“Real Housewife” Sonja Morgan, 49, and her real-estate-developer boy-toy, Benjamin Benalloul, 23, frolicked in Paris and St. Tropez before the Cannes Film Festival, as the bankrupt Bravo star looks to unload a home there and settle a multimillion dollar judgment against her.
But sources tell Page Six that Morgan’s reported relationship with Benalloul is nothing more than a business arrangement.
Despite headlines blaring they’re a couple, behind the scenes, “Benjamin’s been calling Sonja his ‘fake girlfriend,’ ” a source said. Another added, “Sonja desperately needs money. Benjamin’s paying her tab, so she’ll escort him to high-end events and he can meet the ‘right’ people.” But another source said the dashing business scion’s always over at Morgan’s townhouse (also for sale).
But Benalloul says he splits time between his Upper East Side homes, Great Neck and traveling the world. About paying Morgan’s way, “That’s the craziest thing I’ve ever heard,” he said. “I come from one of the oldest, well-respected families in New York . . . I’m doing great things, I don’t need any connections. I come from a private family; we stay under the radar.
“Sonja dates men seven days a week. I’m very much enjoying the time we spend together. [But] we do not have a [serious] relationship. She’s an unbelievable woman, we learn things from each other. It’s a meeting of minds. We’re just dating.”
Morgan said: “Ben doesn’t need any fake girlfriends. He has his own townhouses. He doesn’t have to pay anyone to be with him. That’s just ludicrous. And he doesn’t need me to introduce him. There’s no one he doesn’t know that I don’t know. We’re dating, he’s crazy about me.”
Before Morgan, Benalloul dated real estate prodigy Natasha Roberts, sources said. Will he be on “Real Housewives of New York,” which starts filming this week? “I highly doubt it,” he said. I’m not a person in the media.”
Morgan was also in France to try settling a $7 million debt over a planned John Travolta film that fizzled. We hear she offered Hannibal Pictures $3 million but was turned down.