By now you might think you know everything there is to know about real housewife and Skinnygirl creator Bethenny Frankel. She’s been in our living rooms in various forms of reality television for the better part of the past decade, and you either love her or you hate her. I love her. It’s hard not to. I love that she is bold, brazen, slightly inappropriate at the best times, and she’s utterly hilarious. I don’t much care for how she and the other housewives in any franchise like to scream and yell and bully one another, but that’s not my business. If you can get past their poor behavior in moments like those – and I do since I know that I occasionally have a bad moment in life that causes me to act out in a manner I’m not always proud of – you’ll see she’s hilarious.
I love her. Bethenny Frankel is one of my favorite housewives of all time, and I even adore her book “A Place of Yes,” so much that I’ve read it twice now. The point here is that we probably know everything about her by now, but sometimes we miss out on the basics. We know her childhood was wild, she’s not a huge fan of her family, and she’s not good with her ex-husband. But, there are a few things we did not previously know about her that might surprise us now.
She’s been married twice
We’ve all been so focused on how badly her marriage to Jason Hoppy ended that we forget that Bethenny Frankel was married back in the 90s. She married a friend of hers, Peter Sussman, back in 1996. She said she was too young, she didn’t marry him because she loved him; she married him because he loved her and she liked that.
She’s got divorce advice
When she and Jason Hoppy divorced, it happened so slowly. She makes it her business now to tell her friends to get out of their marriages as quickly as possible when they make the decision to divorce. She knows how hard it is to keep going, and she doesn’t want that for her friends.
She puts her daughter first all the time
There was a time when her daughter’s father accused her of using her baby as a prop, and she fought back. She loves her daughter, and she will always put her first. She knows what it’s like to grow up with a mother who isn’t there for her, and she’s not interested in any of that.
She worked for Saved By the Bell
Many years ago before she was a famous reality television star, she was working on her Hollywood dreams working as a production assistant on a little show we all know and loved. We had no idea she worked with Zack and Kelly and Screech, and we are kind of in love with the entire idea of her actually doing that.
She’s been friends with Kyle Richards forever
Bethenny Frankel and Kyle Richards are both housewives in different cities, but they did not become friendly through the franchise. They actually met a long time ago when they were much younger and both living in LA. They’ve been friends for decades, and they often show off their friendship on national television. They’ve always had one another’s backs.
She used to babysit some famous siblings
When she was younger, Bethenny Frankel did whatever she could to make a buck. She was a hustler, and she knew she needed to get by every month, so she took whatever jobs she could get. She used to be the babysitter for a very famous pair of sisters. When Paris Hilton and her sister Nicky were little, Bethenny Frankel used to be their babysitter.
She wants her daughter to make her own choices
Bethenny Frankel is raises her daughter how she sees fit, but she’s not opposed to her daughter deciding how she wants to grow up on her own. For instance, if she wants to eat meat growing up, her mother is okay with that even if she doesn’t eat it herself. Bethenny Frankel knows what it is like to have a mother who doesn’t care at all about her, so she wants her daughter to know she cares about her and respects her space and her own personal decisions despite the fact that she will be there for her no matter what she chooses.
She’s had a miscarriage
When my husband and I decided to have our second baby, we thought it would be a simple task. We’d gotten pregnant on our first try with our first daughter, and we didn’t have any reason to think it wouldn’t be the same the second time around. Unfortunately, I was pregnant the first time around that time, too, but I lost our baby in a miscarriage. I was pregnant on our first try after that, too, and once again lost the baby. I was pregnant on the first try after that, too, and have been blessed with our gorgeous second daughter. Bethenny Frankel and her ex-husband lost a baby to miscarriage, too, and she knows that it’s more prevalent that many of us know. It kind of takes having one to know just how many women have had one before.
She loves to paddleboard
We all do, really. It’s actually one of my favorite things to do anytime of the year. Being a Floridian who lives less than 7 miles from the Gulf and even closer to some of the most beautiful natural springs in the world, we get to do it year round. The only difference about me and Bethenny Frankel and I is that she can do yoga on her paddleboard. I haven’t tried it yet, but I’m dying to find a class where I can try it at least once. I might need to practice a bit more on solid ground, but I think I can do it.
She’s got health issues
It’s been a few years since Bethenny Frankel was diagnosed with uterine fibroids, and she spends some serious time caring for her illness. It’s sent her to the hospital more than once with issues that she couldn’t handle anymore. She has had surgery to deal with some of them, and others have been left alone and she has to manage theme every day. We do admire the fact that she doesn’t complain about them, though. She has them, she handles them and that’s just her life; there’s no point in complaining.
Photo by Getty Images
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