In Tinsley Mortimer’s feature in Harper’s Bazaar’s October issue, it’s as though nothing’s changed: she was photographed on the Upper East Side at the iconic Plaza Hotel in a red Giambattista Valli Haute Couture bustier and skirt, looking as beautiful and platinum blonde as ever, reminiscent of her days on the “High Society” social circuit. But this environment feels faraway for Mortimer these days, who reflected on her past to the mag. “There’s stuff I look back at now and I’m like, Oh, my God, the dresses that were being sent to me, and I’m front row, and the designers I knew, and going to these glam parties—these are things I took for granted. People thought that I had all the money in the world and that I was this little perfect princess posing with her hand on her hip and her blonde hair and her curls. That was an image I portrayed, and it ended up biting me in the ass.”
The past few months have been anything but private for Mortimer, but hitting rock-bottom has allowed her to reflect and move forward. “It basically took public humiliation for me to understand what I was going through because I was so caught in this cycle that I really did not know what was going on,” said Mortimer. “I’m human, and we make mistakes. My biggest mistake was that I was running away from something here in New York and I ran into the wrong hands…You lose yourself, you get so caught up in this thing and this other world and this life. Being arrested saved my life, just giving me an opportunity to understand the good in my life.”
While Mortimer has been living in Palm Beach, she’s ready to make a comeback to the city that put her on everyone’s radar: New York. “My friends are here, my life is here, and I just want to get back to it. I walked away from it, and I want it back. And I think I deserve it back. I miss it. And if I can go to some fun events again and wear big glam dresses, I’m not going to be opposed to that. I don’t even know if that still happens up here anymore.”
