Since we rarely cover Real Housewife drama, I already know I’m going to bungle this story so hard. But it was too funny not to cover. Eight months ago, Real Housewife of New York LuAnn De Lesseps – formerly Countess LuAnn – married Tom D’Agostino. They got married last year despite the fact that Tom was a well-known cheater, and he even cheated on her just before their engagement party. Apparently, Tom was not discreet about any of it, and his wandering eye was well-discussed on RHONY. It didn’t even seem like he wanted to get married, and then after they went through with it, he compared his wedding ring to a dog collar. Charming. Well, their eight-month marriage was pretty “tumultuous,” as you can imagine, and so it’s no surprise that they’re pulling the plug. Of course there’s a ton of drama though. From Page Six (they broke the story)
LuAnn de Lesseps’ marriage to businessman Tom D’Agostino is over after just eight months, Page Six has learned exclusively. We’re told the pair filed jointly for divorce in Sag Harbor, Long Island, on Thursday after a tumultuous romance. We reported last month that the pair had got into a physical confrontation in a New York restaurant — during which de Lesseps slapped her husband — and that the marriage was hanging by a thread. (De Lesseps denied slapping D’Agostino, calling it a “love tap” amidst the blowout fight.) De Lesseps, 52, claimed that they just have a passionate relationship and that they were working through their issues.
A source tells us that D’Agostino, 50, who founded a printing business, quickly tired of the “reality TV lifestyle.”
“He used to live this really nice life in the city,” we’re told. “He’s a private person and all of a sudden he was living this crazy celebrity life. He loved the nurse from Connecticut [De Lesseps was once a nurse], not the reality TV star,” said the source.
“Countess” LuAnn wed D’Agostino, her second husband, in a glitzy New Year’s Eve ceremony in Palm Beach amid much media attention. But we’re told that since the beginning of the marriage — which began in the shadow of D’Agostino’s infidelity — they have broken up and gotten back together a number of times. We’re told the twosome has been fighting a lot and that D’Agostino is getting sick and tired of the drama. Her relationship with D’Agostino got off to a bumpy start after it was revealed — shortly after they began dating in late 2015 — that he had previously dated “Real Housewives” co-stars Ramona Singer and Sonja Morgan.
Many were surprised that de Lesseps went through with the wedding after co-star Bethenny Frankel showed de Lesseps photographs of D’Agostino kissing his ex-girlfriend at the Regency Hotel on the night before their February 2016 engagement party. She later told People, “It felt like someone ripped my heart out of my chest.” But “I’m not going to let a stupid kiss ruin the rest of my life … He screwed up. What he did was wrong. But this wasn’t premeditated. It wasn’t an affair. It was a mistake.”
A rep for de Lesseps did not return a request for comment, while a rep for D’Agostino declined to comment.
The funniest line is this: “a rep for D’Agostino declined to comment.” Like, after Page Six laid out Tom’s entire perspective on why he didn’t want to be married to LuAnn anymore. The guy who just wanted to be with a humble nurse from Connecticut managed to find his way to calling glitzy big-city newspaper, the New York Post, and telling them his side of the story first. He also told his side to Us Weekly too, in case anyone is interested.
Here’s Countess LuAnn’s tweet/confirmation:
It's with great sadness that Tom & I agreed to divorce. We care for each other very much, hope you respect our privacy during this sad time!
— Luann D'Agostino (@CountessLuann) August 3, 2017
Did they have a prenup? Even if they did, I bet she gets some money out of him.
Photos courtesy of WENN.
I think it’s sad because she seemed to really believe in love and want it to work. I mean, she was previously married for like 17 yrs. Next season is gonna be bananas…single Luann is always a sight.
Baloney!!! Lu and Tom had no chemistry together and it was painful to watch their attempted farce. Lu’s marriage to Alex The Count had not been healthy for years- the only real relationship she had since she started in the show is with Jacques- and she destroyed that. Luann sold her soul to the reality tv Devil.
The only thing I find upsetting about this is the amount of satisfaction it will give Ramona.
hahahaha truer words were never spoken. Crazy Eyes will love every second of it.
He’s a private person and yet gets involved with a high profile woman on a reality show? More likely he can’t run around Manhatten introducing “little Tom” to every woman that enters his orbit without someone recognizing who he is. Why someone like this gets married or enters a serious relationship I will never understand. Stay single or find someone into open relationships
Guys like that don’t want an open relationship, unfortunately. They get off on cheating.
so true, his delusional ass thought no one would notice his cheating left and right. He put on his magical invisible cheating sunglasses and let his tiny dick out to play, was surprised there was evidence, because He thinks hes so slick.
Agreed. Some guys just like to step out, knowing they have a sweet little wife waiting at home who suspects nothing. It makes the guy feel clever.
