Jessel Taank is opening up about recent rumors surrounding her husband Pavit Randhawa’s sexuality and infidelity on The Real Housewives of New York City, revealing why the speculation was more hurtful than viewers may have realized.
“I think it was downplayed on the show a lot,” Jessel exclusively told Us. “I feel like it could have gotten to a really dark place. So I understand, like, why we focused on making light of the rumor as opposed to going down this dark hole of, like, really getting into the semantics of it all.”
Fans watched the drama unfold during episode 6 of RHONY season 16. The rumors became a point of contention during BravoCon 2025 after Sai De Silva warned Jessel that Erin Lichy knew about the whispers involving her family, which she claimed to have heard from Sai’s makeup artist.
“Why I was so upset was because they [were] insinuating that my husband was leading a double life and cheating and being unfaithful again, which to me was really hurtful,” Jessel said. “So I was really upset about that insinuation, probably more so than the actual rumor of it all.”
However, Jessel revealed that she wasn’t aware of the specifics until the ladies were together on their cast trip to Moskito Island. During the getaway, Jessel approached Erin to apologize for a previous statement she had made about Erin’s Hamptons home flooding, but she revealed to Us that the cameras didn’t capture the part of the conversation that included questions about what Erin had been sharing about Pavit.
“The way that played out wasn’t actually how it happened,” Taank explained. “When I went up to Erin to apologize about the insurance thing. I was like, ‘What have you been saying about my husband?’ And she said, ‘I haven’t said anything. Sai has.’ So then I went back to Sai. This is the stuff you don’t see.”
While the show leaned into the humor surrounding Pavit’s response as he doubled down on the speculation about his sexuality and cheating, Jessel praised how her husband handled the situation, calling his reaction “perfect.” But she still admits the drama could have been avoided altogether.
“I think for me, like, living that in real time was obviously different to how it was perceived on the show and then also how the audience perceived it,” she told Us. “I didn’t realize that, like, outing something on camera was, like, the biggest deal because, quite frankly, I think it could have been squashed at the source, which was where my argument was coming from. Had Erin just told me at the beginning, like, when she heard, then it wouldn’t have roller-coastered into the situation that it was.”
The disagreement wasn’t the first time Jessel questioned Erin’s willingness to refrain from spreading gossip. Jessel recently told Us that tensions began to boil between the two after the season 16 premiere when RHONY newcomer Hailey Glassman confronted Jessel about her own IVF journey after learning details from Erin — admitting she took issue with her costar discussing intimate details with others and insisting it wasn’t Erin’s story to tell.
As for why she believes Erin didn’t approach her directly about rumors she has heard about Pavit, Jessel says she believes her costar was holding on to the information as “ammunition.”
“I don’t know that she would do that to anyone else,” she told Us. “I feel like her intentions toward me have always been really bizarre, and I say the word ‘intention’ because I think that she was using the rumor as, like, a way to weaponize something against me.”
The Real Housewives of New York City airs on Bravo Tuesdays at 8 p.m. ET.