(L) Brynn Whitfield and Ubah Hassan. Photo:
Charles Sykes/Bravo via Getty; Amy Sussman/Getty
All backs are turned on Brynn Whitfield following the explosive season 15 finale of The Real Housewives of New York City,
Brynn, 39, found herself in hot water after she accused Ubah Hassan of knowingly calling her a “w—-” after she confided in the model about a prior sexual assault.
During a heated argument in Puerto Rico, Ubah claimed Brynn may have slept with a Bravo executive to get cast on the reality show. As a survivor of sexual assault, Brynn felt Ubah’s accusation hit a little too close to home and sent her reeling.
“I’m in support groups trying to deal with s— that happened to me. You want to go there? And Ubah knows this. Ubah knows this,” she told her cast mates while fighting back tears. “Before BravoCon, I called Ubah, and I was like, ‘You know, I was raped, and I’m still dealing with this.’ “
(L) Ubah Hassan and Brynn Whitfield. Daniel Zuchnik/Variety via Getty, Bennett Raglin/Getty
“Here’s the reason why it’s not just an insult,” Brynn continued in a confessional. “It’s because of the fact of, like, I’m still dealing with something, so I don’t want any f—ing low blows that aren’t true, but let alone, about something that is still something that I wake up in the middle night [and] I can’t breathe over.”
After all the flying accusations and emotionally charged arguments, the ladies decided to put the night behind them and go to bed. With cameras off and mics tucked away, Jessel Taank confronted Ubah, who was shocked to hear Brynn’s allegations and began screaming.
“I was like, ‘Brynn shared that she was assaulted and that you know …’ and I didn’t get much further than that because you can just see on [Ubah’s] face that she was completely blindsided,” Jessel recalled to cameras.
Sai de Silva recounted that she walked into the room to find Ubah curled into a “ball” while shaking and sobbing.
(L) Brynn Whitfield and Ubah Hassan. Cindy Ord/Getty; John Nacion/Getty
“I almost went mental,” Ubah cried to cameras, having no recollection of that conversation. “I just want Brynn to tell me when she told me that, so I can remember before I deny.”
Ubah then tried to fiercely defend herself to Jenna Lyons and Racquel Chevremont.
“She is like at the core of her being trying to convince me and make sure that I understand that I did not know [that Brynn was assaulted],” Jenna recalled.
“Then she proceeds to tell us, ‘May Allah, strike me down and kill my firstborn if I did this,’ ” Racquel said. “No one would ever say something like that if they weren’t telling the truth.”
While Ubah continued to run around the villa, Brynn revealed that she confided in Ubah before BravoCon 2023 about a loved one’s attempted suicide. At the time, the two were close and in the middle of her “rant,” Brynn allegedly opened up about her sexual assault.
Brynn Whitfield. Michael Loccisano/Getty
“I’m like screaming and crying, and I’m like, ‘Why does this keep happening to me? My childhood, my thing?’ And I was like, ‘You know, I was f—ing sexually assaulted too?’ ” Brynn said through tears. “I was hysterical. So I don’t know if [Ubah] remembered, but in my mind, she knew.”
Ubah confronts Brynn and producers break the two women up.
“I wish I knew I did for her to do something like this,” Ubah says in her confessional, breaking down.
With tensions boiling over, Ubah left the villa to stay in a nearby hotel with Jessel. The remaining Housewives then gathered in Jenna’s room, where Brynn retold her story.
“And that’s when Brynn says, ‘Come to think of it, maybe she didn’t clock it.’ Everything I thought about Brynn changes for me in that moment, immediately,” Erin Lichy recalled.
“Clocking something like that, versus accusing her of knowing, are two different things,” Sai added.
Racquel also agreed, saying, “To be completely clear, I am not doubting her experience, but it’s clear to me her story — it’s not lining up. I checked out within a couple of minutes, because I realized she was lying.”
The confrontation between Brynn and Ubah will be a major topic during the two-part reunion, which airs next Tuesday, Jan. 28.
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The Real Housewives of New York City airs Tuesdays at 9 pm ET on Bravo and is available to stream on Peacock the next day.
If you or someone you know has been sexually assaulted, please contact the National Sexual Assault Hotline at 1-800-656-HOPE (4673) or go to rainn.org.
