Highland Beach woman a socialite on Netflix’s ‘Members Only: Palm Beach’
At home in Highland Beach, Rosalyn Yellin models one of her favorite dresses. Her dog is Lou Lou. She plays a socialite on Netflix's Members Only: Palm Beach. Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star
By Rich Pollack
Stuck at home in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, raising five kids just six years apart, Rosalyn Yellin escaped from the daily pressures of motherhood by watching “The Real Housewives” reality television, with a special fondness for The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills.
“It was my guilty pleasure, my release from diapers, bottles and laundry,” she said.
The more time she spent soaking up stories about the lives of women living a luxury lifestyle 2,400 miles away, the more she admired the cast.
“I always wanted to be them,” she said. “I always dreamt I would be them but I never thought in my wildest dreams that I would be on a reality show.”
Fast forward several decades to August 2024, and that long-ago dream came true when Yellin was chosen as one of five women to be cast in Members Only: Palm Beach.
A reality show with many of the same story lines as Real Housewives, the eight-episode Netflix program focuses on socialites who wade through squabbles and rivalries while cementing close friendships during last year’s Palm Beach social season.
“It was a lot of fun,” Yellin said about the show, which first aired in December. “It is just a show about five women, our journey and our lives.”
Much of the season’s last episode provides a close-up look at Yellin, especially when she challenges another cast member — the one who excluded only her from a party in the first show because she didn’t see Yellin as belonging in her same social circle.
As you might expect, a shower of tears and a crisscross of accusations take place. While it is good drama that follows a Real Housewives theme, it was also an opportunity for Yellin to define herself to viewers and — she says — to herself. Rosalyn Yellin exits a Lamborghini on the set of Members Only: Palm Beach. Photo provided
“I learned something about myself doing the show,” she said. “I learned to stand up for myself. I never had to do that in Bucks County.”
Despite some of the hurt feelings and subtle and not-so-well-disguised spite, Yellin says she is looking forward to returning to the show if it is renewed for a second season.
If that happens, viewers are likely to see more of the real Rosalyn Yellin.
“I think of myself as a simple person,” she said. “Lead with kindness and treat everyone the same. Nobody is better than anyone else.”
Members Only: Palm Beach has developed a strong following, with Yellin saying it’s not unusual for her to be recognized when she’s out and about.
Some, however, question the show’s Palm Beach moniker.
Yellin, like most of the other cast, doesn’t live in Palm Beach and instead has settled with her husband of more than 30 years in a multimillion-dollar home on the Intracoastal Waterway in Highland Beach.
While social-scene purists will say you’re not a Palm Beacher if you don’t live on “The Island,” Yellin is quick to point out that she is in Palm Beach almost every day during the social season, attending parties or chairing or participating in charity events.
“When you’re chairing an event, you’re in Palm Beach 95% of the time,” she said.
A member of one of the prestigious clubs on the island, Yellin is a strong supporter of several charitable organizations including those helping cancer patients, current and past service members, and young adults who have aged out of foster care.
The granddaughter of a Holocaust survivor and daughter of a mother who died of ovarian cancer, Yellin is a strong supporter of the Cancer Alliance of Help & Hope and is one of the celebrity dancers in the organization’s Dance the Night Away Gala set for March 13 at the Breakers.
A dancer in her earlier life who also taught Zumba-like exercise classes in Pennsylvania, Yellin has raised more than $138,000, far exceeding totals of the 11 other dancers.
Rosalyn Yellin, on the set of Members Only: Palm Beach, says the show taught her ’to stand up for myself.’ Photo provided
She has chaired the America First Gala, a fundraiser for The Grey Team, a Boca Raton-based organization that aims to prevent military and veteran suicides. Yellin is also a strong supporter of Place of Hope, which focuses on helping those aging out of foster care.
“I love helping charities that are helping here in Palm Beach County,” she said.
Yellin, 54, is also extremely proud of her family — her husband, three daughters and twin sons as well as four grandchildren.
“I’m very proud of the job I did as a mother,” she said. “All of my children are very high-achieving.”
Those who watch the show might take note that there is little mention of Yellin’s husband, Jonathan, a successful business owner, and that’s not by accident.
Yellen said her husband values his privacy and made it clear from the outset that he didn’t want to be involved with the show. In fact, it was her husband’s desire for privacy that almost led her to decline the invitation. A couple of her friends who auditioned for the show recommended Yellin, who made the cut while they didn’t.
“I was excited but I was really nervous about telling my husband,” she said. “After going back and forth, he agreed.”
The journey from Bucks County to Highland Beach, which took place five years ago, was one that Yellin began many years before while visiting the area annually on vacation.
“We love our lifestyle in Highland Beach,” she said.
Yellin also says she’s happy to be part of the Palm Beach social scene and involved in so many events like the women she admired on reality shows decades ago.
“I came to Palm Beach and I fulfilled my dreams,” she said.
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