Dorinda Medley may not have made it to the finish line of The Traitors Season 4, but after being the first person murdered in The Traitors Season 3, she is feeling pretty good about her second stint on the Peacock series.
Sitting down with DECIDER to chat about her exit in Episode 9 at the hands of Rob Rausch and his newly-recruited Traitor, Eric Nam, Medley explained why she wasn’t that pressed over her second time exiting from the Scottish Highlands castle.
“The first time I went, oh my god, the amount of time and money and reading and preparation and overthinking it, I just went back this time, and I was like, ‘Nope, I’m going to just let it roll,'” the Real Housewives of New York City alum shared. “It allowed me to experience it more. I just didn’t want to get murdered in the first three episodes. That was my goal.”
It may not have been the fairytale ending that fellow Real Housewives castmember Dolores Catania got in Season 3, winning alongside Dylan Efron, Gabby Windey, and Lord Ivar Mountbatten, but it was still much better than going home first last year. Ever the optimist, though, Medley says being murdered out of the gate in Season 3 had its benefits.
“It was terrible, but it came by the grace of God. It really worked out as best as it could because I got to go on Jimmy Fallon. I actually got so much press and I was like, ‘Maybe the murder was worth it.’ And then I got to go back and really not be so stressed out about it,” she said.
Check out DECIDER’s full interview with the RHONY alum below.
DECIDER: We love that little announcement that we got this morning about a certain little show called The Golden Life.
DORINDA MEDLEY: I mean, the lunar calendar has begun, the fire horses come in, and I got announced. All the energy is all very good behind that.
I thought you said on Reality Checked that there was a development deal with Bluestone and that you weren’t going to be able to make it work. Did something change?
Well, we’re filming this soon, and then that doesn’t mean that we still can’t be doing something with BSM. We’re shuffling things now, we’re keeping all options open here. So yes, we’re still doing work with that, but that would be more of a summer thing because, you know, Bluestone is beautiful but it’s not now. It’s just dark and cold and gloomy and slightly scary. So the best months to film at Bluestone Manor are really July, August, September or October, November, and then sort of Christmas. So when this opportunity came along and I realized that they were actually going to do it ASAP, I thought, “Why not be back with the girls?” We still all meet in New York, but a lot of them are down there. It’s so funny, I actually was up at Bluestone Manor last weekend just visiting my parents and I just thought, “Now I get it.” When people at a certain age say, “I want to go to the warm during the winter,” I never got that. But I get it now.
I’m from Ohio and I live in Los Angeles now, so I don’t want to be in the cold ever.
Oh my God, my late husband was from Ohio, Columbus.
I’m Cleveland, that’s too funny! Well, I have to ask you what Palm Beach Dorinda is going to look like. What do the RHONY ladies look like in Florida?
Spicy and as fun as ever. The good thing about us girls, we don’t slow down. Transition brings new life. What I love about this group of girls now and, you know — I see Ramona a lot and Luann a lot –is each stage brings different things. Now that we don’t have kids and or husbands, there’s this earned freedom. I always say the most beautiful gift a woman could give herself is freedom. The value just to be able to do what you want, be involved in what you want, really focus on your interests. We’ve all kind of become our best selves again. I’m deejaying, I’m writing a book. I have a ton of friends down there that I visit all the time. So this is where we are. We kind of did our job here. We still love New York, but you know, we’ve got to mix it up now. And they say the fifties and sixties are the new thirties and forties.
Absolutely, you’ve got to feel that sunshine.
We just like to have fun. We’re a fun group. There’s no doubt about it. We’re a fun group.
Well, since we’ve touched on Bluestone, I have to ask a Traitors question now: Obviously, you want to bring everyone but if you could only bring three of your castmates, who would you want it to be?
I have to think about that. I would either do three girls and make it a girl weekend –I’m going to give you two options and do Lisa, Donna Kelce and Tiffany [Mitchell] maybe, or Lisa, Donna Kelce, and Maura [Higgins], and let’s add in Tiffany because she’s so great. Maura would just wear those fabulous outfits and walk over the grounds the whole time, so we could take great pictures. And if it were a mixture, I would, of course, say Rob. He would look very good in that blue room, don’t you think?
Rob would look good in any place, I’m just going to say it.
I agree. He’d have to bring the overalls. Then, of course, I’d have Lisa, because I love Lisa Rinna. And then I think I would have Tara [Lipinski]. I love Tara. And then I want to bring in someone that could do some great TikToks, who’s always arranging TikToks and teaching me dance steps: Mark [Ballas].
I was going to say it has to be Mark Ballas!
Every time we would do a TikTok, I’m not lying to you, he’d be like, “Hey, who wants to do a TikTok?” Well, of course I do. And then he’d be like, “Okay, what you do is ball check one, two, lift and down, bring it around.” I’m like, no, I can’t do that kind of TikTok.
Slow it down, Mark. Well, let’s go back to the beginning, I was listening to the companion podcast for Traitors and Boston Rob and Bob the Drag Queen were talking about how they were surprised no one thought you were a Traitor. Coming back in, did you think you were going to be chosen as a Traitor?
I did, but, you know, I didn’t want to be a Traitor. I would have taken it, but when I had my conversation with Alan, I didn’t sort of say I want to be a Traitor outright. And I think it would have been kind of unfair to the new players if they made me a Traitor, because I thought it was already such a big thing for the audience and for me, that they just brought me back. I was happy that they chose Candiace [Dillard Bassett]. I was happy that they chose Housewives, right? Because it was very unique with Rob. I mean, can you imagine that combination in any other world, right? And I just thought it was nice that it gave them the limelight because they were new and fresh. I think it was just enough that I was there. I was just happy to be there again. Because they called me pretty quickly and said, “Listen, would you ever consider going back?” I was amazed. I was dumbfounded, and I immediately said yes because I just wanted to have the experience.
I think a lot of people have said that it was not right to kill you first last season; it might be one of the worst moments in reality TV history.
It was terrible but it came by the grace of God. It really worked out as best as it could because I got to go on Jimmy Fallon. I actually got so much press and I was like, “Maybe the murder was worth it.” And then I got to go back and really not be so stressed out about it. The first time I went, oh my God, the amount of time and money and reading and preparation and overthinking it. I just went back this time and I was like, “Nope, I’m going to just let it roll.” It allowed me to experience it more. I just didn’t want to get murdered in the first three episodes. That was my goal.
What would you have even done if that had happened?
If I had gotten murdered again in the first episode, I think I read somewhere, I heard someone say — I think it was Bob the Drag Queen, he was on SiriusXM with my colleague Kiki [Monique], and he was like, “I heard that you told Monet to make sure you murder her again.” I think there would have been a total takedown of Traitors if they did that again.
The first nine episodes of The Traitors Season 4 are now streaming on Peacock.
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