Luann de Lesseps is reflecting on her past — and looking towards the future.
During an appearance on Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen Thursday night, the Real Housewives of New York City star, 54, was asked about her brief arrest and court appearance in May after she violated her probation stemming from her 2017 arrest.
“The outcome was that I got stricter probation rules until the end of August, so I’m almost done,” the Bravo star told host Andy Cohen. “Then this will be behind me, 100 percent. But I paid very dearly, for the last year, for one very big mistake.”
During her Palm Beach court appearance in May, de Lesseps admitted to the allegations, which prompted the judge to add three more terms to her probation: weekly call-in counseling sessions, monthly psychiatric sessions and a breathalyzer that must be kept in in her car, according to the court documents obtained by The Blast.
However, de Lesseps isn’t letting her brief slip-up deter her from staying on track with her sobriety.
https://youtube.com/watch?v=9gMAY6E0To4
“I’ll be glad to put it behind me and I feel like I really learned a lot about myself in this year,” she said. “It’s been more than a year. I look at it right now as kind of a blessing, believe it or not, because it really made me step back and take a look at my drinking, etc. I feel fortunate.”
Following her Memorial Day weekend arrest, de Lesseps denied multiple reports that she would be sent back to jail, insisting in a statement, “These reports are false.”
“I’m glad the judge was understanding once made aware of the evidence provided and I was then released,” she said. “I am now looking forward to completing my remaining few months of probation. I want to put this behind me and move forward with my life.”
In late April, probation officers claimed in a report filed with the Florida Department of Corrections and obtained by The Blast that de Lesseps had violated her probation twice — once by not providing sufficient documentation of completed AA meetings, and again by failing an alcohol test.
De Lesseps pled guilty to felony charges of battery, trespassing and disorderly intoxication after she was arrested on Christmas Eve in 2017. She avoided jail time in August when she agreed to a plea deal that placed her on a one-year probation and required her to perform 50 hours of community service, attend two AA meetings per week, not possess or consume alcohol or illegal drugs, and attend a Victim Impact Class organized by Mothers Against Drunk Driving.
Though de Lesseps appeared to complete her community service, probation officers claimed in their report that de Lesseps failed her alcohol test and later admitted to “drinking 2 glasses of mimosas after a performance she had in Chicago.”
In response, de Lesseps was “offered to immediately enroll in outpatient treatment and she declined due to her touring schedule,” the documents said. She was “also given the option to be fitted with an alcohol ankle monitoring device in which she declined stated that it is too intrusive.”
De Lesseps told PEOPLE in an exclusive statement after the report was made public, “I take my sobriety very seriously and like many in my situation, it is a daily struggle.”
“I remain committed to doing whatever it takes to continue living a healthy sober lifestyle,” she continued.
Source: Read Full Article