Bravo's Best Kept Secret, Greg Bennett, Talks Coming Out, "Real Housewives," Mariah And More
Real Housewives of New Jersey's Greg Bennett has always stood out in a crowd–and not just because he's 6'5".
First popping up on Season 3 of the series, Bennett–a friend and later roommate of series regular Caroline Manzo's sons Christopher and Albie–was the comical voice of the awestruck voyeur, present during some of the series most iconic WTF moments, including being Teresa Giudice's date during the infamous Season 2 Posche Fashion Show
Now Bennett is back with the Manzo's, this time making the transition with them to their Bravo spin-off series Manzo'd With Children, which will feature Bennett in a multi-episode arc beginning Sunday.
We sat down with Bennett to discuss his time on both series, coming out and his deep love for Mariah Carey.
NewNowNext: Can you start by giving me a sense of what it was like growing up in New Jersey as gay man in the '90s/'00s?
Greg Bennett: I grew up in Central Jersey near Princeton so it was a lot more Wisteria Lane than The Sopranos. My dad owned a restaurant in the town we grew up in. My mom was the school nurse. So everyone knew our family. At the time, I didn't really have any kind of outlet to be gay. I knew early on that I wanted to get out and move to New York so that's just what I did. At the time that seemed like the only option. When I think back on it, I learned everything I know about being gay from AOL chat rooms because that's all we had at the time. It was totally 'Central Jersey M4M.'
Why did you feel like there was no other option but to leave?
The limited references to being gay that I had encountered were all very negative. There was never any positive association with being gay at all so I didn't think it was a life that I wanted to live. Not until I got to New York did I think that being openly gay would be an option for me.
Was there a particular moment in New York that you realized not only was gay okay, but it could be a celebrated aspect of who you are?
The manager at a restaurant I was working at in Hell's Kitchen had a house on fire Island–I was still in the closet, mind you–and he said that there was a private party on the island that I could bartend at and make a lot of money. So I went. One of the guys in the house (who I'm still friends with today) said he grew up on Long Island and used to go to the gay bar in Sayville. I said 'They have gay bars on Long Island?' He said, 'Girl, there's gay people everywhere.' And that was the first time I realized that it wasn't just little ghettos in major cities where gay people live; there were gay people in every corner of the world. That was the first time I realized I wasn't by myself in this.
When was the first time you heard the words "The Real Housewives Of New Jersey."
I remember Albie telling me about it at a bar during senior year. He was like, 'You can't tell anybody but my mom is filming The Real Housewives and they're doing a Jersey version and my first thought was 'Why would they do a New Jersey version, they have a New York version, that makes no sense.' When I went to Albie's graduation party later that year, they were filming the first season.
Of all of the moments you witnessed during filming, what was the most shocking?
The Posche Fashion Show was nuts. Teresa actually called me and asked me to go with her because the producer's didn't want the husbands to go. Danielle Staub ended up getting chased through the catering hall and then Ashley Holmes pulled out a chunk of her weave. I hid in a bush and watched from afar because I didn't want to be on camera for any of that. 'My mom's going to see this,' was my first thought. That was hands-down the craziest thing I ever witnessed.
Why do you think viewers love Caroline Manzo so much?
She's a refreshing personality on television. Reality TV in general is filled with people who want to be famous whereas she really just fell into the show and has kind of made it work for her on her terms. She's never done anything to compromise her integrity and she's stayed down-to-earth throughout the entire ride. There's a lot of stuff you'll see on this season of Manzo'd with Children. She came along to Lauren's bachelorette party with us. Caroline can definitely hang.
Should we talk about Mariah Carey?
My queen. We should.
How did you meet her?
I met her many years ago. A good friend of mine was a manager of a restaurant in New York that she used to go to a lot. He texted me one night at 2am and said 'She's here,' and I ran down and sat at the bar staring at her. I was losing my mind. Finally, she noticed me and turned to my friend asking if he knew me. So she beckoned me over and I introduced myself and told her, 'You're really pretty.' And she said 'thank you.' And I said 'So you agree? You think you're really pretty?' And she was like 'That's a line from my favorite movie...' and I was like 'I know, Mean Girls. I know everything about you.' And so she invited me to sit down and I basically had dinner with them that night. I don't want to say she knows me, but when she saw me during a taping of Watch What Happens Live she came up to me and said, 'Oh, you've gotten so muscular.' She plays it up because she's campy and fun. Your fave will never.
Catch Greg on Sunday's all new episode of Manzo'd With Children at 10:30pm on Bravo.
