Why Did Luann De Lesseps Follow Luigi Mangione On Twitter/X?

Very soon after a days-long, national manhunt ended and Luigi Mangione's name was released to the press, former Real Housewives Of New York star Luann de Lesseps followed him on Twitter/X.

Just in case you've been without internet access for some reason over the past week, we'll back up and explain all of that.

Early on the morning of Wednesday, December 4, the CEO of UnitedHealthcare, Brian Thompson, was gunned down outside a Midtown Manhattan Hilton just south of Central Park while on his way to an investors' meeting for UnitedHealth Group.

From the outset, the incident captured the attention of the American public in an entirely unpredictable way, and the resultant discourse about the broken American healthcare delivery system was shockingly non-partisan.

Of the immediate and vast number of memes to result from the CEO's assassination, journalist Ken Klippenstein astutely and succinctly observed:

"The jokes about the United CEO aren’t really about him; they’re about the rapacious healthcare system he personified and which Americans feel deep pain and humiliation about."

Although surveillance images of the alleged suspect were widely circulated, nearly a week passed before an individual was taken into custody after being spotted in a McDonald's in Altoona, Pennsylvania — a 26-year-old man named Luigi Mangione.

As soon as Luigi's name was made public following his apprehension on December 9, social media users instantly zeroed in on his accounts, analyzing and sharing content he'd interacted with before the incident.

Luann de Lesseps appeared to be one of the Americans tuned in to the story, as shortly after Luigi's name entered the news cycle, the reality TV star followed him on Twitter/X.

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"They know, I know, we know, you know."

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Fans Clocked Luann Following Luigi Right Away

Luann has been on our radar quite a bit lately, for entirely unhinged and wild reasons.

In addition to her currently active cabaret tour and a Christmas-themed Bethenny Frankel diss track, she recently sparked a separate and viral discussion on Twitter/X.

In late November, Luann dished to TooFab about an alleged steamy run-in with actor Hugh Grant years back — and Hugh acknowledged her kissing-and-telling in a hilarious tweet.

On Monday (December 9), social media turned en masse to Luigi, poring through everything from his tweets to the deepest recesses of his now-locked GoodReads account for insights into his personality and viewpoints.

That same day, a Reddit user posted on r/BravoRealHousewives after they noticed that among Luigi's Twitter/X followers was none other than Countess Luann de Lesseps:

The user who submitted the screenshot, like many social media users, pulled up Luigi's account out of curiosity.

When they did, they noticed that someone they followed – Luann – was also following Luigi, and they had questions:

"I was just looking at the United Healthcare [CEO assassination] suspect's x/Twitter account (I’m nosey) and I noticed that a lot of people are starting to following this guy's account including Lu!

"What is going on??? Is she confused [because Luigi] looks like a 'handsome young guy,' or was it an accident, or does her twitter handler hate her? I’m so invested now."

In a comment on the thread, the post's submitter clarified: "I forgot to say that when I first looked at his account no one that I followed was following him. So her account just started following him as of the last hour."

We didn't miss that the user pondered whether Luann followed Luigi because he is a "handsome young man" — between the incident and his capture in Altoona, Luigi Mangione "thirstposting" reached critical levels, generating widespread news coverage.

Rolling Stone covered the phenomenon, which was all-consuming across social media platforms for days:

"'The manhunt has now ended with investigators declaring 'too hot to convict,'' joked one X user, sharing a photo in which a shirtless Mangione shows off toned abs.

"'Can’t wait to see Dave Franco play Luigi Mangione in whatever TV series Ryan Murphy is currently creating,' wrote another who posted the same image alongside a headshot of the actor ... Reactions to the release of Mangione’s mugshot, released by Pennsylvania police on Monday evening [December 9], were similarly breathless.

"'Looks like he posed for Vogue,' read one X post. A different user wrote, 'you’re serving face. this is your mugshot for allegedly assassinating a ceo and you’re serving face???'"

On Reddit, more than 150 users had commented, speculating about why Luann followed him.

The top comment surmised that Luann's social media accounts were externally managed, and that the follow was "very on brand" for the Countess:

"Whatever presumably gay man runs her account is very good at the pulse of the internet and memes so I assume it was him. It's very on brand for her social media presence."

However, the second-most upvoted comment concurred with the original poster's observation about Luigi being a "handsome young man."

Referencing Luann's one-night stay in jail in late 2017, they remarked: "Lu saw how hot he was and was like this, prison be DAMNED."

Another highly amused commenter added:

I am f****** SCREAMING

If he’s Italian, he’s definitely her type 😂

Someone proposed a RHONY crossover event: "Please cast Lu on Love During Lockup!"

Mentions of reality TV "crossovers" were not uncommon, and someone called it "the crossover we need 😂😂😂."

Further into the thread, someone joked: "Time to start a rumor that they hooked up. All the deranged tabloids that source their stories here will eat it up."

Hey! We are an entertainment news site, thank you very much.

Broadly, the concept of "conjugal visits" came up quite a bit in the discourse on all platforms, and a user commented:

"The Countess is securing those conjugal visits. And who could blame her?"

That sentiment was widespread, and in response to a comment about Luigi being Luann's "type," someone said: "He's everyone’s type, my bestie is already looking into putting some money on his [prison] books lol."

A fan recalled that, once upon a time, Luann was a nurse, and posited that she harbored frustration with the American healthcare system, too; one Redditor admitted: "I [have] newfound respect for Luann."

Another common theory holds that not only was the action undertaken by Luann's social media handler, it was perhaps the result of a failure to "switch accounts" before following Luigi.

That theory might be the most accurate, as fans were disappointed to learn Luann unfollowed Luigi, via the post's submitter.

The user commented later with an update, pondering whether Luann had been lurking on Reddit and reading the thread: "Ladies and Gentlemen LU HAS UNFOLLOWED!! I think she is here bc wtf is going on?!?!"

It was possible, however, that Luann was alerted to the discourse on Twitter/X, where a viral tweet also pointed out that she'd started following Luigi.