I have to confess something.

I’m really more of a Real Housewives of Beverly Hills fan, and over the years have watched only maybe a handful of episodes of the Housewives of New York.

That being said, when I found out Carole Radziwill, who spent a total of six seasons on RHONY, would be speaking at URI last night as part of the 11th installment of the Harrington School Of Journalism’s Christiane Amanpour Lecture Series (For some reason, always thought Ms. Amanpour had graduated from Brown, but nope. So, while it is true that during the early 1980’s, she had worked as a reporter and producer at WBRU Radio, she is actually an alum of URI!), knew I had to be there.

The thing about CR is that her life pre-Housewives franchise is so fascinating! She essentially worked her way up from a blue collar, extremely humble upbringing in upstate New York to become a producer at ABC News by her early 30’s (the days of Peter Jennings and the hey day of programs like 20/20). Whilst there, she also met and married Anthony Radziwill, only son of NYC high society swan Lee (sister of Jackie), close cousin of JFK Jr (prince of Camelot), and at that time, a co-worker at ABC News. Along the way she also became close friends with John’s wife, the late Carolyn Bessette Kennedy, an enigma to many who remains a style icon to this day.

Following the tragic deaths of her husand, after a long battle with cancer, and JFK Jr., Carolyn, and her sister Lauren in the plane crash off Martha’s Vineyard in 1999, she eventually stepped back from her job at ABC and wrote her first book, a New York Times bestseller entitled What Remains, chronicling her life and the subsequent loss of so many people she’d loved within such a short span of time. And I have to say that book is really what inspired me to motor over to Kingston last night for the lecture, and wait in line immediately following for almost an hour (amidst Generation Y debates on topics such as which restaurants in the area make the best mac and cheese calzones and with the lady next in line regaling us with tales of her friend having attended a kids birthday party at Tom Brady & Gisele’s a few years ago…one thing I do wanna know is when the heck did mac and cheese calzones become a thing?) to have my copy signed.

Now, don’t get me wrong, I love a good Bravo reality show (again, RHOBH is a fav, as are the original Southern Charm and Vanderpump), but it’s also super encouraging to see someone accomplished and articulate whose future happiness and livelihood are not tied in with having to appear on reality tv. (Apparently, according to a convo between Andy Cohen and his sidekick John Hill on Radio Andy on Sirius recently, a lot of ex-Bravo-lebrities end up over on WE TV. Just in case you ever wondered…). Last night, Carole had so many incredible stories about her time behind the scenes in the news biz, and she could not have been nicer when I approached with a question (of course related to CBK…”What would she being doing if she were with us today?” CR supposed she might have persued something in the field of documentary films.). And judging by the enthusiastic crowd of locals that we were shoulder to shoulder with at the University, I’m sure I’m not alone in saying that I’m very much looking forward to her next chapter.