Supposedly he actually doesn’t have much money hence why he dated 3 women from the same show within a year. The guy is a high class grifter by all accounts. Luann probably has way more money than this guy. Luann should’ve listened to basically anyone with common sense and not married him
Color me shocked though didn’t see this coming/s.
My first thought was : who will be the spouse ponying up alimony?
“He loved the nurse from Connecticut [De Lesseps was once a nurse], not the reality TV star,” said the source.”
Please. He never knew Luann as a nurse (over 20 years ago). He met her as a reality star. In fact, I suspect he only married her BECAUSE she’s a reality star in a very successful show and he wanted the exposure. (See the wonders it did for the Skinny Girl empire).
He’s just the latest man to be drawn to the siren call of those lucrative reality tv $$$s and her desperation to bag him was palpable. Mistake all round. Still, she’s well rid if this class A user and douchebag.
Good luck Luann.
Totally agree! By trying to act like it’s something she did, it’s a form of gaslighting. Luann, as the person who desperately wanted it to work, will now feel like it’s something she did wrong and that she’s at fault for not being who she was almost three decades ago. Wasn’t he hooking up with other women right before they got married? I believe it was also said that he was trying to pick women up at a bar a few weeks ago. He doesn’t want her, point blank. I don’t understand his motive in this effort to do damage control for his reputation… painting himself as this simple man who just wanted a simple wife. If he doesn’t want attention or fame, why the hell is he so invested in making people think he isn’t the bad guy and trying to pin the marriage failing on her? Yuck.
If Tom wanted such a simple drama-free woman, why is he shopping around for women in the RHONY scene? These women (and men) live a very particular lifestyle that is based around drama and glitzy BS. I find it really, really gross that he’s trying to act like she’s the problem and he got sold a false bill of goods. I don’t even watch this show anymore, but Luann really needs to try to make smarter decisions with men.
I bet there is more to this story. This man never met the nurse from Connecticut – Luann was on RHONY for six or seven years when they met and she had been part of NY’s socalite scene for much longer. He slept with Sonja Morgan, he dated Ramona Singer and in the first season of RHONY D’Agostino is hitting on Ramona and some of her friends while they are out on a girls night. So he was seeking RHONY attention for quite a while.
I still don’t understand the whole marriage thing: why would he think, dating one of the Housewives (let alone marry one) and MAKING OUT with other women publicly is a smart idea? He draw the attention to himself and was still very indiscreet about his cheating. Maybe he needed to marry to get his hands on inheritance money or he wanted to get some sort of fame, but he did not marry out of love.
And Luann? ‘Love tap’? Passionate relationship? Hell no. That is domestic violence. There is nothing romantic or passionate about slaping/hitting someone! Nothing! Stop selling that crap to people.
Meh. I think that calling a much-deserved tap on the jaw ‘domestic violence’ minimizes REAL domestic violence. That guy got what he deserved, and unless LuAnn was beating him on a daily basis, this doesn’t rise to that level. He’s a loser, LuAnn finally faced that fact, and hers was a passionate, natural reaction. He hurt her (underserved) so she hurt him (very much deserved).
Should have listened to Bethany …
LOL.
This is not a surprise, but I thought it would last at least a year. If only for Luann to save face. She was in love with the idea of getting married.
My question is, who gets custody of The Regency?
Also, don’t they have to give the gifts back if it lasts less than a year?
bahahaha The Regency!!!
Luanne is not truly heartbroken and was never “in love”. She went through with the wedding just to keep up appearances and avoid humiliation. Anyone that has (sadly) watched since 2008, knows this woman. She is surface level. She knew exactly what she was getting into and needed that storyline.
I agree. Luanne was so desperate to be married and she rubbed her “marriage” in everyone’s faces. No one feels sorry for her. And everyone who knows Lu, know she has done her fair share of cheating. This was all to make her seem interesting and give her a storyline.
I may be wrong, but I seem to think that in recent years, she was demoted to friend of? Subsequently signed on as a housewife? I, too, think this was simply a storyline.
Yeah, her apple was revoked. So she amped up the drinking and tawdry aspects of her personality to get back on the show.
Was this fake for the show and publicity?
I think so but she tried to sell it as authentic, real love etc.
He referred to her as a dog in one episode, as they walked together in the park with their dog and Luanne had to poop scoop because he wouldn’t. He’s horrible.
I’m glad it’s over now. Luanne doesn’t deserve to be treated badly… no one does.
I agree 100%. LuAnn has had her less-than-stellar moments, but she didn’t deserve this turd. I sure hope she had that loser sign a pre-nup.
I have heard some slips /side rumours that little Tom prefers little Louis not LuAnns.
