"It's quite possible Sonja could be on something. The whole world's on something, right?" Luann says of her "Real Housewives of New York" co-star.
Luann de Lesseps says she's concerned for her "Real Housewives of New York" co-star, Sonja Morgan -- but Sonja and the others seem to think Lu is just "projecting."
In a "RHONY After Show" segment that was clearly taped before Luann's recent legal troubles pertaining to her drunk arrest in 2017, the Countess and cabaret star weighed in on Sonja's drinking habits while doubling down on the accusation that Sonja's "on something," which Lu made during Wednesday's episode of the Bravo series.
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View StorySonja's behavior was abnormal all episode, and a still-sober Luann was the first to point it out, noting that when Sonja showed up unannounced at her cabaret rehearsal a few days prior, she was talking a mile a minute and could not keep her thoughts together. Lu mentioned to the other girls that she felt Sonja could be taking pills, but Sonja denied she was doing anything other than drinking alcohol and being herself.
"When I referred to Sonja taking drugs, I'm talking about popping a Xanax once in a while," Lu said during Wednesday's "After Show." "It's quite possible Sonja could be on something. The whole world's on something, right?"
"I mean, it was above and beyond Sonja," she continued. "She just wouldn't stop talking. She was taking over the whole rehearsal. It was a disaster! My musical accompanist, Billy Stritch, was like ready to leave because he can't work in that kind of environment. Sonja was talking nonstop, she was moving around, she was being very disruptive. We can't work like that."
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View StoryThen when the ladies got to Miami for their vacation, Sonja started pounding mojitos. As a result, she tried to pee in the bathtub, screamed about how everyone goes after her exes, fell over multiple times, told Bethenny Frankel she would "knock her out" and then nodded off at dinner before smacking her face on the dining room table.
"It's hard enough for me to stay sober, and then to have to witness this being sober is just very hard," Lu said of Sonja's behavior in Miami. "I've been around a lot of drunk Sonja in the past, and it's not easy because you have to put her to bed, you have to take care of her. It's not just, 'Haha let's have a good time with Sonja!' There's a lot of care that goes into this project after."
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View StoryFollowing Luann's 2017 arrest, she "decided to seek professional guidance" and checked herself into a 21-day alcohol treatment center in Palm Beach. She reentered treatment in July of last year, explaining that her relapse was sparked by her kids' and ex-husband's lawsuit against her (alleging that she was supposed to set up a trust fund for the kids when she sold their family home).
"I think she's projecting a lot what she's learning in her meetings," Sonja said on the "After Show" to Dorinda Medley, who replied, "That's not true because the meetings aren't about that. The meetings are about humility, about taking responsibility, not pointing the finger, worrying about your own garden and not worrying about others."
"You don't throw stones when you live in a glass house," Dorin added.
As for Sonja's explanation for her wild behavior: "I was seeing double and feeling single!" But just because she can joke off the ordeal doesn't mean Luann's comments didn't sting.
"I went to visit her while she was [rehearsing], and I thought she'd be happy to have a visitor for 15 minutes -- and I am myself!" Sonja said of her random pop-in that led Lu to believing she was "taking something else" aside from alcohol. "I was hurt when Luann said that because I'm very demonstrative, I'm very high energy and I thought she could use a pickup for 15 minutes,. It hurt my feelings. I just wanted to visit her."
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View StoryTinsley Mortimer, who actually lived with Sonja when she first joined the cast, doesn't believe Sonja has any type of "substance abuse" problem and didn't appreciate Luann "throwing out an accusation that Sonja is on pills just by an observation or a judgement. Of all people, Luann is not the one to do that."
"It's not fair," she continued. "And Sonja's not acting any differently than Sonja acts. I mean, Sonja can sometimes act kooky, can sometimes act completely straightforward. I mean, that's just Sonja. We've seen that a million times, so nothing's new about this."
She added that Sonja "is sort of an all-or-nothing girl," noting that she can party hard just as easily as she can abstain from drinking.
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View StoryWhile in Miami, Dorinda threw back a few mojitos, too, giving her all the ammunition she needed to rip Luann for taking jabs at her in her cabaret show. She also slammed Lu for going after (and marrying and then divorcing) Tom D'Agostino, knowing Sonja had had a past with him.
"I decided on this Miami trip that I'm gonna stop treating Luann with kid gloves," Dorinda said on Wednesday's "After Show." "The truth of the matter is, I think it's disloyal. I think all this 'Girl Codes' and 'Money Can't Buy You Class' and all this stuff -- she needs to start following her own rules! There's certain things in my life that are off limits, and dating anyone's exes or ex-boyfriends, I just would never do. It isn't cool. It's disloyal."
"You didn't know I was with Tom," Sonja said to Dorinda. "But Luann knew! Because Tom told her."
Dorinda, who was responsible for introducing Tom to Luann, said she "would've never set Tom up with Lu" if she knew of Sonja's history with him.
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View StoryOf Sonja's claim that Luann always dates her exes, Luann said, "She's holding onto these old stories like she holds onto the Morgan past. I've never dated anybody else, other than Harry [Dubin], that's known Sonja -- oh, besides Tom, of course."
Harry and Sonja dated long before he made his way onto "RHONY." He was also married to former castmember Aviva Drescher before proposing to Sonja during one of the show's earlier seasons, wanting to give their love another go. That same day, Luann left a party with him, exclaiming that she was newly "single." Sonja subsequently broke things off.
Harry reappeared this season in a steamy make-out sesh with Ramona Singer, which Sonja addressed in her drunken rant Wednesday night.
Ramona was also the target of some criticism on Wednesday's "After Show." Luann called her a "mean girl," while Dorinda and Sonja said they felt she had spent a lot of the season social climbing.
"The Real Housewives of New York" airs Wednesdays at 9 p.m. on Bravo.
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