'Princesses: Long Island': Where are they now?

Ten years ago this month, six 20-something-ish women from Long Island began starring together in a reality TV show called “Princesses: Long Island.” Bravo described them as “a group of young women from affluent areas of Long Island who live pampered lifestyles in the comfort of their parents’ homes.”

The series had its drama, as most reality TV series do. Highs included the women celebrating a 30th birthday at a Nassau County nightspot, getting a private tour of an East End winery and promoting their entrepreneurial businesses. Lows included loud fights about a stolen boyfriend, insensitive remarks about a lower-income area of Long Island and a controversial incident filmed at a Sept. 11 memorial park (an apology was issued and  Bravo deleted the scene from future airings).

Public opinion was divided over whether the series promulgated stereotypes of Jewish women or allowed the women to express pride in their heritage. The series ultimately was not renewed for a second season (viewers can still watch the original season on streaming services). "It was edgy back then," says Chanel Omari, one of the Princesses, now 38 and working as a stand-up comedian in Manhattan. Having just one season, "didn't give us a chance to show who we were, our dreams, hopes, failures."

In the past decade, the women have grown up — and apart. Most of them don’t keep in touch regularly, if at all. Several work full-time in the entertainment or media field, half are married, one has become a mother (though a second has a baby on the way) and just one woman still calls Long Island her full-time home.

Here's a look at the "Princesses" — Ashlee White, Casey Cohen, Erica (Gimbel) Bohn, Joey Lauren, Chanel Omari and Amanda (Bertoncini) Cipriano — today.

Ashlee White

Age: 40

Lives in: Roslyn

Currently: World Wrestling Entertainment Shop Ambassador

Significant episode: Episode 4, “Mr. Wrongs Don’t Make a Right.” It’s White's 30th birthday and all the princesses are there to help her celebrate Long Island style — in a club in a strip mall and with a scantily clad crudite server.

“I just got recognized today. ‘Are you that girl who was on ‘Princesses: Long Island’?” says White, who lives at her parents’ home in Roslyn and was recognized while shopping at Kitchen Kabaret in Roslyn Heights. “I was with my friend from out of town. Her mouth dropped. She was like ‘My little celebrity!’ I could be cheesy and say it’s still really cool.”

White gave up the event planning business she was building while she was on “Princesses.” After the season aired, she worked in sales in the fashion industry. She then spent five of the past 10 years as a full-time caregiver for her mother, who had Alzheimer’s and died in 2019. She lived in Manhattan while caring for her mother in Roslyn, she says, but has since moved back to her parents’ home to grieve.

White’s father, who is 77 and made guest appearances on “Princesses,” got her “hooked” on her current passion — World Wrestling Entertainment. She is a WWE Shop Ambassador, promoting their merchandise. “I go to every New York show on Long Island or the city. Front row, in heels, screaming my face off. It’s so much fun,” she says.

As for her personal life, White is single. “I’m still looking for Mr. Right,” she says. She’s doing much better after the debilitating illnesses — lupus and a stroke — that she had prior to and after the show. “Yes, I was sick,” she says. “I’ve been doing really well, thankfully.”

White dished some show secrets: The childhood bedroom where her “in-the-moment” interviews were taped was a studio setup. And, the show was not supposed to be called “Princesses: Long Island,” she says: “While it was filming, it was called ‘Gold Coast Girls.’ ”

White says her favorite scene in the series was when she took three of the women to a Jewish sleepaway camp in Connecticut. They were rained out and the women went on to Plan B. “We went to a bar, and I had the time of my life. I just had so much fun.”

She says the show was “a great experience that really opened some great doors for me.” She has built an online community, she says, where she has shared her journey with anxiety and depression, with grief over her mother’s death and her love of WWE.

Casey Cohen

Age: 38

Lives in: Manhattan

Currently:  Full-time fitness instructor

Significant episode: Episode 2, “Shabbacolypse Now.” Cohen opens up about her painful past with Bohn, but tries to put their issues aside for a group trip to the Hamptons. Cohen’s anger boils over, turning a peaceful Shabbat dinner into a Shabbacolypse.

You could say Cohen’s life during the series and now is literally like night and day — 10 years ago she was working nights in Manhattan clubs, including 1 OAK NYC. She has since embraced what she calls “my true calling and passion,” teaching 18 to 20 fitness classes a week at Life Time in Manhattan.

