Jill Zarin Talks About Being the Villain on 'Real Housewives of NYC'

Jill Zarin has a "hobby'' after all.

Zarin, one of Bravo's 'The Real Housewives of New York City,' has just co-authored a book with her mom and sister called 'Secrets of a Jewish Mother.' Zarin takes solace from the words in 'Secrets' because she needs it at this point in her life -- she's become Public Enemy No. 1 on 'Housewives' thanks to her feud with fellow cast member and former BFF Bethenny Frankel.

Frankel famously said that Zarin needed a "hobby" during a Zarin-Frankel fight; well, now here's 'Secrets.'

There's been a lot of brush-ups on season 3 of 'Housewives' and Zarin spoke to AOL TV about the higher level of agitation on the show this year, her new life as the show's bad guy and the importance of holding an apple.Jill Zarin has a "hobby'' after all.

Zarin, one of Bravo's 'The Real Housewives of New York City,' has just co-authored a book with her mom and sister called 'Secrets of a Jewish Mother.' Zarin takes solace from the words in 'Secrets' because she needs it at this point in her life -- she's become Public Enemy No. 1 on 'Housewives' thanks to her feud with fellow cast member and former BFF Bethenny Frankel.

Frankel famously said that Zarin needed a "hobby" during a Zarin-Frankel fight; well, now here's 'Secrets.'

There's been a lot of brush-ups on season 3 of 'Housewives' and Zarin spoke to AOL TV about the higher level of agitation on the show this year, her new life as the show's bad guy and the importance of holding an apple.

Over the last few weeks on 'The Real Housewives of New York City,' you've been depicted as the bad guy. Are you happy with that?
I'm not going to lie to you and say I'm happy about it. I'll say that that show is not over; you have to watch the whole season. I'm only human. I'm embarrassed by some of the things I said, as we all are. One of the reasons I did the show was to have fun, the other reason ... [was to] document my life with my family. It's one of the things I'm sad about because it's gotten way from my family. What made me more interesting is seeing me with my mother, sister, my kid, my husband. I have three children you've never seen, stepchildren, you've never seen. Two grandchildren you've never seen. I'm more than just me -- I'm part of a family unit. They really went in a different direction this year and it's sad. It's not fun to watch. It wasn't fun to do and I'd like to get it back on track in season 4, doing more family things.

Did they say, "Hey Jill, we need a bad guy on the show to jazz it up?''
It's not that, but they did say if you don't bring it on, you're not going to be here, you're not going to be holding an apple.

Oh no, really?
Everything you see is in a roomful of people. There are 20, 30 people standing there with lights, cameras, multiple cameras. Many times you have to re-say something because they didn't get it. It's real, but a lot of situations wouldn't happen if not for the show. In other words, we wouldn't go somewhere if it wasn't on the show. I wouldn't go to someone's house if it wasn't for the show. So it's hard for me personally to know the difference between real and not real. I think everything is real and then it isn't. I feel like I've been portrayed as the bad guy and the only thing I can say is my feelings are my feelings and I felt them when I felt them. How I handled it, or how it appeared I handled it, was not well. A lot of what I said was cut out. A lot of people said, "How could you just cut a friendship on the hobby comment or the cancer.'' Of course, it wasn't just that. It was an accumulation of things that I did talk about but they felt it was too complicated for the audience to understand. I don't have control over that.

So they have Sonja Morgan and Jennifer Gilbert in the wings, ready to join the show. Did they said to you, "Let's turn it up a notch because we have these two new women?''
No, nothing was said like that. A producer said to myself, and I think the other housewives were there, you're not going to be holding an apple at the end of the season if you don't bring it up. That didn't motivate me to do anything. You haven't seen all the episodes, but there is one character on the show where when you see it, she turns on a switch because it
doesn't look right to do that because she turned on a switch. She's in jeopardy of possibly losing her spot on the show. They're not going to have 25 Housewives on the show, so something has to give. I don't know what's going to happen. All I know I can only say I will learn from this and that's all I can do.

In hindsight, has this experience been positive?
It's the most positive thing I've ever done other than getting married and having my daughter. First, it's brought me so many blessings because I've met so many fans who love me even in this little crisis I'm having on the show -- it's not death I'm going through. Most reality shows have this all the time. You look back at Kelly [Killoren Bensimon] last year in her personal life, she had things going on and then she had it out with Bethenny and she took a lot of heat and Simon [van Kempen] had a lot of and now Ramona [Singer] got it. So, it's sort of my turn and I think that's how they saw it. I think the reasons they didn't touch Bethenny and obviously they shouldn't is because she's having a baby and they left her alone. And she has a new show coming out ['Bethenny's Getting Married?'] that they didn't want to hurt.

What does your mom say about you being on the show?
My mom's very proud of me. I've done a lot of good things. It's so funny because things get so blown up -- if I said a sentence or a word, it isn't going to wipe out the fact that I've done so many great things, so much charity and I'm working. I'm a branch spokesperson for Kodak, I have a line of bedding coming out this year and I wrote a book. I never thought in a million years I'd do it ... How lucky am I? I have to pinch myself.