‘RHONY’: Carole Radziwill Shares the Story Behind the Infamous Couch in Her Apartment
Viewers were a little surprised to see that Carole Radziwill from The Real Housewives of New York City had a pretty beaten up couch in her swanky Manhattan apartment.
The animal print couch appeared to be a landing pad for her growing menagerie of animals as the cats used the couch for a scratching post. Cast members who visited Radziwill at her apartment remarked about the couch until she finally had it recovered. However, she wasn’t enthusiastic about having it recovered even though it was pretty beaten up.
She shared that the couch was actually a gift from her mother-in-law Lee Radziwill and it had quite a history. Radziwill recently shared with Heather McDonald on her Juicy Scoop podcast about how she ended up with the couch and its sentimental value.
Radziwill thinks the couch story got lost in the show
McDonald asked about the couch wondering if it was an antique. But Radziwill says the couch is a funny story that got lost on the show. “That sofa belonged to my mother-in-law and she had it made by this company called De Angelis, which made all the furniture for the White House. And they were very high end and made beautiful stuff.”
“She had it made in the late 60s,” Radziwill continues. “It was photographed in a lot of her homes, and Vogue photographed it. And it was beautiful brunschwig and silk velvet, the tiger, silk velvet.”
Radziwill adds that the fabric was even made on a special loom in Paris and it was “all fancy and beautiful just like my mother-in-law.” she shares.
Her husband had the couch
Radziwill says when she first started dating Anthony Radziwill he had the couch. “She had given it to him at that point,” Radziwill recalls. She asks McDonald if she has items that remind her of times from long ago. “So that was the couch for me. But 50 years later, it literally was on its last threads.”
“And I thought about recovering it in the same fabric, but the fabric was something like $2,700 a yard,” she reveals. “Just to put it in perspective, good high-end fabric would cost probably $400 a yard. So it was almost like hand-made.”
Where is the couch today?
Viewers saw that Radziwill had it reupholstered with chic blue fabric. She told Andy Cohen on Watch What Happens Live that if her mother-in-law knew the couch’s previous state “she would be very upset.” Bravo’s Style & Living reports.
“I had it recovered in French blue silk velvet,” Radziwill reveals. “It was $200 a yard. So I still have the couch. And I saved all the fabric that was remaining. And eventually, I’m going to do something with it. Like maybe a little capsule collection of something in honor of, my mother-in-law passed away last year. So I might do something with it.”
Radziwill recalled her mother-in-law’s love of travel. “We traveled a lot together so I might make travel bags for myself in the remaining fabric just because it will always be with me and remind me of her and that time.” Radziwill says she and her mother-in-law remained close after her husband died.