She knew what she was getting into but she wanted to be a wife. He had a nice NYC apt, she has only the Hamptons house so that was a 1+1. Are there any “Housewives” on RHONY? I think LuAnn was the only one this season. Might have to change series name.
that’s such a lame rumour. he’s been caught cheating all over the place, yet he’s in the closet? nah. that dude is into women. and the more, the merrier.
I think she sold the hamptons house and it was then torn down by new owners. She just has her Sag Harbor house, which I think is better anyway. I hope she didn’t lose anything financially because of this guy. Wishing her good things especially now as he really was just a bad idea all around.
Can’t even comment on this as if it were a real marriage that broke up. Luann knew all along, certainly prior to the engagement, that this was a role, a storyline, and they were performers playing a married couple in a tv marriage. She got what she wanted, a storyline and he got the spotlight and brush with fame that he wanted. He’s clearly a Slade Smiley type, who somehow, someway, just totally coincidentally, wink-wink, nod-nod, keeps finding himself serially dating Housewives cast members.
Agree with all of that, but was it worth it to give up her title? That’s pretty much all she had left. Kinda like Sonja’s rundown townhouse, the last thing they have that keeps them tied to their old life of class and culture.
yeah, see your point. Probably not worth giving up the title in terms of her social cache. But the title was such BS given the fact that their marriage was in name only for years. She dined out on that title for a long time, lorded it over everyone, acting like the lady-to-the-manor-born, ad nauseum. If you watch the show, you know she’s a sexual alleycat with a good French accent.
@ JC – the title was total BS but she LOVED it so much. I think the only thing she got being married to Tom was a coke problem.
Speaking of Sonja, I guess she’ll kick Tinsley out and Luann can move back in.
Ha. Ah hahaaaaaaaaaaaaaa hahaha. They told her. They all told her. And it was not about him sleeping with everyone she knew, it was about him sleeping around when they were engaged. If Ramona Singer, the most self involved Real Housewife ever, is sitting you down to ask you to think again while Bethany has receipts about his current encounter, gurl you better think twice. She had a bajilion bridal showers/parties…..does she have to give the presents back??
Lmao
I can’t stand Luann. Such a jumped up snob. Countess my ass!
Never liked her since she had a snit fit in the first season about the driver calling her and Bethany “madam” or whatever it was. Get over yourself woman!!
Lu, why did you do this to yourself, question mark
” How could you do this to me. Question mark”
Iconic!
I hope she goes back to the recording studio to record a confessional album.
Hah !!!!
@Neelyo:
Oh, good, sweet, God please no. The woman has the narrowest, lowest vocal range ever. When she “sings”, all I can hear are:
“Slow, rusty nails against a chalkboard”,
“Heavy, drowning bull”,
“Heavy, wooden barrel being pushed against a concrete floor”
and her most human note: “Drunken tramp, singing while staggering back to his alleyway”.
So, no.
Awww, I was looking forward to her rendition of ‘We are Never Getting Back Together’ followed by a ‘Tom -Trapped in the Closet’ a la R Kelly. 🙂
Penthouses, Palm Beach and the cover of People….. none are good reasons to marry a man like Tom.
Oh well. This will secure her another year on RHONY.
They had a pre nup and equal amounts of money. This marriage was orchestrated by LuAnn for a story line. Remember she was a p/t housewife two seasons back and needed something to keep her place. Thats why she was always so over the top about Tom and getting married – and it felt so false
I couldn’t agree with you more @sweetpea.
The whole thing felt like Lu was just extending her storyline and making sure she had another season.
With Jacques, she seemed really into it. With this guy, it looked like she was just putting on a show for the cameras.
I feel that women who marry rich men who are known to cheat, only marry them because they’re already planning to divorce them and collect money. This way even when they divorce them, they’ll still end up leaving the marriage with more money than they had going in (in most cases).
Still seems like wasted time though.
Luann was one of my least fav on the show and even though she there proof of his cheating, I still feel bad for her. I think her ex the Count cheated on her too. I wonder if she’s going to go back to Countess
LuAnn’s only 52 years old? Either she lies about her age or crap genes run in her family.
New storyline for Luann.
Bravo, Luann! Bravo, Bravo TV!
You have to admit, that Luann is very smart lady. She knew, that her future husband Tom D’Agostino cheated on her – she said, that it wasn’t an affair, just stupid kiss.
She decided not to call of her wedding. Bravo TV paid, allegedly, for her lavish wedding in Palm Beach. She sold her wedding pictures to People magazine. And now divorce?
Everything for HER new storyline in the Real housewives of New York. Right?
Luann is the new kim kardashian
Ooo i might check out the new season now; looks like it might be a juicy one with cheatin’ Tom caught.
They always looked like such an awkward couple together, not surprised they’re divorcing.
He seemed to have no problem claiming her as his woman I thought they were really into eachother.