Bethenny Frankel
Bethenny Frankel
Born/Date of Birth: November 4, 1970
Place of Birth: New York City, New York, United States
Education: Boston University, New York University (BA)
Height: 1.7 m
Occupation: Television personality, talk show host,entrepreneur,author
Spouse(s): Peter Sussman(m. 1996; div. 1997), Jason Hoppy (m. 2010; div. 2016)
Children: Bryn Hoppy
Parent(s): Robert J. Frankel (father)
Website: bethenny.com
Bethenny Frankel (born November 4, 1970) is an American reality television personality, entrepreneur, and author. She was a contestant on the reality TV game show The Apprentice: Martha Stewart, in which she was the runner-up, in 2005. Frankel received wider notice after being cast on the Bravo reality television series The Real Housewives of New York City; she has starred in eight of its eleven seasons since it premiered in 2008. She received her own spin-off series Bethenny Ever After (2010–12), Bethenny & Fredrik (2018), and the talk show Bethenny (2013–14).
Outside of her work in reality television, Frankel is the founder of the Skinnygirl lifestyle brand and the author of four self-help books. Her "B Strong" program became active in disaster relief efforts in 2017.
Early life
Frankel is the only child of Robert J. Frankel, a horse trainer, and Bernadette Birk, an interior designer. Her father was Jewish and her mother was a Roman Catholic of Welsh descent. Her father left her mother when Frankel was four years old. When she was five, her mother married horse trainer, John Parisella, who is of the Catholic faith. Frankel describes her childhood as difficult. Her mother, Frankel says, "was always drinking" and often argued violently with her stepfather.
Frankel said she moved many times and attended multiple schools before going to boarding school. Frankel attended Catholic schools as a girl, and she graduated in 1988 from the Pine Crest School in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, where she lived on campus. She attended the Natural Gourmet Institute in New York City, Boston University for two years, and graduated with a degree in psychology and communications from New York University.
Career
Television & Early Companies
In 1992, Frankel moved to Los Angeles 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 Bruckheimer 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.
In 2008, Frankel was selected for the reality TV series The Real Housewives of New York City. In June 2010, Frankel starred in the Bravo reality TV show Bethenny Getting Married?, which documented her engagement and marriage to Jason Hoppy, and the birth of their daughter. At the time of its premiere, the series was the highest rated of any series in Bravo's history. In September 2010, Frankel announced that for personal reasons she would not be returning to The Real Housewives of New York City for its fourth season. However, following months of speculation, it was confirmed on October 20, 2014, that Bethenny would return to the cast for the seventh season of the show as a main housewife after three seasons absent.
Discussion of Frankel as a host for a talk show were initiated in 2011 and revived in 2012. The Bethenny show premiered on September 9, 2013, and was canceled on February 14, 2014, airing repeats until the end of the television season. In August 2019, just days before filming started on the twelve season of The Real Housewives of New York City, Frankel announced she was not going to return to focus on her personal life.
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 audio book, The Skinnygirl Rules, which summarized 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 the Skinnygirl cocktail company in April 2011. Skinny Girl Margarita mix was a part of this venture with display materials made by Paige Packaging Inc. She later sold the company to Fortune Brands' Beam Global (now a part of Suntory) for an estimated $100 million.
In May 2017, Bethenny celebrated the Midwest launch of Skinnygirl Market Fresh Deli. It is a line of pre-packaged lunch meat that is free from preservatives and certified by the American Heart Association for containing lower levels of sodium and fat. Skinnygirl Market Fresh Deli is also a supporter of Bethenny's program, B-Strong: Find Your Yes, which is a division of Dress for Success. The program provides a "multi-layered support system, resources and financial assistance for women coping with crisis situations."
Causes
Her B Strong program for women and their families in crisis works with the national disaster relief charity Delivering Good to provide people affected by the hurricanes of 2017 with gift cards, bank cards, and critical supplies. Frankel and her team helped people who survived natural disasters in Puerto Rico, Houston, Mexico City.
Frankel posed nude for a PETA billboard in September 2009.
Personal life
Frankel married entertainment industry executive Peter Sussman in 1996 and divorced him in 1997. She married pharmaceutical sales executive Jason Hoppy in March 2010. They have one daughter. Frankel separated from Hoppy in December 2012 and filed for divorce in January 2013. A custody agreement was finalized in June 2014, but property division negotiations were still ongoing. The divorce was finalized in July 2016, nearly four years after the couple separated. In December 2017, she sued for full custody of their daughter. In August 2019, Page Six revealed that Frankel and Hoppy are still legally married.
Frankel has a severe fish allergy and was hospitalized in December 2018 after consuming soup that contained fish. She was hospitalized at Newton-Wellesley Hospital in Newton, Massachusetts. 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.
