Real Housewives of New York City cast member Ramona Singer’s racist remarks have been further exposed. Ramona, who was a cast member for the show’s first 13 seasons, was accused of making racist comments to Black crew members behind the scenes, as well as to fellow cast member Eboni K. Williams, the first Black cast member of RHONY in 2021. Ramona made comments to Eboni that were seen as microaggressions on screen, but behind the scenes, the comments may have been more severe. The things Ramona allegedly said caused an internal investigation as well as a behind the scenes training session on racist language.
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A recent deep dive into the show exposed Ramona's racist behavior.
In a recent exposé of the Real Housewives franchise published by Vanity Fair, the magazine reported that Ramona was allegedly hostile and used racially charged language, including the N-word, during an interaction with a Black crew member during the filming of season 13 in 2021.
The use of the word then became a complaint within the companies Shed Media, Warner Bros. Discovery, Bravo, and NBCUniversal who produce the show, but Ramona denied using it, and an internal probe into the incident came back "inconclusive."
Ahead of season 13, the cast had to undergo mandatory training on racism and racist language.
Before the filming of season 13, cast members including Ramona, Eboni, Leah McSweeney, Sonja Morgan and Luann de Lesseps, attended a "virtual education session" where they discussed race and the kind of things that were and weren’t OK to say. Also in attendance were an NBCUniversal communications executive, a Bravo publicist, and two representatives from a racial justice organization.
Ramona asked why she couldn't talk about Black fathers not being present in their kids' lives.
In the Vanity Fair piece, Eboni recalled that during the call, Ramona asked why she shouldn’t be allowed to talk about the racist trope of Black children not having present fathers.
"'What if they don’t have a father? Why can’t I say that? Most of them don't,'" Eboni recounted Ramona asking. Ramona then explained that she read a study confirming this belief, despite the Black network publicist informing her that she had a present father.
Ramona dug in, attempting to defend her right to ask such a question.
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Things weren't always friendly between Ramona and Eboni during season 13.
During their time on the show together during season 13, Ramona and Eboni apparently had several tense moments. Back in 2021, Page Six reported that a source close to production claimed that Ramona said, "This is why we shouldn’t have Black people on the show," after Eboni got kicked out of Luann de Lesseps’ home. The comment, paired with comments Ramona reportedly made to a crew member, caused an internal investigation into her behavior, which resulted in the season 13 reunion being canceled.
"I never said that. It’s a terrible lie," Ramona said in a statement to Page Six following the allegations. "It’s very disappointing that even after my name was cleared that people still want to slander me."
Ramona claimed there were 'so many Black chicks' during the filming of season 13.
Vanity Fair also reported that during production of season 13, Ramona told a Black woman on the production staff, "There’s so many of you guys here now, please don’t change your hair as I’m not gonna be able to remember anybody’s names."
Ramona has responded to the allegations in a statement to Rolling Stone:
“I stopped filming RHONY in February 2021. These accusations were all aired publicly in September 2021. These claims were investigated by the network back then and they found no basis for the claims. I stand by all my comments in the article. I am extraordinarily disappointed that *Vanity Fair* and Page Six felt the need to re-amplify this non-story.”
