RHONY: Dorinda Medley and her struggles this season

Ahead of the premiere of The Real Housewives of New York, Dorinda Medley revealed she had some hard times, but they aren’t what you think.

Just as filming for The Real Housewives of New York began, Bluestone Manor, Dorinda Medley’s house in Great Barrington, Massachusetts, flooded and had to be completely re-done.  The massive estate was inherited when her husband, Richard, passed away in 2011, according to PEOPLE.

“I had close to $1 million worth of damage on the house,” Dorinda said.  The repair took over 8 months to get fixed, and she mentioned that at the start of filming, it wasn’t even inhabitable.  Dorinda said she struggled with trying to get the house fixed and filming at the same time.

The companies sent to help fix the repairs told Dorinda that almost everything was ruined – her famous Halloween decorations, Christmas decor, old photo albums, furniture – all had to be thrown out.

On top of the stress from the flood and repairs themselves, Dorida said losing all of the memories was hard.  Dorinda was moving from the old place in New York to another apartment in the sky while also dealing with the changes in her relationship with John Mahdessian.  Then, she broke a rib!  “Everybody assumes from watching that clip that it’s because I was fighting with this one or drinking too much,” but Dorinda said all of the change in her life really took a toll on her.

Dorinda also mentioned that she hadn’t gone through a lot of Richard’s things since he passed away, but the renovation forced her to.  She even found some handwritten notes from him that brought back a lot of memories.

But through it all, Dorinda said it made her stronger.  “I’m sort of in a really good, empowered place, and I can run myself emotionally, financially, physically, and spiritually,” she told PEOPLE.  Dorinda said this caused a lot of conflict with her RHONY castmates because she wasn’t really letting them in – but she noted that it makes for good television and that we are okay with!

The Real Housewives of New York is on Thursdays at 9 PM ET!