The Real Housewives have exposed their lives in a plethora of ways, from cancer scams to drunken arrests and all the alleged pirate conquests between. Now, they’re traversing their most vulnerable challenge yet: dating on camera.
Four of Bravo’s most renowned Housewives have checked into the Love Hotel for an 8-episode journey to find love, or at least a good time. The first-ever Bravo dating competition, Love Hotel takes a page out of The Golden Bachelor‘s winning recipe, with the camp that makes the Real Housewives reality TV’s best franchise, and a splash of The White Lotus for good measure.
“I’ve lived my whole life for this,” Gizelle Bryant, a Real Housewives of Potomac OG, told The Daily Beast’s Obsessed. “This is the average Saturday in Gizelle’s world. No, I’m kidding.”
“These guys were supposedly all hand-picked for us,” she added. “It’s not a normal situation in which you meet people. It’s like speed dating on steroids. But I was here for it. I felt like, if these guys are hand-picked for me, I wanna get into it. I wanna know all about them. I want to know what they love. I want to know what they hate. I want to know everything.”
Love Hotel sees eight men from across the country vie for the hearts of the Bravo starlets. The best part? These men don’t have a clue who the Real Housewives are, allegedly.
“The men were sought out. They didn’t apply. So, some of them had to be convinced to be on the show. We appreciated that,” Real Housewives of Orange County star Shannon Beador said. “There were no preconceived notions or anything like that.”
That’s especially a relief for the romantically challenged Beador, whose run on RHOC has oscillated between bad to worse when it comes to love.
Fresh off a DUI and the hellish terror of the second coming of Jesus Jugs, Beador entered the Love Hotel ready to mingle after a full year of being single—something highly uncommon for her.
Immediately, Beador’s eclectically effervescent energy invades the Love Hotel, awkward sparks flying with Earl “the Pearl” in the premiere, while asking New York suitor Mark if he knows Andy Cohen.
“Uh, broker?” our clueless suitor asks, effortlessly beating the “wants to be on TV” allegations Beador’s ex could never escape.
All four Housewives bring a bold personality to the table, from Real Housewives of New York City vixen Luann de Lesseps, juggling a second act as a cabaret star, to resident Potomac youngster Ashley Darby, fresh off the longest divorce in recorded history (which, at the time of filming, was still ongoing).
The trailer may sell these women as unlucky in love, but de Lesseps disagrees. From her on-screen endeavors (which may or may not include a rendezvous with a pirate) to wreaking havoc from the sidelines on Bravo’s Southern Hospitality, she has a romantic resumé others could only dream of.
“I’ve been very lucky. So I was like, ‘Well, that doesn’t really sum me up,’” de Lesseps said. “Listen, I was married to the Count for 17 years and have two beautiful children from that marriage.”
“I married again. That didn’t turn out so great, but you know. I’m not afraid to love or take chances,” she added.
Then there’s Darby, whose marriage to a sordid man 30 years her senior cast a major shadow over her early Housewives tenure, with her ex facing allegations of sexual assault and affairs, opening a failed emu-serving restaurant, and even suing her castmate for defamation.
Despite it all, she’s healing, thriving, and surviving.
“I put this out to the Bravo gods that this was something I wanted to do. I’ve asked Andy [Cohen] so many times to put me on a dating show,” she shared. “I just feel like this was meant to happen.
Super sleuths may remember Darby’s new boyfriend Josh from the latest season of Potomac, filmed before her stay in the Love Hotel. Although the status of said relationship seems to be ongoing, Love Hotel is not a murder mystery, it’s an escapist haven.
And the Housewives know a thing or two about making the most of a cast trip—and maximizing the entertainment value while doing so. The biggest difference is that, this time, they’re not fighting with each other, another major departure from the dating shows we’re used to.
“It’s a totally different take because it’s not typical Housewives, right? You know, trying to find where the skeletons are buried,” de Lesseps said. “It’s really more about the girl code. I even wrote a song called ‘The Girl Code,’ because I’m the type of girl that’s always loyal the end.:”
“The four of us are all in different phases of our lives. So, we were really able to be there for each other.” Darby said. “Being the youngest there, I really leaned on my girls to help me navigate this process, especially Luann. She gave me incredible advice that I will literally take with me forever.”
“Her biggest thing is, ‘Men love mystery, darling,” Darby added. “She would remind me all the time to remain mysterious. You know, I’m a millennial, so I love to share. And she told me to pull it back a little.”
In the first episode alone, the cast’s contrasting dating styles shine. Bryant does what she does best—grilling people with the swift energy only our nation’s best investigative journalist could.
“I can suss out a loser in five seconds,” she shared.
Meanwhile, Beador comes in soft, taking her classic fish-out-of-water energy on the road. Bravo fans may have watched her go through a tumultuous divorce, weight loss journey, and DUI, but in many ways, Love Hotel is her most vulnerable endeavor yet.
“I’m very traditional and old-school. So when it comes to the dating world, I’m a little bit shyer,” Beador said. “I was uncomfortable with the whole dating aspect of multiple men at the same time, and all that. For the Real Housewives, I had never been nervous before filming, even when I started, but I was a little nervous for this show.”
“My goal in coming to the Love Hotel was to have fun, and if I were to meet someone in the process, then that would be an added bonus,” she added.
We may be heading into the first summer sans The Bachelorette in almost 20 years, but Love Hotel has finally arrived to carry reality fans through an 8-week romantic comedy, Bravo style. Enjoy your stay, and please remember to check absolutely none of your drama at tbe door—that’s what us Housewives fans live for.
“It is the dating show that you didn’t know you needed,” Bryant said. “It is so much fun. It’s real. You will get the tears, you will get the laughter, you will get the love, you will get the lust. You get it all.”
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