Gail Rudnick isn’t one to carry again.
I’d been sitting with the glamorous grandma for lower than two minutes when she leaned ahead, held my gaze, and gave me her signature model of straight-to-the-point — and really unfiltered — recommendation.
“Transfer the place you possibly can afford!” the 83-year-old bluntly declared after I began to complain about having a roommate. “It’s a must to reside in your earnings, you possibly can’t reside in your aspirations!”
Touché certainly.
But in addition, listening to the arduous fact was wildly refreshing, and I all of a sudden felt compelled to ask Rudnick — or Grandma Gail as she is extra affectionately recognized by over one million social media followers — for suggestions on all the pieces, from the size of my beard to the scale of my sweater.
This was a girl who may assist type my whole life out.
Now, she might help type yours out, too.
Alongside along with her granddaughter, Kimberly Murstein, 29, who’s the extra mellow counterpart to her gregarious grandma, Rudnick will present her no-nonsense insights to readers and viewers each Tuesday in an unique new column for The Put up titled “Excuse My Recommendation.”
“The worst piece of recommendation is that all the pieces’s going to be good,” Rudnick declared, saying life and love are not often simple and sometimes messy.
Removed from providing up easy, syrupy options, the native New Yorkers will hash out every difficulty from their differing views to inform the tough-love fact — and also you’ll thank them for it.
From household feuds to friendship fallouts, cash, marriage and intercourse, there’s no subject too taboo to sort out. They’ll offer you their recommendation on all the pieces.
A dynamic duo
For the previous 5 years, Rudnick and Murstein have been meting out opinions on their wildly fashionable podcast “Excuse My Grandma.”
Murstein began the podcast after shifting in along with her grandmother throughout the COVID pandemic, realizing that their comedian disagreements brought on by generational variations would resonate with a large viewers.
“After we first began, Grandma was like, ‘No one is aware of what an influencer is. No one cares a couple of podcast. ‘ I’m like, ‘Belief me, they do,’” Murstein recalled.
It seems she was appropriate.
Their related TikTok and Instagram channels, which collectively boast multiple million followers, have turned the 2 into bona fide social media celebrities.
Now, with their new Put up column, they’re catapulting into a brand new stratosphere.
“I’ve by no means been busier,” Rudnick, who is healthier often known as Grandma Gail, advised The Put up. “Who would have thought that, at my age, I’d be so busy? However I adore it, I actually do. It’s fabulous.”
Much less agony aunt and extra glam gran, Rudnick is usually a foil for her granddaughter on the podcast and of their viral movies.
The octogenarian is a straight-talking pragmatist who abides by old-school guidelines and values. Murstein, in the meantime, is a Gen Z romantic idealist who grew up in a world the place all the pieces — from careers to relationships — was much more versatile and fewer outlined.
“It’s a must to be sensible,” Rudnick implored. “Sadly, relationships are primarily based on cash, intercourse and household. All these great issues that you just see on a rom-com, that’s ridiculous since you solely have one date or two dates, after which that’s over.”
Rudnick sees her granddaughter as “an idealist” with “her head within the clouds.”
“And I adore it,” Murstein clapped again. “I’m an optimist, I’m a romantic. I consider you need to have chemistry, and I feel that by no means dies.”
“Properly, it does get a bit of dim,” Rudnick retorted,
Regardless of the duo’s differing views, the pair typically find yourself reaching mutual floor in the case of giving recommendation.
Due to this fact, they’re offering suggestions that’s not solely complementary and customary sense, however related for readers and viewers of all ages and backgrounds.
Household first
Rudnick, who was raised in Westchester, moved to Manhattan after getting married within the mid-Sixties. She spent a long time on the Higher East Facet, along with her prolonged household all dwelling shut by.
At one level, her personal mom lived throughout the road, whereas her grown-up daughter (Murstein’s mother) moved to a different house across the nook.
“We had three corners of the block,” Rudnick advised The Put up. “We’d elevate the curtain within the morning and wave and everyone knew when everyone else was up.”
Murstein was born in 1996 and joined her mother, grandma and great-grandma for adventures on the Higher East Facet.
“It was undoubtedly the 4 of us for a bit,” Murstein recalled, saying she has clear recollections of her great-grandma, who died simply earlier than her bat mitzvah in 2009.
