Erin Lichy hasn't been feeling the love from Jenna Lyons on the latest episode of RHONY — and she blames one very specific person.
The Real Housewives of New York City’s Erin Lichy’s once-close bond with Jenna Lyons has hit a rough patch — and there’s one person she believes is responsible.
The real estate guru put the blame on fellow Housewife Brynn Whitfield in the latest episode of RHONY, suggesting that Brynn was “jealous” of her flourishing friendship with Jenna during the Season 15 reunion and “embellished” a story that put her in a bad light as retaliation, damaging the friendship.
What happened at the RHONY Season 14 reunion?
“I sense that Brynn started to become jealous of my friendship with Jenna at the reunion. She saw us getting our hair and makeup done, which we were doing a lot,” Erin told producers. “She kept coming into the room and trying to insert herself into our conversation.”
Then — according to Erin’s account — when Erin shared a story about Jenna and some car trouble she had in the Hamptons, Brynn took the story back to Jenna and added in some unfavorable details that offended the fashion icon.
“She noticed that Jenna was gaining a lot of popularity, therefore, when she saw an opportunity to break up a close friendship, she took it,” Erin insisted, adding that Brynn and Jenna had been spending time together ever since.
Brynn, for her part, has insisted she just repeated what she heard and never lied about anything.
The drama all came to a head at Jessel Taank’s epic Clueless-themed birthday party.
Erin complained to others at the party that Jenna had been distant in recent months, even though Erin has been openly struggling with her mom’s cancer diagnosis and husband Abe’s choice to hide some financial decisions.
“My kids drive me crazy and then seeing my mom sick and then not being able to rely on my husband during this time, it really messed with my head and this is why I need my friends to band together for me and I need just some grace, which I don’t get,” Erin explained in her confessional.
Erin was hoping she’d get support during the difficult time from her once-close friend.
“The friend that Jenna was to me when we were close, is the friend that I need right now,” she continued. “I feel like I was that friend to her. It’s not reciprocated.”
Visibly frustrated, Erin spent most of the night talking about the rift to everyone at the party — except Jenna.
“What’s going on between the two of you?” Sai De Silva asked at one point.
“Nothing. I just realized that she’s not an actual friend,” Erin replied. “Like my friendships are about an authentic connection. I was such a good friend to her.”
After Sai agreed that the two “were very close,” Erin added “I don’t know. I’m not that interested in having a friendship with her.”
Are Erin Lichy and Jenna Lyons still feuding?
Once word finally got around to Jenna that she was a topic of conversation, the LoveSeen founder headed over to Erin to address it directly.
“Are you OK?” Jenna asked.
“I’m fine,” Erin replied. “I’m perfect.”
“Are you really?” Jenna continued to probe.
“I honestly am perfectly fine. Do I think that I feel differently about us being friends? Yes,” Erin told her.
She added that she “really didn’t want to be close” to Jenna after feeling that they had a one-sided friendship.
“I felt very close to you. When everybody was a certain way with you, I always was steadfast in like, ‘I really love her, I think she’s great.’ I would have been there for you like ‘til the end,’” Erin explained.
But Jenna still seemed “clueless” about how she was somehow being blamed for the friction between the two.
That’s when Erin opened up about how she thought Brynn had driven a wedge in their friendship by recounting the Hamptons story.
“At the end of the day, I think you believe what Brynn told you and you’ve said it to me, ‘There’s some truth to it,’” Erin told her.
Jenna admitted that she did think there must be “some part of it” that was true.
As Erin saw it, the incident damaged the tight bond they shared and caused Jenna to develop a deeper connection with Brynn as a result.
“She wanted to get back at me and then she did,” Erin said of Brynn. “And she ruined a friendship with you.”
Once Erin’s theory was laid out, Jenna was quick to set the record straight, telling her that she was “making assumptions” that just weren’t true.
“This is not the case, like I barely have talked to anyone,” Jenna told her. “I’m in the middle of doing three jobs and trying to be in a relationship.”
Jenna insisted she’d just been busy and hadn’t reached out to Erin as often as a result.
“I’m going to say this, I am a bad communicator,” Jenna told her. “I struggle with, like, little texts and catching up. I just want you to know it’s not like I tried to find attention or love elsewhere, it truly is not, and I can see that maybe you need me to reach out to you more, and I will.”
In her own confessional, Jenna also shot down the idea that Brynn had anything to do with it.
“It wasn’t that I believed Brynn over her. It has nothing to do with Brynn,” she clarified. “I think what it comes down to is she wants more from me and I’m not always that good at constant communication. So what I have to do is just, like, initiate the text, pick up the phone. I guess I'm just a bad friend. I don’t know.”
As the two women patched it up, Erin admitted that really just “missed” her friend.
“I’m gonna get you on my calendar,” Jenna told her, while doing her best impression of Cher’s dad from the popular movie. “We’re gonna have a meeting and we’re gonna work it out and I’m gonna get some contracts drawn up and I’m gonna say Erin is my friend and we’re contractually bound.”
To find out where the friendship will go from here, watch The Real Housewives of New York City Tuesdays at 9/8c on Bravo or available streaming the next day on Peacock.
