Erin Lichy explains why she went along with RHONY pregnancy prank

Bravo fans had a lot to say about a recent episode of The Real Housewives of New York in which Erin Lichy and Rebecca Minkoff teamed up in order to spread a messy pregnancy rumor that turned out to be nothing but a prank. Now, Erin Lichy is speaking up about what motivated her to get in on the prank.

In the episode following the pregnancy prank, Erin Lichy and Rebecca Minkoff revealed that the two of them had indeed made the rumor about Rebecca Minkoff being pregnant and having an open marriage up and according to the two of them, they wanted to find out who the "leaky pigeon" of the group was.

In that sense, the prank was a success because it definitely revealed that Brynn Whitfield was the one who was spreading rumors between members of the cast, revealing her as RHONY's "leaky pigeon," as they said repeatedly throughout the episode, which itself ended up being yet another layer of the cast's prank as they revealed that Brynn had been in on the plan all along.

Fans of the serious were majorly torn on how to feel about it, with many people being tired of hearing the phrase "leaky pigeon" over and over, others were disappointed that two episodes were centered on the cast producing their own drama on-screen.

Now, Erin Lichy has spoken up to defend her choice to take part in the pregnancy prank with Rebecca Minkoff. She spoke to PEOPLE at Bravo FanFest and defended the storyline against both disappointed fans and fellow housewives like Sai De Silva who said during the episode that she thought the pair should "check their baby privilege at the door."

"I thought it was kind of a crazy idea to make that rumor about yourself," Erin told PEOPLE. "But I was down to carry it out because I wanted to see who the pigeons really were."

But the fact that the group's "leaky pigeon" had been in on the prank all along didn't go over well with the rest of the group with Ubah Hassan telling accused "leaky pigeon" Brynn Whitfield that the reason Erin and Rebecca had let Brynn in on the joke was to get her to go spread their gossip for them to the group and she said, "If she didn't tell you it was a prank, you would not have said it."

According to Brynn, Erin doesn't need to spread rumors and start pranks like that in order to get secrets about the other housewives, though.

She told Bravo HQ that Erin's husband, Abe, is online gossip page DeuxMoi's lawyer, so that means that Brynn has a direct connection to some of the hottest gossip in the celebrity world and can get the inside scoop on any Bravolebrities, including her co-stars.

"She’s shared with us that there’s total, professional separation of church and state and that sort of thing. But I think by proxy, them being exposed to that world or adjacent to that world, I think maybe she feels in our friend group that she’s the keeper of secrets," Brynn shared about her husband's connection to the gossip page.