“She handed away once I was 13, so I’ve numerous recollections of her,” she said.
“We used to go down the road all collectively,” Rudnick recalled. “It was wonderful. Everyone within the neighborhood knew us, and Kim went to highschool a few blocks from the place she grew up. New York has been the middle of our lives.”
Whereas she’s since relocated to Palm Seashore, Florida, the glam gran has saved her glitzy Higher East Facet model.
At a current photoshoot for the brand new column, the previous Park Avenue resident rocked a classy sweater from Dior and footwear from Chanel. She lugged an alternate outfit in her hefty Hermes Birkin bag, which additionally has a starring position within the “Excuse My Recommendation” movies.
Grandma Gail and Kim go international
In 2020, Murstein, who graduated from Cornell, was working as a producer and on-air reporter for streaming community Cheddar TV.
Amid the COVID pandemic, she determined to flee New York Metropolis to stick with Rudnick in Palm Seashore. There, the thought of “Excuse My Grandma” was born.
Whereas Grandma Gail had all the time been in Murstein’s enterprise, giving her recommendation on what to put on and who up to now, their closeness reached a complete new degree.
“I used to be an grownup occurring dates and assembly up with associates and coming again late and all of the issues that she has by no means actually been concerned in earlier than,” Murstein defined. “So we had that new expertise, and particularly with relationship, she was giving her two cents whether or not I wished it or not. So I made a decision we should always begin a podcast collectively and have these conversations.”
“Excuse My Grandma” debuted in 2021 and have become an immediate hit, buoyed by the pair’s playful ribbing of one another on social media.
“I by no means, by no means seemed again,” Murstein says of coming into public life along with her grandma by her aspect. ”I used to be so completely happy that I made that call.”
Whereas Rudnick spent years advising her granddaughter about her numerous romances, Murstein is now in a cheerful relationship and can quickly transfer in along with her beau.
However Rudnick has some blunt recommendation for the younger lovebirds.
“Now you’re going to should take out the rubbish, make a plan financially, and do all that [unromantic] stuff that {couples} do,” she deadpanned. “So nothing is about in stone. It’s a must to see the way it works out.”
Rudnick says Murstein ought to know sooner fairly than later whether or not her boyfriend is suitable for the long-term, saying there’s no level in ready years to both tie the knot or inevitably name it quits.
“My recommendation for sharing an area? Make it fast and get married,” she quipped.
For her half, Grandma Gail has been married to her husband for 62 years, with the key to a cheerful relationship surprisingly easy.
“Household is the core,” she declared.
New gig, New York Put up
Get able to learn and watch Rudnick and Murstein’s takes each Tuesday in “Excuse My Recommendation” — on-line, and on The New York Put up’s social media channels.
Within the movies and column, the duo will debate their differing opinions earlier than coming to the most effective conclusion.
We posed some hypothetical inquiries to the twosome to heat them up forward of Tuesday’s debut.
First up: What’s one of the best ways to fulfill a romantic curiosity?
“I feel I nonetheless just like the fix-ups,” Rudnick said. “Household and pal fix-ups. I’m nonetheless nervous with who you’re assembly on these apps.”
Murstein clapped again, saying swiping is solely the truth for a lot of singles in 2026.
“I used to be such an apps individual,” she defined. “I do know there’s like a stigma, but it surely’s completely tremendous. That is the best way issues are.”
Rudnick conceded that the web, when used judiciously, may work. Murstein, who was mounted up by associates along with her present boyfriend, additionally agreed that assembly by mutuals has its worth.
Secondly: Who ought to break up the invoice on a date?
“Whoever makes extra money ought to pay,” Rudnick declared, saying gender shouldn’t come into the equation.
Murstein wasn’t so positive. “Why ought to somebody get penalized for making extra money?” she retorted.
After forwards and backwards, the 2 concluded that communication was key and that every couple ought to make relationship guidelines that work for them.
However Rudnick couldn’t resist a delicate dig at her granddaughter earlier than shifting on to the following query.
“If we saved shopping for these lottery tickets and also you gained $1 billion, you need to pay for me,” she quipped.
Have romantic points? Roommate points? Cash points? Grandma Gail Rudnick and her granddaughter, Kim Murstein, are right here to repair your mess — with a loving however no-nonsense contact! Head to nypost.com/ema and drop them a observe about what you want sorted.
