Our two-part series with the Real Housewives of New York City continues. Here we speak to Carole Radziwill and new addition Dorinda Medley.

SPLASH: Are you still dating the cute young chef?

CAROLE RADZIWILL: Yeah. We’re having a good time. He’s terrific. It’s been fun. He’s a private chef so he cooks for me, which is nice. You know I turned my kitchen into an office last year? Thank god I didn’t get rid of the stove.

S: What’s the biggest difference in dating an older versus a younger guy?

CR: Age. I meet lots of young guys — tons of them — and I don’t really date any of them. It’s not my thing; usually I like to date men around my own age, but I think, once you connect with someone on some kind of other level, whether it’s intellectually or spiritually or common values or interests, the question of race and gender and, of course, age becomes increasingly irrelevant.

S: How has the dynamic of the group changed with Bethenny Frankel back on the show?

CR: I think Bethenny coming back was amazing because she has this strong connection to the women who’ve been on the show for a long time, and she’s just meeting [the rest of] us, so it felt very natural for her to be part of the group, and I enjoyed getting to know her. Bethenny is a very strong, intense character. She’s provocative enough to keep it interesting, but not dark and mean. I think she’s a great addition.

S: Will you get into it with anyone this season?

CR: Lu and I … we don’t always see eye-to-eye on things. In the beginning of the season, and as the season goes on, I think some things come out that definitely make me feel like maybe we aren’t as close of friends as I thought we were.

S: How have you changed from when you first started on the show?

CR: I don’t really change that much. I guess I get my hair and makeup done more often — to be honest, that’s the big change. I used to be able to do my own makeup really well, I thought. And then since I started being on the show and getting it done more professionally, I suck at it now.

S: Are you still on Tinder?

CR: Technically I’m off Tinder. Tinder to me is sort of like a game. I mostly do it with my girlfriends and we judge the guys. Swipe right, swipe left, left, left, right. I only went on two or three Tinder dates and I wasn’t good because apparently it’s a hook-up site and I’m not that kind of hook-up girl. I’m not the best Tinder date I suppose.

S: We have to ask — where in the world is Aviva Drescher?

CR: I don’t know! Honestly, I haven’t seen her since the day we shot the reunion. I don’t know what happened to her. … It’s probably better for her that she stays off television, it doesn’t serve her well.

S: What’s the best dating advice you’ve ever received?

CR: Men are hardwired to chase, so you have to allow a man to chase you. And never have sex with a man until he thinks he’s in love with you. I also think everything I know about men I learned from my dog Margaret. If you want them to chase you, run around in different directions. You want them to run away, chase after them. They’re very simple creatures, those boys.

I also think everything I know about men I learned from my dog Margaret. If you want them to chase you, run around in different directions. You want them to run away, chase after them.

— Carole Radziwill

S: What’s one thing people would be surprised to know about you?

CR: There’s no place I’d rather be than in my apartment. I’m definitely a homebody. I love to do laundry, that’s my thing. It’s very methodical; it relaxes me. So there you go, I’m a weirdo.

S: How has reality TV been treating you?

DORINDA MEDLEY: I went into it open-minded, kind of knew what to expect because, remember, I’ve known these girls for a long time and I’ve been going to events with them and doing that Upper East Side kind of thing. I went in a little cautious, but I was excited.

S: Who were you the most intimidated by?

DM: I was a little anxious and wondering how it was going to be when I met Bethenny. We’d heard so much I didn’t know what to expect and I [didn’t] know her at all, I’d actually never met her so it was truly, truly meeting her for the first time. She’s sort of an urban myth, so when you finally see her its like, “Oh my God, oh my God, she really is real and here she is.” She was the one I was most curious to meet.

S: Now that you’ve met her, what do you think?

DM: I think she is such a combination, which is what’s so interesting about Bethenny. She is a woman’s woman but she’s tough; she’s a mother, she’s a businessperson; she is a very straight shooter, which I personally like, because I think I’m like that. My execution’s a little different, but I’m very black and white. I don’t have a lot of gray in my life either. I execute on it or I don’t. So we actually, I think, hit it off. We get along pretty well I would think.

S: Coming into the show, what surprised you?

DM: Everyone says it’s scripted, but it’s really not. It’s really the way it is. They don’t tell you what to say. They put you in these situations and the girls just go for it. They don’t even tell you what to wear. You are really doing your everyday life and meeting these girls and it just takes off.  I thought it would be a little bit more like a TV show, but it’s not, it’s reality. What you see is what you get.

S: Who are you the closest with?

DM: Probably Ramona [Singer] and LuAnn [de Lesseps]. LuAnn I met 8 or 9 years ago and we had a mad love affair, which I always tell people.

S: You’ve commented on Ramona and Sonja’s bickering — will it intensify as the season goes on?

DM: Listen, there’s a dynamic there that is so interesting. They’re like little girls when they’re together. They’re like kittens. They get together and they become very youthful and fun and playful. They have all these different issues and both of them have had pretty big things and events in their life that has changed the dynamic a bit, so I think you’ll see over the season that there’s adjustments that needed to be made.

S: What do you add to the show?

DM: I’m very adaptable. I treat the housewives the way I treat [anything else in] my life. It’s like, if I’m going to the zoo with the polar bears, I know how to do the thing you do with the polar bears. So I’m in the petting zoo, I know how to do that. I’m pretty straightforward; I’m an observer, that’s sort of coming out as I watch the show. I talk when I need to talk and say what I think but I just don’t banter on for [the sake of] bantering on. I’m a real girl’s girl.

S: What can we expect from the season?

DM: I think it’s going to seem very old-school. It’s gone back to something I think the viewers have missed, the camaraderie, the arguing, the situations, how life changes, how we adjust, how we deal with it as women and mothers and wives, and people getting divorced. [Everyone’s] going to have something she relates to. We are still out there each day hitting the streets of New York, hitting the pavement and trying to do the best we can. I think they’ll like that. They’ll see that we’re very strong women.

Though I have what appears to be a New York glamorous life, at the end of the day I’m doing the same things everyone else does. You cut my arm, I bleed like the rest of you.

— Dorinda Medley

S: What will surprise viewers by the end of season?

DM: I think by me they will be surprised that I’m actually a real, down-to-earth person, — though I have what appears to be a New York glamorous life, at the end of the day I’m doing the same things everyone else does. You cut my arm, I bleed like the rest of you. I have to cook, I have to do all the things, have the same little arguments, deal with the same [stuff] we all have to deal with. At the end of the day we’re all up at 7 a.m. walking the dog with the same small leash. There’s no diamond leash. I’m walking my dog at 7 in my pajamas with coffee.

“The Real Housewives of New York City” airs Tuesdays at 8 p.m. central on Bravo.

Photos by Mathieu Young~Oxygen Media