Victoria de Lesseps, the teenage daughter of “The Real Housewives of New York City” castmate Countess LuAnn de Lesseps, left the tony Ross School in the Hamptons soon after a video of the young de Lesseps rolling what looked like a joint and using a racial slur appeared online.
While sources tell us Victoria was asked to leave the school after the video episode, the always super-collected Countess LuAnn strongly denies to Page Six that her 16-year-old daughter leaving the school had anything to do with it.
Her rep told us, “Your information is incorrect. Victoria withdrew from Ross School five months ago, but it was unrelated to the video. She is happily looking forward to studying art in Paris this summer.”
The scandal broke in January after “Housewives” castmate Ramona Singer posted a link to the YouTube video on her Twitter feed, stating, “the countess’s daughter rolling a cigarette swearing n – – – – r!”
The clip quickly reverberated through the blogosphere. LuAnn, who wrote the etiquette book, “Class With the Countess,” was said to have found out about the clip while filming a music video in Atlantic City.
The video of Victoria quickly disappeared from YouTube and Singer later apologized to LuAnn, while the countess reportedly called her daughter’s actions “unacceptable.”
It’s not known if administrators at the private Ross School, where tuition can run upward of $45,000 a year, took note of the brouhaha over the video. Past students have included Billy Joel‘s daughter. But by spring, Victoria was already enrolled at a public school in the Hamptons.
Victoria had earlier attended Miss Porter’s prep school in Connecticut, but transferred to the Ross School so she could be closer to her New York-based family.
A spokesperson for the Ross School declined to comment.