Bethenny Frankel may not being suing Bravo — but she is still demanding change at the network.
On Monday, October 2, the former Real Housewives of New York City star, 52, posted a three-slide Instagram statement clarifying that she is “not hiring lawyers nor am I suing … I have directed wronged talent and production members to get legal representation and am fighting for systematic change in a damaged institution.”
Frankel’s clarification comes on the heels of her recent criticisms of Bravo. In August, she claimed that “everyone” at the network “likely despises me, including Andy Cohen, because it’s very personal and because they have to protect the realm,” she told Rob Lowe on his “Literally!” podcast, explaining that her idea to unionize reality TV was not well-received.
“It’s a very complicated thing I walked myself into whilst also burning bridges and seeming like I’m biting the hand that fed me, but I fed myself,” she said. “There are a lot of people who didn’t get fed.”
In her lengthy Instagram statement on Monday, Frankel continued to slam the inner workings of reality TV, claiming that “conflict and judgment” is what sells shows.
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It’s a phenomenon. Featuring women I have pretended to know within a system designed for judgment and conflict, I don’t know these women at all,” she continued. “Without the cameras rolling, however, Frankel explained that she began to “understand many of them” away from shows that she claims are “designed to bring out our worst.”
The TV personality began her reality career in 2005 when she was the runner-up on the NBC reality series The Apprentice: Martha Stewart. She later starred in The Real Housewives of New York City for eight seasons, from 2008 to 2010, and then again from 2015 to 2019.
Following her extensive reality career, Frankel said via a July Instagram video that reality TV workers should be part of the SAG-AFTRA negotiations for better contracts.
Frankel went on to claim that while she earned millions because of her reality TV career, little of the money came from appearing on RHONY. “I have never made a single residual,” she alleged. “So either I’m missing something or we’re getting screwed too.”
Ultimately, Frankel noted in Monday’s post, she was “good at the game” because she was “broke and desperate and wanted ‘it’ so badly.”
“This medium preys on and profits from the emotionally flawed and damaged,” she told her followers, rhetorically asking whether signing up for a reality TV show justifies “an environment designed to exploit women.”
In addition to her eight seasons on RHONY, Frankel’s spinoff series Bethenny Ever After aired three seasons from 2010 to 2012, and Bethenny & Fredrik aired one season in 2018. She also hosted two shows — Bethenny and The Big Shot With Bethenny — bearing her name.
Frankel concluded her Instagram statement by expressing gratitude for the opportunities she got from her years on TV and apologizing to the people she has “judged and criticized.”
“The reality reckoning, is true, real, and I’ll lead by example and evolve for myself and for my daughter [Bryn] This is not only a reckoning within an industry but one within myself,” she shared.
