
This bizarre night took a great toll on many of the RHONY women, but none so much as Kelly herself.
The 56-year-old told Andy on Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen about the impact Scary Island had on her life: “It’s not easy to come back from crazy, Andy.”
She continued to explain: “Like that doesn’t brand well. I was toxic. You couldn’t touch me. Not touch me at all. No one wanted to go around me. No one wanted to be near me.”
The Bravo star felt like all the effort she had taken to build “this name” with “so much integrity” had been “literally like destroyed” by someone calling her “crazy.”
In 2017 she opened up to The Daily Dish podcast: “Scary Island was actually really, really, really, funny until it wasn’t.”
Season 4 of The Real Housewives Ultimate Girls Trip, dubbed RHONY Legacy, has referenced Scary Island. Luann de Lesseps joked with the host on Watch What Happens Live in July 2023 about the upcoming trip.
Luanna teased: “It’s kinda Scary Island Part Two.”
Poor Kelly, it seems she’s never going to live this iconic moment down.