The “Real Housewives” franchise has finally touched down in London, and its stars are promising piping hot tea and drama of royal proportions.
In the debut episode of “The Real Housewives of London,” which is now streaming on Hayu, viewers meet five of the show’s six lovely ladies: Aussie transplant and former Miss Galaxy Universe Juliet Mayhew; finance maven turned cake entrepreneur Nessie Welschinger; alum of “Real Housewives of Jersey” (another international spinoff) and fashionista Karen Loderick-Peace; skincare business owner and model Amanda Cronin and high-society socialite Panthea Parker. Juliet Angus — an American expat and founding cast member of Bravo’s “Ladies of London” — will be introduced in the show at a later time.
In just 45 minutes on screen, wealth is flaunted, personalities are revealed and storylines previewed. Cronin is presented as the ringleader, gathering the ladies together for an International Women’s Day celebration to tote her burgeoning skincare brand. Mayhew shows off her not-so-humble abode — complete with a tennis court — and drops some royal names, while Loderick-Peace is undergoing massive renovations to an already million-pound townhouse. Welschinger proves she has the best of both worlds by running down her past as an investment banker while baking a cake for Cronin’s party, and Parker establishes herself as a firecracker by drudging up the show’s first scandal. At the end of the episode, Mayhew and Parker clash at Cronin’s party over Mayhew’s loyalty to a dentist friend who Parker claims gave her son seven fillings instead of fixing his braces.
It’s all quite silly, but as Variety found out when catching up with all six Hou
