Exclusive | Kelly Bensimon and celebrity chef ‘lucky to be alive’ after terrifying head-on crash in Florida Uber
Kelly Bensimon just got a frightening dose of reality.
The star of E!’s “Golden Life” and celebrity chef Andrew Molen were injured Monday afternoon when they were involved in a violent head-on crash in Sarasota, Fla.
We hear the pair were in an Uber, which turned left onto busy Tamiami Trail and was rammed by an oncoming car, causing the airbags to inflate.
The smash sent Bensimon, Molen, and the driver of the other car to the hospital.
Bensimon tells us, “I’m lucky to have walked away alive.”
“My right arm is a mess,” the real estate agent tells us. “My head went straight into the back of the seat. It was really bad. I was unconscious for a couple seconds. I was freaking out. I thought I broke my arm.”
The former “Real Housewives of New York City” star says doctors performed X-rays on her arm and a CAT scan at the hospital.
When we spoke Tuesday, she was still reeling.
“I am totally out of it, I am in so much pain,” she said. “My head went back and banged [Andrew] on his chin. There were makeup marks on the airbag.”
Molen— a classically trained chef who swapped restaurant life to be a private chef for the ultra wealthy — saw the car coming and yelled “brake, brake,” the pair recalled.
“[The other car] came straight on,” Molen claimed. “You didn’t hear brakes screech. He came straight in at full blast. We got hit so hard. Kelly went flying. I hit the ceiling. Airbags went off. There was dust everywhere.”
Molen continued, “Kelly was out cold. She kept falling back,” he said, “The car spun.”
Molen tells us he hurt his neck and will be going back to the doctor. He has already canceled five events this week.
“I am in a lot of pain,” he said. “They had to help us into ambulances.”
We’re told the driver of the other car was taken into an ambulance in a stretcher.
Both cars were Buicks.
Bensimon was in town for an open house for her $22 million listing at 3315 Bay Shore Road. Molen was serving up food and doing kitchen demonstrations for the event.
The pair were also filming an episode for a digital lifestyle series they are developing called “The Chef and the Housewife,” which “goes beyond showcasing extraordinary properties by bringing ultra-high-net-worth living to life through food, entertaining, design, and the experiences that define exceptional homes,” according to a release.
Sarasota Police tell Page Six that the crash report is still in progress. Uber did not respond to a request for comment.
