Real Housewives of New York star Jessel Taank wants a new cast member to come in and take the heat off her. Someone like Nicky Hilton.
It’s been suggested that Jessel acts like a princess, so maybe she’s hoping for someone else to assume that title. And the Hilton sisters are at the top of her wish list. (Actually, Nicky is the only one who lives in New York, as her sister Paris Hilton lives in Beverly Hills.)
“[I] would just like to see a spoiled brat — like an heiress,” Jessel told Page Six on December 6.
Jessel wants to be Paris Hilton
When a fan asked if there was one celebrity she “wanted to emulate” when she began filming RHONY in 2022, the publicist had a ready answer. “Paris Hilton,” she said. “I think I kind of plot along kinda like her without the dollars assigned to me and the heiress title.”
The mom of two thinks she and Nicky Hilton are equally spoiled. Jessel calls herself “very unaware,” adding “I don’t [even] know how to fill gas” as proof.
Called her show’s “villain” by Variety, Jessel isn’t shy about sharing her feelings. Viewers will recall her reaction when co-star Jenna Lyons gifted her an oversized green satin nightie. Rather than thanking her new friend for the present, the London native couldn’t stop complaining that she looked like “a f*cking Christmas tree.”
The war with Bethenny
In October, Jessel raised some eyebrows when she took on former Bravo icon Bethenny Frankel. On an episode of Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen, she called Bethenny the “most overrated” Housewife. Referring to the RHONY OG calling Andy “gross [and] problematic,” Jessel responded, “I think [she] is going off the rails.”
In retaliation, Bethenny clapped back that the first Indian Housewife was only criticizing her to get attention. “Someone who’s on the New York ‘Housewives’ now in a post-successful era, they’re gonna wanna squeeze that sponge for any of amount of liquid they can squeeze it for,” she said in October. “They need the relevance, the fame — it’s why they went on the show.”
The Skinnygirl founder added that the RHONY cast really “need[s] the press” because the show only gets a “couple hundred thousand” viewers per week.
A source in production quickly disputed that Jessel’s “not relevant yet” as she has “become a breakout.”
“Jessel, in particular, has recently been on the cover of Vogue India,” said the source, “done interviews with Variety and CNN, has been a guest on Access Hollywood and [various podcasts].”
But her popularity hasn’t affected her ability to poke fun at herself, since she recently joked during an interview that she “made Tribeca relevant.”
TELL US – DO YOU THINK JESSEL’S A VILLAIN? WOULD YOU LIKE TO SEE NICKY HILTON JOIN THE SHOW?
