Who Is Elyse Slaine? From Wall Street Ex-Wife To Possible New 'Real Housewife Of New York'
She's going to be heavily featured on "RHONY" this season, but will she join the cast?
Instagram These days, she makes headlines because of her various friendships with different cast members from the hit Bravo show, The Real Housewives of New York, of which season 12 premieres tonight. But it wasn't that long ago that she has prominently been featured in the news thanks to her split from her now-ex-husband, who became a notorious informant for the FBI when over the course of two years, he helped the federal government build a case against several people for insider trading.
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Who is Elyse Slaine?
Let's look at what we know about this rumored new Real Housewife, who will be featured on the 12th season of the hit Bravo show.
She was sued by her former nanny.
Back in 2014, Slaine's former nanny and housekeeper, Marichu de Sesto, was fired. In response, she filed a lawsuit against the Slaines for unpaid overtime wages, failure to provide paystubs in violation of New York Labor Law, and for breach of contract. Her lawsuit was granted in part and denied in part: while de Sesto was able to recover some of her lost wages, she wasn't able to get everything she asked for in the lawsuit.
Slaine's so-called "nanny debacle" resulted in a series of Park Avenue protests.
When de Sesto claimed she was fired by the Slaines as a housekeeper and nanny, she claimed she was fired because she took time off for doctor's appointments. In response, Damayan — a migrant workers' advocacy group — organized a series of Park Avenue protests in New York City against the Slaines in general and against Elyse Slaine in particular. "She just doesn't care!" they said.
Her ex-husband, David Slaine, was a Wall Street hotshot-turned-FBI informant.
Slaine's ex-husband, David Slaine, was a Wall Street hotshot who was heavily involved with the Galleon hedge fund. When the FBI confronted him with evidence of his own insider trading, he agreed to become an FBI informant in exchange for leniency. Over the course of two years, he worked with the federal government to bring several charges of insider trading against many of his former colleagues.
Slaine took her late ex-boyfriend's kids to court to get her share of his sizeable estate.
After she divorced David Slaine, Elyse Slaine took up with Donald Drapkin, another hotshot financial type. However, when they split up, she kept the lavish apartment they had. But when Drapkin died in a skiing accident, Slaine took his children to probate court to get more of his sizeable estate. While the case was ultimately dismissed, Slaine kept the Park Avenue pad that she got from Drapkin when they first split up.
She will be featured prominently in several episodes of The Real Housewives of New York.
It has been confirmed that Slaine will be prominently featured in several episodes of the twelfth season of The Real Housewives of New York, which airs beginning April 2, 2020, on Bravo at 9pm EST.
But it's unclear whether she'll become a full-time cast member, as of this writing.
RHONY fans shouldn't quite place their bets on Slaine becoming a full-time cast member of the show quite yet. Sources close to the show say that only Leah McSweeney is the "official" newest Housewife this season, though Slaine has filmed with all the cast members. "Elyse isn’t a full-fledged housewife yet; they’re always testing new women,” said the source who adds that Slaine is as of this writing officially considered only a "friend" of the show.
Bernadette Giacomazzo is an editor, writer, publicist, and photographer whose work has appeared in Teen Vogue, People, Us Weekly, The Source, XXL, HipHopDX, The Los Angeles Times, The New York Post, BET.com, and more.