“It still feels like it’s yesterday,” says Cohen of “Princesses.” And yet, she says, “I am in a completely different headspace than I was in my 20s.” She says in addition to helping people physically, during breaks in the cycling classes she teaches she will spend a few minutes speaking about sitting in silence or other inspirational messages. “We live in such a chaotic time. It’s a skill to know how to be calm,” she says. “My classes are very focused on mind-body.” Cohen also reaches 42,000 followers through her Instagram page.

Cohen says she’s glad she did the series, and would do reality TV again. “It’s a way to use your voice in such a positive way,” she says. During the season, Cohen confronted Bohn, who had tried to steal her boyfriend. “So many people reached out and said, ‘Thank you for bringing that up. My friend is going after my boyfriend.’ It’s such a good way to help other people and heal yourself in the process.” Cohen’s parents are divorced; people reached out to her regarding that as well, she says. One of her favorite moments, she says, was when she got to tell her mother, Fran, how amazing she is in front of viewers. “She was such a rock for me, then and now,” Cohen says.

Cohen is single and dating. “I know the guy I’m supposed to be with is working on himself, too, it’s a just a matter of us meeting,” she says. She lives with her 14-year-old teacup Yorkie named Riley whom she’s had since filming the show. “I have never been happier,” she says.

She doesn’t keep in touch with the other women. “After the show was over, I was just always focused on my own lane,” she says. “If we were to have a reunion, I’d be happy to catch up and see what they’re doing. I wish Bravo actually would bring us on and ask these questions, how things have changed, ask where we are now.”

Erica (Gimbel) Bohn

Age: 39

Lives in: Estero, Florida

Currently: Stay-at-home mother and part-time professional organizer

Significant episode: Episode 5, “Intermenschion.” Omari thinks Bohn's drinking is hurting her relationships with the others.

Bohn’s drinking initially continued after the show. “I’ve had my fair share of struggles with addiction and alcoholism,” she says. “It was pretty scary.” She went to Florida to enroll in a treatment center and committed to changing her life. “It’s been about four years that I’ve been sober now. My life has changed a lot in the past four years.”

While in Florida, Bohn met her future husband, Jordan, 32, who runs the offices of a chiropractic practice. "A little girl's dream is to find her Prince Charming," Bohn says. She became stepmother to Jordan's son, Jackson, 5, and then together the couple had a baby, Grayson, who will be 2 in August. They built a home together in Southwest Florida.

“My life is just my family,” she says. “It’s not necessarily glamorous, but my life is so full, and my heart is so full of gratitude for the life I have with my family. This is what I’ve always wanted.” Bohn also works part time as an independent contractor, doing home or business organizing for clients.

She says she doesn’t have a favorite scene or episode; in fact, she says she didn't really enjoy watching it at all.

“It didn’t show me in the best light," Bohn says. "There was obviously a lot of alcohol when we were on the show. You mix alcohol with drama, and you get what you get. The person who was on the show is a person who was struggling. I’m not proud of certain things in my life, but I’m proud of how far I’ve come.”

Joey Lauren

Age: 40

Lives in: Manhattan and Southold

Currently: Owner of a consulting company focused on fragrance, skin care and cosmetics

Significant episode: Episode 9, "The Elephant in the Vineyard." The girls take a trip to a vineyard.

Lauren relives the vineyard episode when she drives from Gramercy Park to Southold with her husband, whom she married last year. “We pass Sparkling Point often. He jokes, ‘Have you ever been there?’ ”

Lauren  continued promoting the Kissamint combined lip conditioner and breath freshener she was working on during the series years after filming ended. She eventually sold to a small private equity firm that folded during the pandemic, she says. Her current consulting company, @Klowlab, focuses on fragrance, skin care and cosmetics.

She met her husband — well, re-met her husband; she had known him in high school — four years ago. “He’s just a very, very private person, which is really funny because I’m the opposite,” she says, not wanting to name him.

She and her husband have a dog named Charlie. And they have some big news: “We are expecting a baby in November,” Lauren says.

They’ll be having a girl. “Another princess. I have now officially turned to queen,” she says. She plans to continue the pattern of boys’ names for girls, she adds. Lauren didn’t want to reveal the name because of the Jewish kenahora superstition to keep away bad luck.

