Jill Zarin: Taylor Armstrong Should Not Return To Real Housewives
Sept. 21 2011, Published 11:00 a.m. ET
by RadarOnline.com Staff
Fired Real Housewife of New York star Jill Zarin says Taylor Armstrong needs to change things up -- and one of the changes she should make is to leave the cast of the Real Housewives of Beverly Hills.
In her first interview since getting the ax, Zarin told Good Morning America Wednesday that her "heart broke for Taylor and her family" following her husband’s Russell's suicide last month and the Beverly Hills housewife's subsequent revelations he'd been physically abusive to her as many as 20 times during their marriage.
"Honestly, I wouldn't talk to the press or anyone for six months to a year," Zarin told GMA. "I would buckle down with my family, and I probably wouldn't come back on the show.”
Zarin said Taylor should give up the show because “it hasn't been good to her,” adding she "can't imagine watching her crying as much as she does ... but if she needs the money, she's got to do what she's got to do to support her family."
Zarin, Cindy Barshop, Kelly Bensimon, and Alex McCord were all unceremoniously dismissed from the Bravo series just weeks before its' fifth season was set to get underway. Zarin blew off claims that the cast's bad chemistry was the reason for the firings, saying the discord is a huge selling point of the show.
"There's no question there was fighting going on," Zarin said. "But I believe the format of the show encourages that... the ratings encourage that... even if someone doesn't say to you to have a fight or whatever, you feel like you're supposed to."
Post-Real Housewives, Zarin said she's focusing on her businesses parlaying the fame she received in front of the bright reality TV cameras.
Watch the video on RadarOnline.com
"The show was my platform," she said. "So if I look at it that it was a free infomercial, so be it."