Sonja Morgan confirms Real Housewives of New York City firings

Reports spread yesterday that Bravo is cleaning house on its show The Real Housewives of New York City by firing 4 of the 7 cast members, including Jill Zarin, Alex McCord, Kelly Bensimon and their latest addition, Cindy Barshop. That only left three cast members from season 4: Countess LuAnn de Lesseps, Ramona Singer and Sonja Morgan, the latter of which talked with US magazine at Thursday night’s 50th Anniversary Celebration of Breakfast at Tiffany’s held at Alice Tully Hall in Lincoln Center. (The photo above is of Sonja at the event, as if you couldn’t tell from the posters behind her.)

“I really haven’t had time to digest it properly,” Morgan, 47, said. “My voicemail was filled up today…At first, I just thought it was the usual rumors.”

Morgan then spoke with her producer who gave her the bittersweet news — she’s still in, but Zarin, 47, Bensimon, 43, McCord, 37 and Barshop are definitely out. “I’ve been invited back. I found out today last minute.”

Obviously, since she had just found out about the news, Sonja had yet to talk with her former cast mates, but she did plan to in the near future. “I’m going to reach out and see and make sure they are happy. I’m sure that everybody has plans. I’m not worried.”

Sonja went on to praise her non-returning cast mates, saying, “I have 100 percent faith in every girl that is on the show. We didn’t get here for any reason except we are all very talented and have a lot to share on screen.”

So what does Sonja imagine some of the women may be doing after leaving the show? “I can see Alex [McCord] and Simon [van Kempen] having their own show with the kids doing all this freaky deaky things they do in Brooklyn. And I could see Jill, sort of like Barbara Walters having a talk show. And then I could see Kelly going off…her doing fashion.”

CLICK HERE to read the non-responses from the other cast members, who are apparently a bit more concerned about the stipulations in their contract prohibiting them to say anything prior to Bravo making it official than Sonja is.

Of course, it’s still quite possible that US magazine is stretching what Sonja said. But, given Sonja’s infamous history of doing and saying things without much concern about the fallout, I’m thinking this is pretty much spot on.

Photo: Joseph Marzullo/Wenn.com