Lauren says filming "Princesses" was hard emotionally. “Reality TV is not a very healthy place. It felt like high school,” she says. But, she says, she wouldn’t change a thing. “I kind of stayed true to myself the entire time. I got a lot of positive opportunities from the show.”

Her favorite scene is when the women were together on a dock somewhere on the Island during the finale. “If I remember correctly," she says "it was a nice, peaceful moment.”

Chanel Omari

Age: 38

Lives in: Manhattan

Currently: Standup comedian, podcast host 

Significant episode: Episode 1, “You Had Me at Shalom.” Omari enjoys Shabbat dinner, only to be reminded that her marriage clock is ticking.

Omari is a full-time stand-up comic who performs in Manhattan at the Midtown outpost of the Grisly Pear Comedy Club, The Stand and The Comedy Cellar. She also hosts a podcast called "Chanel in the City" on iHeart Radio in which she interviews “Bravo-lebrities” — people on other Bravo reality TV shows such as “Summer House” and the “Real Housewives” series — and other pop culture figures and influencers. 

She’d like to have a platform to talk about “more deep stuff,” she says. During the series, she had noted that she wanted to be “the Jewish Oprah.” She’d still love that, she says. “I looked up to her growing up. She can act, she can host. I feel like I want to encompass all that. I feel strongly that as we are progressing as a Jewish nation and culture we should have more Jewish role models on TV, especially talk shows, and I hope to fulfill that spot one day."

As for her personal life, Omari recently got out of a serious relationship. She lives in an Upper East Side studio and likens her life to Carrie Bradshaw's in "Sex and the City." Her parents lamented her single status during the series — and that was 10 years ago — but they’ve come to accept that she hasn't followed a traditional Orthodox Jewish path, she says. “It’s not easy to find love, true, real love, the way they did back in the day,” she says.

Omari says she considers herself the funny one of the “Princesses” cast, “always the life of the party.” 

“My favorite scene was when I was writing my speech for my sister’s wedding,” Omari says. She was the maid of honor, striving to be funny and sentimental. “I had this moment with my mom, talking it through.”

Amanda (Bertoncini) Cipriano

Age: 37

Lives in: Columbia, South Carolina

Currently: Radio and television host

Significant episode: Episode 6, "Coco Loco." Cipriano throws a white party for the launch of the Drink Hanky.

After the show, Cipriano left behind the Drink Hanky — the fashionable cloth covering she designed to absorb condensation on drinks and glassware — and also left behind Jeff, the potential fiance that her mother was so against her marrying so quickly because of their 12-year age difference.

“When I left the show, I was really excited to get back to why I went to college, to do journalism and work in media,” Cipriano says. She started as a host on the Manhattan Neighborhood Network. “That was my steppingstone to being a correspondent on radio.”

She went on to work for CBS Radio NYC, doing a show called “The Tea With Amanda B.,” a lifestyle segment that advertised clothing and beauty products and brands. In 2019, she moved to Miami to work for Revolution 93.5 radio. “It was a dance station. I interviewed artists — it was more music driven,” she says. When the pandemic hit, she moved back to New York and worked for Red Apple Media co-hosting a podcast called “The A List.” And now, she is in South Carolina, working for WIS News 10 to get a new show up and running.

Cipriano met her husband, Steven, six years ago and they married in 2021. He owns his own business. Cipriano says she took his name because, well, Bertoncini-Cipriano is a mouthful.

She has two favorite scenes from the show — one when she was cooking in the family's Great Neck Estates house with her mother, sister and brother, and one when she and her mother and Bohn  went to a Long Island club. “That was super fun,” she says.

Future plans include having children and growing a company she started during the pandemic called Long Island Royalty to sell athleisure wear with Long Island sayings such as “Bagel and Schmear,” “NJB” (Nice Jewish Boy) and “I’m a South Shore girl.”

By Beth Whitehouse

beth.whitehouse@newsday.comBethWhitehouse1

Beth Whitehouse writes about families, parenting and great things to do with the kids on Long Island. She’s been a Newsday editor and shared a 1997 Newsday staff Pulitzer Prize for coverage of the crash of TWA Flight 800.