The 54-year-old award-winning journalist and best-selling author will depart the hit reality series, which she joined in season 5, she revealed exclusively to PEOPLE.
“After six seasons on Bravo’sRHONY, I have decided to return to what I do best — journalism and producing,” Radziwill told PEOPLE in a statement.
She ended her statement with sincerity and wit. “I have worked with amazing producers, made great friends, and I’m thrilled to leave frenemies behind,” Radziwill wrote. “I will remember this entire experience with delight, humor, and a veracious accuracy. Next.”
Charles Sykes/Bravo/NBCU Photo Bank/Getty
Radziwill’s run onRHONYbegan amid a major shakeup. Original cast membersBethenny Frankel,Jill Zarinand Alex McCord had departed, as hadKelly Killoren Bensimon.
Frankel left to focus on herthen-husband Jason Hoppy, theirnew daughter Bryn, and her self-titled talk show but returned in season 7. She forged a quick friendship with Radziwill — who at that point had proved herself as a loyal friend and fierce foe, bonding with Housewives like Heather Thomson while taking on critics like Aviva Drescher and de Lesseps.
InRHONY‘s tenth season, airing now, Radziwill has hada pretty epic fallout with Frankel, though she’s remained on good terms withTinsley Mortimer,Ramona Singer,Dorinda Medley,Sonja Morganand de Lesseps. She’s also in an on-again, off-again relationship with chef and filmmaker Adam Kenworthy.
Patrick Ecclesine/Bravo
RELATED VIDEO:The Real Housewives of New York CityGo Makeup-Free For PEOPLE’s Beautiful Issue
She alluded to her departure Wednesday on Instagram, writing, “Didn’t change, just learned.”
Of course, off the show, Radziwill has had a noteworthy life.
She began her career in journalism as an intern at ABC News’20/20.Radziwill would eventually work with Peter Jennings, producing segments on gun control, abortion, and foreign policy.
Trips around the world to places like India, Cambodia and Haiti followed. She spent weeks stationed in Iraq, covering the SUD missile attacks during the 1991 Gulf War, and in Kandahar, embedded with an infantry unit of the 101st Airborne Division during the war on Afghanistan.
For her work, Radziwill has won three Emmys and a Peabody.
Carole Radziwill/Instagram
Most tragically, though, there was the death of Radziwill’s husband Anthony, who died in 1999 after a five-year battle with cancer.
The only son of Prince Stanislas Radziwill and Caroline Lee Bouvier, Anthony had a close relationship with his cousin John F. Kennedy, Jr. In turn, Carole bonded closely with him and JFK, Jr.’s wife Carolyn Kennedy beforetheir untimely death in a plane crash off the coast of Martha’s Vineyardin 1999. Anthony would die four weeks later.
In the wake of the loss, Radziwill turned to her writing. She penned the best-selling memoirWhat Remains: A Memoir of Fate, Friendship andLove,published in 2005.
Most recently, Radziwill wrote a novel in 2014,The Widow’s Guide to Sex & Dating.
The Real Housewives of New York Cityairs Wednesdays (9 p.m. ET) on Bravo.
source: people.com
