A Cool Carole Summer is Still Within Reach

Carole Radiziwill's brief return to Bravo, in the form of a casual encounter from the Clubhouse Bar in the middle of Bowen Yang and Matty Rogers' Watch What Happens Live episode, was a refreshing surprise. Like the initially sharp, then subtly cooling feeling that comes with plunging your face into ice-cold water in pursuit of better circulation (a practice that I'm certain Carole has tried over an impossibly stunning marble bowl, at least once, considering she's a fan of a full body cold plunge). Listening to Carole's off-the-cuff chatter with Andy Cohen (her once-close friend whom Carole, according to Andy, kept at bay following her very last, very tense RHONY reunion) felt like falling back into step with an old friend. The rhythm was set to her distinctly Carole-coded scattered cadence of speaking, still charming after all these years. 

Carole's appearance felt sweet and pure; unlike most other guests on the show, including many Housewives alumni, Carole wasn't there to plug a project or coyly audition for unclaimed space on a future cast. It felt like she was there to tell the fans who missed her that she is okay, that she and Andy are okay, and even better, that she's still, seemingly without trying, ridiculously cool. When Carole left The Real Housewives of New York, a void of understated chicness was left in her wake. It felt obvious to viewers (and surely Carole herself) that her disposition, intellect, and desires for life were more aligned with acting as her co-op's president or deeping well-worn mixtapes through wired headphones, rather than sparring with Ramona and LuAnn. (For what it's worth, Carole explained on WWHL that she'd recently bumped into both at a party, and seamlessly rolled into old filming habits fit for Andy and a camera). That truth doesn’t make her any less missed on screen, but it does beg the question: what has the semi-retired Emmy-award-winning journalist been up to since she became one of a select few women to quit Bravo entirely of her own accord?

Some digging has proven the answer to be colorful, aspirational, and so damn cool. Parasocially catching up with Carole Radziwill is the encouragement we all need to turn down the heat to end this summer on a cool note, even if it's one of the few last good ones.

A deep dive into Carole's life off-camera (well, only off Bravo's cameras, thankfully) has included some of the streams and rivers we're used to from former Wives. Carole's done a handful of podcast appearances (albeit an atypically sparing run compared to many of her peers); some with familiar Bravoleb rites of passage like Behind The Velvet Rope with David Yontef in 2022, Juicy Scoop with Heather McDonald in 2023, and DeuxU in 2024. On these, she gracefully dished about former castmates and remaining burning questions, like the weight of Aviva Drescher's tossed prosthetic leg and where she stands with Bethenny Frankel (unsurprisingly, that friendship was never resurrected as Bethenny prefers a much louder, chronically online existence, Bravo or not). Carole has mostly mused on the record with friends, like Heather Mama Holla Thompson on In My Heart, and newsy lifestyle chats like We Met At Acme, Women Are Mad, Celebrity Memoir Book Club, and most recently On with Kara Swisher. She's chatted about politics, pop culture, and her own exponentially deep lore (revelations such as her quiet year-long romance with Ralph Fiennes after breaking up with Chef Adam and America's need for an aspirational, unrelatable president await, should you deign to listen).

There's, of course, been a healthy collection of sponcon opportunities; easy access to influencer money is likely a temptation too strong to deny, even for the People's Princess. Yet Carole's collaborations have stayed honest to her timeless pursuit of easy elegance: Dr. Dennis Gross' redlight mask that went viral during the stay-at-home period of the pandemic, a privately operated preventative MRI scanning center, a glacial skincare esthetician's expert treatment while in residency at Casa Cipriani, minimalism capsule collection pieces fit for the South of France made by a designer in Soho and a co-created pink satin pillowcases for better skin, to name a few. 

But between trips with her well-kept inner circle (a reliable roster of cross-generational gays and women of a certain age, surely trained in the art of swapping war stories over dirty martinis) to boutique hotels that look like Wes Anderson movie sets, Carole has carved her own path. Instead of pursuing shocking skin peels or noticeable nicks and tucks, Carole's doctor-assisted beauty maintenance has been quite demure; she got monofilament threads to boost collagen — around her knees (the skin was "lazy.") It's hard to gauge through golden hour lighting on Instagram, but WWHL confirmed Radziwill looks supremely herself, defined and delicate.

She's not the first Housewife to take up houseflipping, but the palatial cabin in the Catskills that Carole renovated and redecorated with friends in 2023 isn't your average million-dollar listing. It's the type of secluded luxury that looks so serene you expect the other shoe to drop, like in the fun scenes before the mayhem breaks out in a horror movie. It's easy to picture Carole on that cabin's wraparound patio, halfway into the clouds, sipping coffee, or perhaps playing the flute (a hobby she returned to last winter break to revive her teen years as second chair). Based on the home's deleted Zillow page and lack of recent flute videos on social media, it seems the chapter on both projects has been closed. 

The RHONY episodes featuring Carole's failed election festivities for Hilary Clinton were a chilling mirror in front of liberal Bravo viewers' barely-dry eyes, just months after Trump had taken office the first time. Carole's passion for justice naturally didn't go away; she paired with humanitarian NGO INTERSOS in 2023. This second time around, Carole has invested in local New York Theatre (a 90s revival about class starring Calista Flockhart and Christian Slater) to refocus her mind amid "social unrest." According to an interview with Mountains, she's even considered adapting her novel What Remains into a one-woman show in London. 

She's stayed busy writing other things, if not yet that. A passionate essay about classic cars introduced to her by her late husband, Anthony, for Town & Country; a one-hour oral non-fiction thriller for The Moth Hour radio show; profiling her friends' Maryland Countryside wedding. Most recently, Carole has launched a Substack, an intentional departure from the tidal wave of Bravolebrity podcasts. There she plans to reboot her Glamour Magazine column, "Lunch Date," share BTS pictures, and drop "occasional musings." 

What's wonderful about watching Carole's life (and why she'd be fit for returning to the little screen any day) is that as much as she stays true to herself, she's always curious about something new. It's eclectic curation, with reinvented layers being added to the curves and edges all the time. Her essence is a reminder that it's not too late, not this summer, not ever. 

Rent an old car; get seriously fit while playing off exercise as boring; indulge in a little opulent self-care from a boutique vendor (Carole would suggest her close friend Cassandra Gray's company, Violet Gray, though Goop would do) to feel something; take a Western road trip with a suitcase stuffed with campy outfits; these make the cheat sheet to a Cool Carole Summer. Carole also told Mountains she wasn't entirely opposed to a stint on Ultimate Girls Trip if she were asked, as long as it was with the "coolest, most fun chick from every city." The prospect, while exciting, seems unlikely.

But on August 22, 2025, Carole issued a rare correction to crisp words she coolly said while filming The Real Housewives of New York. "Infinite good summers left," Carole updated via Instagram caption, contrary to her previous implication about limited seasons left to enjoy the sun. Carole also included the fact that she's fallen into Yacht Rock. So, all in all, the only thing Cool Carole Summer requires is taking the ever-so-slightly unlikely road — while looking and feeling light as air.