New addition, Carole Radziwill, to the Real Housewives of New York City may very well have the most impressive resume of any of the cast members from the multiple franchises.
Carole is a best-selling author having penned the memoir, What Remains: A Memoir of Fate, Friendship and Love. She is an established journalist who, among many other assignments, covered the SCUD missile attacks during the Gulf War. For her journalistic excellence she has received a Peabody Award as well as three Emmys. She’s also been a contributing columnist for Glamour Magazine.
Radziwill is a widow and her late husband’s life and career is just as interesting as Carole’s. We all know Luann De Lesseps likes to be called “The Countess” because of her previous marriage to a French nobleman. Carole doesn’t use a princess moniker but her late husband, Anthony Radziwill, was a straight up prince!
Anthony Radziwill died of cancer at the age of 40 in 1999. A significant portion of Carole’s much-loved memoir deals with her and her late husband’s battle with the disease. Shortly before his wedding to Carole the cancer which was in remission metastasized and he battled throughout the remainder of his life with Carole serving as his primary caretaker for 5-years.
Anthony Radziwill was the only son of Lee Bouvier (who is the younger sister of none other than Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis) and Polish Prince Stanislaw Radziwill. His official title, though he never requested to be addressed by it, was His Serene Highness Prince Antoni Stanislaw Albrecht Radziwill.
Carole and Anthony were both ABC colleagues. They wed on August 27, 1994. Here is an excerpt form her book on how she came to meet Anthony:
How did a working-class girl from Suffern meet a man with Polish royal lineage going back four centuries? Anthony Stanislas Albert Radziwill, a prince, like his father and grandfather before him. This is where fairy tales come in handy because the real story is somewhat dull. We met at work.
In fact, we met over a murder. In March 1990, Lyle and Erik Menendez were charged with killing their parents with shotguns while they were watching television. Almost everyone in the news business flew to Los Angeles to cover the story. I went to a suite at the Four Seasons in Beverly Hills—Primetime Live’s makeshift office—and met Anthony.
We had both been at ABC for three years. Anthony was working for Primetime with Sam Donaldson and Diane Sawyer, and I had just started with Peter Jennings Reporting.
By this time, I had adopted some things—a wry sense of humor and a brown suede miniskirt, for instance, and the bravado gained by a bit of travel. I was just back from six weeks in Southeast Asia. I have seen some things now, I was hoping to suggest in my manner. I know some things, too. We couldn’t have come from two points further apart, Anthony and I, but I walked into the suite flush with the slippery confidence of youth and an award-winning documentary under my belt.
“Hi, Carole, come in.” Shelley Ross, the producer, shot sparks from her high heels when she moved around the room. “This is Anthony,” she said. “You’ll be working with him.” He stood and reached for my hand. He wore pressed jeans and a button-down shirt, and he held on for a moment before letting go. “It’s nice to meet you.”
He was unremarkably handsome. By that I mean he had a face you might linger on, possibly remember but not place. He had a straight nose, wavy thick hair, and a strong jaw. A receding hairline from his father, his mother’s cheekbones. His eyes were serious if you didn’t know him, playful if you did. He turned himself into a British lord, a French diplomat, in a wink, to get you. He had a subtle, deceptive sense of humor that hummed continuously below the surface. His eyes and his smile betrayed him—if you knew to look.
I’m looking forward to meeting Carole during season 5 of The Real Housewives of New York City. The premiere is currently scheduled for June 4.
