Bethenny Frankel

### Occupation

Television Personality, Businesswoman, Author, Philanthropist and Talk Show Host

### Spouse(s)

Peter Sussman (1996-1997)
 Jason Hoppy (2010-2021)

### Children

1

**Bethenny Robyn Frankel** (born November 4, 1970) is an American television personality, businesswoman, author, philanthropist and talk show host. She is best known for starring in the Bravo reality series The Real Housewives of New York City.

## Early Life

Frankel was born in New York to parents Robert J. Frankel and Bernadette Birk. Her parents divorced when she was four years old and her mother later re-married, John Parisella. She has previously described her childhood as difficult; her mother was an alcoholic and she frequently witnessed domestic violence.

She attended multiple schools as a child before attending boarding school. She graduated from Pine Crest School in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. She then attended the Natural Gourmet Institute, Boston University and New York University where she graduated with a degree in Psychology and Communications.

## Career

Frankel moved to Los Angeles in 1992 with hopes of being an actress. While she landed some small acting roles, she worked as a nanny to Paris Hilton and a personal assistant to Jerry and Linda Bruckheimer. During this time, Frankel also worked as a production assistant on the set of Saved by the Bell. Frankel used these connections to start her first company, called "In Any Event", a party-planning business, which was short-lived. Her next entrepreneurial enterprise was re-selling pashmina scarves that she bought wholesale from an Indian manufacturer.

In 2003, Frankel started a baking business called "BethennyBakes", focusing on "healthy" cookies and meal delivery in New York City, which was featured on The Apprentice: Martha Stewart, a reality competition series, in 2005. Frankel was one of two finalists on The Apprentice: Martha Stewart. The company, BethennyBakes, later went out of business in 2006, but Frankel remained a spokesperson for Pepperidge Farms low-calorie line.

After departing The Real Housewives, she starred in the Bravo reality series Bethenny Getting Married? (later retitled Bethenny Ever After), which documented her engagement and marriage to Jason Hoppy as well as the birth of their daughter. The series premiere became Bravo's highest-rated one at the time, garnering 2.1 million viewers.

In November 2010, she competed in the reality competition series Skating with the Stars and finished in second place.

Frankel taped the pilot of a potential talk show in June 2011. The syndicated daytime talk show, eponymously titled Bethenny, premiered in September 2013. It was canceled in February 2014 after one season. In March 2019, Deadline Hollywood reported that Frankel had signed a deal with MGM Television and the company's chairman, Mark Burnett, to produce and star in future unscripted television projects. Frankel will star in an upcoming HBO Max reality competition series titled The Big Shot with Bethenny, which she will also produce alongside Burnett. The series is set to feature "aspiring business moguls compete for a job on Frankel's executive team."

### Skinnygirl

In March 2009, Frankel's book, Naturally Thin: Unleash Your SkinnyGirl and Free Yourself from a Lifetime of Dieting, was published and The SkinnyGirl Dish: Easy Recipes for Your Naturally Thin Life, was published in December. She created an exercise DVD, Body by Bethenny, in spring 2010 and an audiobook, The Skinnygirl Rules, which summarised her two prior books. In 2011, Frankel published, A Place of Yes: 10 Rules for Getting Everything You Want Out of Life and in December 2012, published the novel Skinnydipping.

Frankel created a pre-packaged margarita line, named Skinnygirl Margarita, in 2009, which led to Frankel founding the company Skinnygirl and the cocktail line, Skinnygirl Cocktails. The company has since created products such as "candy, deli meat, sweeteners, popcorn, salad dressings, shapewear and most recently, jeans and apparel." She sold the cocktail line to Beam Global for $120 million in 2011.

### The Real Housewives of New York City

In 2008, Bethenny joined the cast of the Bravo reality television series for the first season. She appeared in the first three seasons before departing the series. She then returned as a full-time housewife for Season 7. She then appeared in Season 8, 9, 10 and 11 but left again after this.

#### **RHONY Taglines**

* Season 1, 2 and 3 - "New York City is my playground."
* Season 7 - "I'm not a housewife but I am real."
* Season 8 - "If you can't handle the truth, you can't handle me."
* Season 9 - "If you're gonna take a shot at this B you better not miss."
* Season 10 - "It's great to be successful but it's even better to be strong."
* Season 11 - "When life gives me limes I make margaritas."

## Personal Life

### Marriages and Children

Frankel has been married twice. She married her first husband, entertainment executive Peter Sussman in 1996. The couple got divorced in 1997.

She married her second husband, pharmaceutical sales executive Jason Hoppy in 2010 and together they have one daughter, Bryn (born May 8, 2010). The couple separated in 2012 but was not finalised until 2021.

She is now engaged to film producer Paul Bernon.

### Philanthropy

Frankel is the founder of BStrong, a disaster relief organisation. In 2017, the organisation raised $300,000 in donations and supplies for the victims of Hurricane Harvey, after which Frankel visited Houston, Texas to distribute these items. In the same year, Frankel travelled to Mexico City and Jojutla, Mexico following the Puebla earthquake to raise awareness for the disaster's recovery efforts, for which BStrong also raised $150,000. Also in the same year, Frankel chartered four planes to Puerto Rico and distributed medical supplies, food, water and hygiene products in assisting with Hurricane Maria relief efforts. In light of the COVID-19 pandemic, BStrong raised funds and delivered personal protective equipment such as masks, goggles, gowns and sheets to hospitals in the U.S.

Frankel posed nude for a PETA billboard in September 2009.

### Health Issues

Frankel has a severe fish allergy and was hospitalised in December 2018 after consuming soup that contained fish. She has since demanded that airlines stop serving fish stating that it is a hazard to passengers with fish allergies to be in the presence of cooked seafood in an enclosed commercial airline jet.

## Family

**Husbands and Partners**

* Peter Sussman (Ex-husband; 1996-1997)
* Jason Hoppy (Ex-husband; 2010-2021)

**Children**

* Bryn Hoppy

**Parents**

* Robert J. Frankel
* Bernadette Birk
* John Parisella (Stepfather)

## Bibliography

* Naturally Thin: Unleash Your SkinnyGirl and Free Yourself from a Lifetime of Dieting - (March 1, 2009)
* The Skinnygirl Dish: Easy Recipes for Your Naturally Thin Life - (December 29, 2009)
* Body by Bethenny: Body-sculpting Workouts to Unleash Your SkinnyGirl - (2011)
* A Place of Yes: 10 Rules for Getting Everything You Want Out of Life - (January 1, 2012)
* Skinnydipping: A Novel - (December 4, 2012)
* Skinnygirl Solutions: Simple Ideas, Extraordinary Results - (May 1, 2014)
* Cookie Meets Peanut - (January 29, 2015)
* Skinnygirl Cocktails: 100 Fabulous and Flirty Cocktail Recipes and Party Foods for Any Occasion, Without the Guilt - (December 1, 2014)
* I Suck at Relationships So You Don't Have To: 10 Rules for Not Screwing Up Your Happily Ever After - (April 21, 2016)