She cooked, she cleaned, she made it nice! These are a few of Dorinda Medley’s favorite things. When viewers met Dorinda back on Season 7 of The Real Housewives of New York City, no one expected her to make the same impact she had on the franchise. Even though, during her first season, she was overshadowed by the many arguments between the ladies, she still showed she was capable enough of hanging around the ladies and keeping up with them and their antics.
It wasn’t until Season 8 that audiences could see the megastar that Bravo had acquired for RHONY in her. Throughout her time on The Real Housewives of New York City, Dorinda always showed her true self, which attracted many fans towards her. She was never afraid to tell the truth, even if it meant that it would hurt someone’s feelings.
She showed viewers her life and her many struggles after the loss of her husband and also navigating dating after dealing with death. She was very vulnerable about her feelings, which made audiences love her even more. Besides being real, Dorinda always managed to put a smile on viewers’ faces with her many “Dorinda-isms,” everyone always rooted for her Berkshire trip to go according to plan.
Even after being such a fan-favorite, though, during her last season, there was a change felt in her that many viewers could not pinpoint. She seemed more activated than usual, especially against Tinsley Mortimer, and it was something that was not liked, so Bravo concluded, putting her on pause. When a reality TV star is put on pause, it means they could have an opportunity to return to the franchise in some form, but putting someone with a personality like Dorinda’s on pause would show a void in the show.
This may have been a good idea at first, but after watching the show without her, viewers could fill a void that could not be filled with newer cast members Eboni Williams and Leah McSweeney. The last season of The Real Housewives of New York City had a very different vibe from the one viewers were used to, and it showed not only among the cast but also in viewership that it was decided to reboot the whole franchise. Having a franchise as beloved as RHONY be rebooted was not exciting for many viewers, and it brings the question whether Dorinda would have helped to make their last season a little more enjoyable or whether RHONY was doomed from the start. Either way, viewers knew not having Dorinda on the show would feel different and not in a good way.
Dorinda Medley’s RHONY Beginnings
From the start, Dorinda Medley cemented herself as one of the best housewives to step into The Real Housewives franchise because of her personality, pot-stirring, and friendships with all the ladies. When viewers met her, she was close to OG housewife Ramona Singer because they had been friends for almost twenty years. Ramona was someone that Dorinda relied on the most when her husband, Richard Medley, passed away. Her involvement in Season 7 showed viewers how she could be a force to be reckoned with, but during this season, there were a total of eight housewives, and when having these many ladies in one season can make it easy to forget about some of them. Still, viewers were intrigued about her life since she had shown the ladies another side of The Berkshires, which even made Ramona Singer say how she approved of it now, since she had a “horrible experience” the season prior at Heather Thomson’s Berkshires home.
She showed them their home and invited viewers to see what her life was like after her husband passed away. She was dating John Mahdessian, who was not a fan-favorite for her but was among the cast. Dorinda may have already had a friendship with some of the ladies years prior, but seeing her friendship with Carole Radzwill grow showed another side that got viewers’ attention. They may not have had too many moments together, but they had the death of their partners in common, and seeing them travel to London to be able to close chapters from their past created a beautiful bond between the two that could not be broken. After a turbulent Season 7 and a shake-up for Season 8, it was the perfect opportunity for Dorinda to make her mark and show all women what it takes to be a great housewife.
A frightening incident led to the child being rushed to the emergency room.
Going into RHONY Season 8, Dorinda made it clear that she would no longer stay in the background; she would come forward and speak her mind. She also became one of the greats by introducing a new housewife into the group, Jules Wainstein. Though she was not as remembered as Dorinda, everyone knew about Jules because of Dorinda. Season 8 started Dorinda’s career in Housewives as she was struggling with her relationship with John and had most of the ladies going against her about her relationship. She had it very tough throughout this season. She felt betrayed by her friend Ramona because she wasn’t being real about her thoughts on John and kept going behind her back and talking about him. Even though the way many of the ladies went at Dorinda for her relationship was not done nicely, they all had valid points.
