Aviva Drescher

Aviva Drescher is an American reality TV star who can claim to be the first Real Housewives star with a disability and the first member of the Real Housewives of New York City cast to have been born and raised in the Big Apple itself. She starred in the fifth and sixth seasons of the long-running show, and she definitely provided one of its most memorable moments when she threw her prosthetic leg across the room during an argument with her fellow housewives. Since leaving the show, she has largely focused on raising her children and her varied philanthropic work, which includes serving on the advisory board of a cancer charity and working with the Live4Life Foundation. She published her memoir, Leggy Blonde, in 2014.

A tragic farming accident when she was just six years old meant that Drescher had to have her left leg amputated. However, she learned to walk again with a prosthetic leg and has never let her disability define who she is or hold her back. An incredibly educated and astute woman, she holds a Masters degree in French from New York University and also has a JD from the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law in the city (an entry-level degree to practice law). Despite such qualifications, Drescher elected to become a housewife and start a family with her husband.

In 2012, Drescher became a star when she was added to the cast of Bravo’s The Real Housewives of New York City as part of a revamp ahead of the show’s fifth season. At the climax of the show’s sixth season, she got into an argument about whether she was “fake”; she replied that the only thing that was fake about her was her leg, and with that, she threw the limb across the room, providing a controversial, but highly memorable, reality TV moment.