Bethenny Frankel Responds To Fans Begging For Her Return To ‘RHONY’
Bethenny Frankel isn’t interested in returning to the Real Housewives of New York City, despite many fans calling for her return.
The former Bravoleb told Fortune in a recent interview that she had no desire to reclaim her apple, but is “humbled by the threads and comments” urging her to come back to the hit series.
“I honestly am stunned,” she said. “I haven’t been watching. I saw the first episode and part of another one, so I don’t know what’s going on there. There’s a lot of talk about what’s going on there, and I read comments that people say to me, ‘Please come back,’ and ‘Please save the show.’ It’s all flattering, and I wish the girls well. I’m doing other things though, and I just don’t know how that really would fit into my life as is.”
The Skinnygirl mogul left the Bravo series in August 2019, to focus on family and other projects after a contract dispute could not be resolved. Bethenny Frankel , 49, was a RHONY original and a full-time cast member until Season 4. She returned for Season 7 and left at the end of Season 11.
“Everyone thinks I left because of money. I wasn’t leaving because of money, I was staying because of money,” Bethenny commented in February. “It no longer became this platform to promote my business, because I had done that, and there was more promoting sort of new and questionable businesses than the legitimate ones at this point, if that makes any sense.”
A source told Page Six in April that the former reality star “threw a fit” after a producer said that the show could succeed without her. She also reportedly blocked the producer from her phone.
Bethenny Frankel revealed that Bravo bigwig, Andy Cohen, encouraged her to launch her own podcast.
“He gets credit, I always like to give credit — was the one who was like, ‘Oh, my God, you need to do a podcast. It’s what you’re meant to do, born to do. I’m good, but you’re better,’” she said. “I don’t agree with that, but I don’t listen to him on the radio, so I wouldn’t even know. And I don’t mean that as a negative thing; I just don’t listen to a ton of radio or podcasts. So he urged me.”
“To everyone that I really respect, I said, ‘I’m going to say a lot of crazy stuff that I feel,’” Bethenny Frankel added. “And they said it didn’t matter. This is all after I had signed on — in the beginning I didn’t ask anyone’s opinion. When I decided to do a podcast, I just decided to do a podcast. And I said, ‘Holy s–t, what are my finances, what is my 401(k), because I know that this could be the end.’ And I mean that from the bottom of my heart. I’m well aware that I’m gonna say several things that are going to be very problematic for people. But I can’t do it if I’m not gonna do it. And I’m not saying that for the sake of shock value or anything. It’s just my natural opinions are going to come through.”
Watch the Real Housewives of New York City, Thursday nights at 9 pm, ET, on Bravo.
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