Sai, Jessel and Ubah discuss the new season of Bravo’s reboot

NEW YORK — What you see is (mostly) what you get on “The Real Housewives of New York City.”

At least for Bravo reality stars Sai De Silva, Jessel Taanek and Ubah Hassan, picking up where the OG “RHONY” stars (which at times included Ramona Singer, Luann de Lesseps, Sonja Morgan, Bethenny Frankel and Dorinda) left Medley) will appear in the 13th season of the series in 2021.

Last year, season 14 (with a revamped cast) featured a new, more diverse group of women, joined by Jenna Lyons, Erin Lichy and Brynn Whitfield. And on Tuesday’s Season 15 premiere (9 EDT/PDT), they’ll welcome newcomers Rebecca Minkoff and Racquel Chevremont.

The women’s bravado is clear: even though each of them was talented and good-looking before appearing on the series, they are no longer debutants in the first season. Somehow shinier and subtly even more complex, the ladies claim they now understand the game.

Taank calls the series “the best mirror.”

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“I thought I was a sweet little Indian girl that no one could hate!” Taank, 41, says with a laugh. “And then of course you see yourself and I say, ‘OK, maybe I do sound a bit like a brat.'”

“I really didn’t know what to expect,” says De Silva, a former mom blogger turned fashion influencer. “I think people found my honesty very irritating, not refreshing.” The Brooklyn-raised star’s nonchalant approach didn’t work out exactly as planned, but it did force De Silva to “get the message across in a slightly different way.”

Taank, a fashion columnist and founder of e-commerce platform Oushq, senses that her British point of view may have initially rubbed off on American audiences. “I was very shocked. I was watching the first episode (season 14) on my couch and I thought I was feeling good and (husband) Pavit (Randhawa) posted on Twitter and was like, ‘People don’t like you. And I said, “Oh my God.”

“I’m still largely honest and transparent, but at the same time I don’t live the way others perceive me,” says De Silva, 43. “I am who I am. So take it or leave it.”

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Hassan, 41, still finds it difficult to reconcile real life with his work on creating the reality show that the group filmed every week from Tuesday to Saturday. In her modeling career, “none of us have family here, so the people I work with have become a kind of family, friends for me,” she says. But in Bravo’s world, “I still don’t know how to check in and out.”

As usual in New York, things are a bit chaotic as the three stars gather for our interview. Taank arrives last, but it’s not really her fault: the UN General Assembly causes traffic jams in the city to the point that De Silva jumped out of her car and onto the subway while Hassan kicked him a few blocks away from hers.

It’s just another ordinary day for the women, who have bonded over motherhood, the hardships of childhood and their disdain for Catch, as well as arguing over sunglasses, insulting their husbands and private flights.

Taank, who shared her IVF journey on camera, calls the program a “huge responsibility”: “I know a lot of women would love to be in our shoes.”

“I wish I could scream so loud for everyone to understand, it’s only 45 minutes!” Hassan says. “They can’t show everything. … So there’s a lot of stuff you don’t see yet” that producers dropped or added to make viewers “question” what’s going on.

The three of them are seemingly close to each other, as they went from being “co-workers” to a true working friendship in the first season.

“I definitely felt like coworkers last season where we work together and (castmates) get on our nerves. But this year it’s completely different.”

It’s unclear how long it will last: the season 15 premiere promises a fierce fight between Hassan and Whitfield, as well as internal conflicts between Lyons and Lichy, and a surprising closeness between De Silva and Taanek, who were at odds with each other throughout the previous season. Ladies bypass the current status of all friendships.

“I think we’re good,” says De Silva, before quickly qualifying his statement: “I feel like we’re good.”

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“If certain emotions or feelings come up, maybe before I would have been afraid to express them and wouldn’t have known how to act, but I think we all feel a little more comfortable expressing what we really feel,” says Taank, who adds that in this season “less walking on eggshells and more expressing how you really feel.”

All reports are under the microscope when Realit TV cameras are turned on. Hassan says she “wanted to share my relationship” with current boyfriend Oliver Daschel, a Connecticut man whose closeted relationship led to her final argument with Whitfield last season. “I wanted to talk about it, but I really couldn’t because I thought I didn’t know this guy. I am in this public space.”

Hassan says her married co-stars come “as a package,” which is a different scenario than navigating dating someone new. “It’s not like some of us are trying to hide a relationship because it’s new, right? It was a bit difficult.”

“There is a lot of character development this season,” says De Silva. “We’ve bonded in different ways that we didn’t do last year… They’re just going to be very genuine friendships that will translate very well on camera. There’s definitely tension between friends, and it happens automatically,” he says. , teasing, “but you’ll have to stay to find out exactly how it happens.”

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How to watch “RHONY” season 15

The new season of “The Real Housewives of New York City” premieres October 1 on Bravo (9 EDT/PDT), with episodes airing on Tuesdays. Fans will also be able to stream the next day on Peacock.