Jenna Lyons Will Return to ‘Real Housewives of New York City’

Job offers followed. In late February, she became chief editor at large of Coveteur, a longtime style website now “looking to do something different,” Ms. Lyons said, a little vaguely. She started the job only three weeks ago. (One project already completed: a photo shoot with Molly Ringwald at the Hotel Chelsea.) She was also named executive creative director of FundamentalCo, a new consultancy firm from Jonny Bauer, formerly of Blackstone.

It is not a coincidence that both of these jobs involve repositioning brands. Ms. Lyons spent last year repositioning herself. She is back on V.I.P. lists, dressed by luxury fashion houses and photographed at their shows and parties in New York and Paris — a part of her life she once thought had ended but to which she isn’t getting too reattached.

“I know all of that will be maybe gone next year or the year after, and that’s OK,” she said.

Having achieved her goals, why would the “unlikely housewife” return? In the edited interview below — nine months after detailing her decision to join the cast to The Times — Ms. Lyons now explains her decision to stay.

Same. I’ve taken on a lot of projects. There was some concern about my ability, just time-wise, to commit to it, and that was a big deal.

I also have a new relationship and wanted to maintain privacy. It was not just me. We all had to figure out, like, Can this work? I wasn’t sure. Definitely not sure.

I did pay attention to my comments. What I was shocked by, and one of the reasons I did feel comfortable going back, is people were so nice. I thought I would take heat for some things, here and there, and I didn’t at all. Particularly in the beginning, I would scan through the comments, like, Let’s just see if anybody’s coming at me.

All the things that I was afraid of didn’t really happen.

It’s funny — I struggle with things that are directly related to me, always.

I don’t know if I would say they wanted to impress. What I picked up on — and you’d have to ask them — is that everyone had a preconceived idea of who I was that had nothing to do with me. It had to do with the idea that they formulated in their head, anticipated or projected onto me based on what they thought a woman who had been the president of a big company would be like.

They have been very amenable. I had similar issues — I have a relationship, but I would like to not name her. I want to keep her out of the press. That is my commitment to her. It’s off the table. I joined this process. She did not.

There was a lot of filming in the home, and it was just exhausting. It’s so disruptive. They were very open to reducing that exposure and not having so much “home time.” My son is prepping for college. It’s a very intense time.

Testing the waters of what you can say “no” to is just something you have to do.

Yeah, I do. I will say there are kids involved, and so I don’t care what anybody else says. As an adult, it’s my responsibility to protect them as much as I possibly can.

Jessel (Taank), Erin (Lichy) and Sai (De Silva) are all mothers, and I think Brynn (Whitfield) and Ubah (Hassan) are very sensitive. Ubah also has a relationship that I think she wants to keep very private. There’s an understanding: When children are involved, it’s just a different conversation.

This is a very serious answer: She kept telling me, “Jenna, your shirt is buttoned down too low.” And I was like, “If you want me to button my shirt, you have to put a ring on my finger.”

Well, I just worked out.

I have literally had nothing but the most respectful, healthy relationship with the team that filmed our show. I was never encouraged, ever, to do anything like that.

I feel terrible for the people who are involved. It’s such a hard experience to watch people go after each other. That wasn’t the culture of our crew.

Yeah. There were other people who were drinking, and I never saw anyone encouraged to take another drink.

It hasn’t been a total straight line, but I will definitely put that on lockdown while we’re filming, for sure.

I did it for personal reasons, for my business. But I will say, what is consistently surprising to me, and such a tender moment, is the number of people that either DM or come up to me on the street and are like, “It’s amazing to see an openly gay woman on national television being themselves.”

I know that seems trite. It’s not the reason I’m doing it, and I wouldn’t lie to you and say that it is. I don’t think I’m here to be the spokesperson. That has been a really nice side effect of the show.

Everyone gets paid more, and that I’m not going to talk about too much. [She laughed.]