Katherine Ryan Teases ‘Real Housewives of Dublin’ Spin-Off: ‘You’ve Got What It Takes Somewhere’
Katherine Ryan has hinted that the next Real Housewives franchise could be heading to Dublin, saying Ireland has everything it needs for its own glitzy and dramatic reality series.
The Canadian comedian, who holds an Irish passport through her Cork-born father Finbar, said she believes Dublin women have the perfect mix of style, confidence, and spirit to make for a hit TV show.
As she prepares to host the reunion special for The Real Housewives of London, the comic reflected on how much Irish glamour influenced her growing up. “I think you could find six women in Dublin. I’ve seen them,” she said. “When I would first go to weddings and things in Cork, we didn’t have fascinators. We didn’t have fake tan. We didn’t have the level of glam that I saw from Irish women. So you were leaders in glam and leaders in tan and leaders in perfumes and jewellery. I didn’t know that world. And I’m sure that a lot of you can scrap as well.”
Laughing, she added: “You can fight. You’ve got Irish husbands. I’m sure there’s drama. I know there’s wealth. You’ve got what it takes somewhere.”
The comedian was speaking ahead of the launch of The Real Housewives of London, the first UK-focused instalment of the Hayu reality hit, which already boasts popular versions set in Salt Lake City, New York City, and Amsterdam.
When her name was first linked to the London cast, fans assumed Ryan herself would be joining the show. But she quickly clarified that her role is as reunion host, not one of the glamorous housewives. “Unfortunately, The Real Housewives of London is probably the highest bracket of glamour, opulence, wealth, castles — that I don’t even come close to being anywhere near that casting list,” she said. “I have no private jet, no multi-millionaire ex-husband. I’ve played it wrong… But that’s all right, because we have autonomy. And we are not walking down Kensington High Street fighting over who borrows clothes.”
Ryan, who has previously starred in her own reality series The Duchess and fronted a family reality show on UKTV, said she loves unscripted television but doubts she’d be a natural fit for the Housewives format. “I’m very transparent on my podcast. I talk a lot about my life and I don’t hold back and cameras wouldn’t bother me,” she said. “But, unfortunately, we just don’t have drama. I’m very dramatic on stage. I say what I think on stage. I can be a little bit provocative, but in my everyday life, I don’t think I’d be a match because I don’t ever shout. And so we’d just be like a nice, calm family. And nobody wants to watch that.”
The comedian also offered a deeper look into what makes The Real Housewives so compelling, saying it’s not just about extravagant lifestyles or champagne-fuelled arguments. “I think it’s very layered. There’s definitely more than what meets the eye. It’s compelling. It’s vulnerable. These women are honest. These women are of a status level that they really don’t care what other people think,” she explained. “They’re not media trained. They’re not putting it on to try to DJ at a nightclub or have some career with a fast fashion line. They are not entering reality TV for a lot of the reasons that we usually see. They are authentically themselves.”
She added that beneath the glamour, the show often reveals “deeper issues.” “They’re fighting not about the caviar or who paid for the private plane or who said what about whose husband,” Ryan said. “They’re arguing about deeper issues. Even though they’re rich, they are just like us in many ways. They’ve been betrayed. They’ve been traumatised. They’ve had divorces. They’ve had to navigate judgment all their lives. Maybe some of them were abandoned by a parent. Some real traumas as well. And that’s what I went into the reunion hoping to unpack.”
As for a Real Housewives of Dublin? Ryan insists the raw material is already there — the style, the spark, and the stories. “You’ve got what it takes somewhere,” she said with a grin.