Bethenny Frankel also went toe-to-toe with John because of her brand, Skinny Girl, which he claimed she had stolen from another brand called SkinnyCow. This was a very tough moment to watch as a viewer because Dorinda was the only one getting hurt from this argument, and it broke her heart to see her boyfriend and her friend staring at each other without even thinking about how she felt about it. This moment started to raise many red flags among viewers about Dorinda’s relationship because they only wanted the best for her, and it seemed John was a factor that kept bringing her down. After that, everyone could move on from the argument, but the biggest battle was coming up: the annual visit to the Berkshires.
The Berkshires Turned Dorinda into a Favorite
Image via Peacock
When thinking of The Real Housewives of New York City, one of the first things that come into viewers’ minds is the countless visits to the Berkshires or, as the ladies have called it, “The Berkshires.” Whenever the ladies went to Dorinda’s home, it was always unpredictable how the trip would go for everyone. The Berkshires, though, have become a staple place in Housewives history, and it could be considered a national treasure because that home has seen it all, but it is what started Dorinda’s career. Viewers will never forget how, in Season 8, the women went to her home for her birthday, and, like always, they were all arguing with each other. Dorinda became frustrated with all of them because she had invited them all into her home, and they were being disrespectful of it.
So Dorinda did what she did best: she came up with a phrase that would shake up the whole cast. “I cooked all day, I cleaned, I made it nice,” those last four words quickly became her tagline, and from that moment on, everyone knew she would always try to make it nice for everyone. Even Andy Cohen himself said her famous speech was iconic from the start, “the thing that makes the speech so iconic is that it is a speech. It is a speech that anyone can relate to. This woman broke her back to have her friends come over. She cooked. She cleaned. She made it nice. And these b*tches are disrespecting her at every step of the way [and] her mother’s cake – and she broke.” From that moment on, Dorinda created many of her “Dorinda-isms” that made fans fall in love with her more and more.
Without a doubt, any Berkshires trip that the ladies had coming up was an exciting moment for viewers because they wanted to see what would happen next. Many iconic moments from the franchise happened at her home, like the well-known battle between Bethenny Frankel and Luann de Lesseps about their similar haircut and who they were sleeping with. Not only were the battles there iconic, but it was also nice for viewers to see how much love Dorinda has for her home and how much it means to her. She got with her husband and created many great memories in this place, and now it has become a place that Housewives fans would love to visit.
Her Antics Is What Made Dorinda’s Popularity Grow
For many seasons, viewers grew excited to see what new antics Dorinda would get up to with the ladies, but as her popularity grew, so did other issues start coming up. Even though viewers loved how much of a pot-stirrer Dorinda could be, she started becoming too much of a “Medler,” it showed a lot during her last seasons against Tinsley Mortimer. When Tinsley was introduced into the group, she came in as a friend of Sonja Morgan and quickly showed she was more than just Sonja’s friend. Still, the socialite struggled to make a name for herself since her past arrest was following everyone she went and in her dating life, but it all changed when Carole Radzwill introduced her to Scott Kluth. With this new relationship she was on, it was easy for the women to be nitpicky on it, but Dorinda took it an extra mile with her during their last season together, as Tinsley had decided to leave mid-season and move in with Scott, which was something that did not sit well with her and decided to break the fourth wall on her last season about it.
It could be seen that there was a sudden change in Dorinda that made viewers take a step back from her, and Bravo had to decide between putting her on pause. Placing someone with her personality on pause goes unnoticed because there was a void felt on the show without her. This may have been a good decision in the beginning, but Season 13 of RHONY did not hit as it used to, and it may have also been because of the many issues within the cast on that season, but also because one of the hearts of the show was not in it anymore. Viewers knew they were missing something from the show, and it felt like they could not close a chapter of RHONY without Dorinda, since the show had been rebooted completely for Season 14. What did bring viewers back to her, though, was her addition to the spinoff, The Real Housewives Ultimate Girls Trip, which was a necessary send-off for many of the RHONY ladies, but especially with Dorinda,, it was nice to see her again on, viewers’ screens, doing what she knows to do best which is to make it nice.
The Real Housewives of New York City is now streaming on Peacock.