Real Housewives of Sydney recap: Housewives get the knives out at dinner party
RHOS recap: A field trip to the West, lesbian jokes, if Caroline wanted to see diversity she’d “go to a Westfield”, and we’re still pitting working mums against stay at home mums, apparently.
Confidential
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It’s week two of Real Housewives … and things are getting really real.
Nicole O’Neil’s home-cooked Lebanese dinner party devolves into a series of arguments over parenting styles, working mums versus stay at home mums, and Krissy Marsh puts the spotlight on Kate Adams’ dating life.
We do however, witness O’Neil facilitating a field trip to the far flung lands of Greenacre in southwestern Sydney because “Double Bay doesn’t have spices”.
Things go downhill from there.
“Krissy has made a couple of jokes about Kate being a lesbian, and Kate’s not vibing the joke,” Sally Obermeder sums up.
Earlier in the night, Marsh also joked: “Caroline’s saying that she wants to tongue pash me, so I’ve just got to move over here into a safe zone.”
Because what could be scarier than being perceived as being homosexual amongst a group of middle-aged married women?
Marsh is celebrating her teenage daughter Milana, 15, walking in Australian Fashion Week for Mariam Seddiq.
“On the night of my daughter’s catwalk debut I just didn’t want to hear any negativity,” Marsh said.
Terry Biviano, who accompanied Marsh and her mother to the show, opens Pandora’s box by complimenting the diversity of ages and ethnicities on the catwalk.
“Oh is this the diversity thing?” Caroline Gaultier complains. “I don’t know if I’m into this. If I want to see diversity I’ll just go to Westfield.”
That earns a sharp intake of breath from level-headed Sally Obermeder.
“If you’re a child you want to see diversity, you want to see different races, you want to see different sizes because you can’t be what you can’t see,” the former TV journalist said.
“Averageness should not be celebrated,” Gaultier retorts. “When you go to a fashion show you go to see the genetically blessed women.”
It’s unclear if genetically blessed in this instance includes un-genetically modified cosmetic surgeries.
The dinner table debate turns to the correct age to let one’s child model, or use social media, something O’Neil’s 18-year-old Nawal has only just been allowed to do.
“You’ve got to build resilience over years, you can’t just go whack you’re 18,” Marsh said. “Nawal is going to go away and she’ll have a million people wanting to get on her Instagram and have a chat. Is she equipped?”
Gaultier jumps into the fray, suggesting working mothers don’t have the time to parent properly: “You have to make time [to manage your child’s social media]. If you don’t have time, don’t have a child.”
Note: Last week, Gaultier revealed post-divorce she became wealthy enough not to need a job.
Peacemaker Obermeder extends an olive branch to the group: “You can have a working mum or a stay at home mum, and it doesn’t mean you’re missing anything.” Gaultier bats this away with lightning speed.
“You can’t do both, it’s a freaking fantasy,” Gaultier said.
SWIISH founder Obermeder throws her hands up in palpable disgust.
“It’s not fine for her to say if you don’t do exactly what I do, it’s terrible for you and your children … This whole 2.4 children, and the dad who went to work, and the mum who stayed home thing? Sorry, that’s way back in the dinosaur ages.”
Adams shares a vulnerable story about her own childhood with parents who were too busy surviving, and divorcing, to pack her lunches or take her to school, saying “they weren’t great parents”.
Gaultier helpfully suggests she get counselling. Marsh, who would be horrified to be called a bad mum, “really took it personally,” for some reason.
“I decided not to have children because I didn’t want to give up my career and if I did, I would probably want to stay at home,” Adams said. “I knew I couldn’t do both.”
On a lighter note, Gaultier is throwing Adams a festival-themed 40th birthday party.
“Kate’s having a party she wants you to bring every hot single guy you know,” Marsh said.
Adams: “No, I really don’t.”
“Really, do you just want it to be all girls?” Marsh challenged.
Backed into a corner, Dr Adams reveals she’s casually seeing three men, prompting more questions. Her new bestie Gaultier jumps to her defence.
“Why is it okay to delve into Kate’s dating and sex life just because she’s single?” Gaultier said. “Why don’t we delve into a married person’s life? Imagine if we sat there and went ‘so how often do you have sex?’”
Pushed over the edge, Adams delivers an attack of her own.
“So,” she announced, “what I’ve learned about married people is they all like to live vicariously through, which is okay, and they all have a f. king opinion about how I should live my life.”
Talking to the camera, Marsh rolls her eyes so far back it’s unclear if they’ll return from the inside of her head.
“You’re the one giving me the information and then all of a sudden taking offence. I am confused, Kate.”
Adams: “Krissy’s question around how many men I would date at one time was a direct jab and even if I was some chick that gets around … f**k off.”
DR KATE SAYS SHE’S THE ‘UNDERDOG’ OF THE SEASON
Bondi vet Kate Adams has described herself as the ‘underdog’ on the new series of The Real Housewives of Sydney.
With the second episode to drop on Binge on Tuesday, Adams and fellow housewives Sally Obermeder and Victoria Montano will take part in a special South by Southwest Sydney panel discussion for the show on Tuesday.
“I didn’t realise that I was so serious, and maybe it is just the first episode because I was a little nervous,” Adams told The Daily Telegraph.
“The camera shows everything. When I enter that room for the first time and all of the women are there, you can see in my face that my stomach is in my mouth, you can see by some of the comments that were made and the narrative in the beginning, I just stand there like a stunned mullet.”
The vet doctor added: “I kind of go into this a little bit like the underdog – I am not married and I don’t have any children and there is a lot about me that is a bit different so going into this, I think it shows that.”
The South by Southwest event is free and open to the public and will be held from 7pm Tuesday at Tumbalong Park Presented by The Daily Telegraph.
The new season sees new faces to the format in Adams, Montano, Obermeder, Terry Biviano and Caroline Gaultier. Krissy Marsh and Nicole O’Neil are the only two housewives to return from the first series that aired in 2017.
Adams emerged as one of the big characters in the first episode storyline.
“I had no idea the response would be so big,” she said.
“You never know how people will react, whether you’ll be loved or hated, and honestly the response has been joy.”
Of episode two dropping Tuesday, she said: “I am a little bit anxious but if you look at episode one, the story has been told correctly. All I can hope for future episodes is that it remains that way. This isn’t a produced show, what I need is for that story to be told the way it happened.”
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