When Andy asked Bethenny about her failed talk show, she said,
“I can’t talk about the talk show as a negative experience. That’s not how I feel about it. That would be ungrateful, it was an amazing opportunity and there were so many great people that worked there. I don’t think back like, ‘that was a failure.’ I didn’t enjoy being a talk show host. I don’t think it’s what I should be doing and I think if you don’t love what you do, you’re not going to be good at. I just didn’t feel good… I felt like I couldn’t breathe… also because of what was going on with me personally. Everybody wants a talk show, and everybody thinks it’s so easy, particularly Housewives all want a talk show, and it’s not easy.”
Next, Andy asked Frankel about her failed marriage to Jason Hoppy. “As far as my personal life do I find it to be a failure? I’ve been through some pretty negative stuff and what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger,” Bethenny said. “You’re catching me on the back nine right now. I wouldn’t have been able to do the show a year and a half ago, I would have not been enjoyable for anyone.”
On the current status of her marriage, Bethenny revealed, “I am not divorced. It’s a long time.”
Bethenny also discussed living under one roof with Jason. “I don’t want to come in here and start trashing the situation, because it’s not good for anyone. It doesn’t help anyone and my daughter is the most important thing and I made a decision, especially going through and doing all this different press and being in the public eye, to not dive into the mud,” she said. “I don’t know where I live. I live in a lot of different places… you’ll have to watch the show. I may be sleeping here in your office tonight.”
Was there one thing specifically that tore her marriage apart? “I write in my book about mutual respect and I think that people should be in relationships with people that really accept them and understand them,” Frankel says. “Sheryl Sandberg wrote that book Lean In about the power struggle between men and women and how hard it is when the woman is the bread winner. I think fame and attention and money does not bring out the best in everybody. I think that money, in many ways, is the root of all evil.”
So what has Frankel learned from her marriage? “I have learned that you need to go with your gut,” she reveals. “As smart as I am in business… it’s that I’ve learned more from my mistakes than my successes. You have the biological clock and you want things to be a certain way and you have this idea of what everything is supposed to be, but relationships are really hard and you have to go with your gut because it’s the best shot you have. At business I’m so precise and matters of the heart are not like that. There are signs that you see along the way in your life in relationships and we brush them under the rug. Cracks become craters. Little things that you see in your relationships, later on you’re like, ‘wow.’ It’s a lot about trying to drink a situation pretty… and trust me, I’m good at that.”
Would she get married again on TV? “Absolutely not,” Frankel insisted. “If anyone wanted to marry me on television I would run like a thief in the night. That is not a good sign.”
Does she still believe in marriage? “I will never get legally married again,” Bethenny reveals. “It doesn’t mean that I would not commit to someone… I’m not jaded, I think there are amazing guys out there. I will never EVER be legally married again. Marriage is the Hotel California. You can check out anytime, but you can never leave.”
On her return to Housewives. “I don’t think that people really know me anymore,” Bethenny said when asked why she decided to return to the show now. “I think that people have read so many things about me and that’s really most of what they know and even doing a talk show, it’s very controlled. There was no cursing… and I felt like I was directing traffic. I didn’t realize how liberating this is to be able to just be on reality television in this way and just kind of be exactly who you are. I missed the connection between myself and the viewers and going through this journey with them. I’ve been through so many amazing things in my life with them.”
What did Frankel think of Carole Radziwill? “I get along with her well,” Bethenny dishes. “I had a preconceived notion about Carole and some of that is still true, but I was still surprised. I thought watching her first season of the show she acted like someone just dropped her into the show. She dated George Clooney and she was a Princess and whatever and people are all so crazy.”
What about Heather Thomson? “Heather on the show worked my nerves a little,” she admits. “Heather really enjoys the art of therapy and analyzing people and getting into your grill.”
Has Frankel been in contact with her former co-star Jill Zarin? “I saw Jill so briefly this summer in the Hamptons and Bobby,” Bethenny said. “It was just small talk but no ill-will, I wish her the best. That’s the beauty of with age comes wisdom and it’s not so important. The other stuff I’ve gone through is so much more gigantic, I can’t really think about that kind of stuff.”
What does Bethenny think about Teresa Giudice’s prison sentence? “I think it started years ago when I was watching the show with these women and I used to blog for somebody,” Bethenny explains of how her rift with Giudice began. “And you write what you see and there’s a person that’s reading what you’re writing. I think it started a thing and later on she would talk about me and it became kind of like a real cowardly, not face-to-face battle. The only thing I can think of her going away is being a mother. She’s a mother and to be away from her kids? I can’t think of something worse. It’s always amazing to me the person that would go on reality television with skeletons in their closet.”
Transcript courtesy of All Things Real Housewives
Photo/Video Credit: Bravo