Bethenny Frankel is trying to unionize reality TV — and she’s made some enemies along the way.
The Real Housewives of New York alum appeared on Team Coco’s Literally! with Rob Lowe’s podcast this week to talk about her “reckoning” plan — and how it might affect her relationship with her former network.
“I can tell you with great certainty that everyone at Bravo probably despises me, including Andy Cohen, because it’s very personal and because they have to protect the kingdom,” she said on Thursday’s episode.
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The one time thing Bethenny Ever After? star, 52, is currently working with lawyers and is supported by SAG-AFTRA in her campaign for fair conditions for reality TV stars. “While we are talking about the union and what it would look like, [SAG-AFTRA] they also want to know in the short term what they can do to help,” she explained. “And I’ve been saying that there should be some language, some contractual language that goes into these contracts that everybody knows in reality has to be included.”
Just some of the issues Frankel ponders are “unrealistic NDAs,” which prohibit reality stars from sharing parts of the show — or their own lives — with the public. “It’s a very complicated thing that I got myself into when I was burning bridges and it felt like I was biting the hand that was feeding me, but I was feeding myself,” she said. “There are a lot of people who haven’t had enough.”
Bravo commented on Frankel’s NDA allegations in a statement obtained by PEOPLE: “Confidentiality clauses are standard practice in reality programming to prevent stories from being revealed before airing. They are not intended to prevent the discovery of illegal workplace actions by cast and crew, and were not implemented that way. To be clear: any current or former cast or crew are free to discuss and disclose any alleged wrongful workplace conduct, such as harassment or discrimination, or any other conduct they have reason to believe is inappropriate.”
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Frankel told Lowe, 59, that she advocates for people who “take those kinds of risks by being their own voice.” And she sees a potential trend as the SAG-AFTRA strike continues. “During this strike, they will be the ones everyone goes to for cheap labor.”
The Skinnygirl founder said she was a “shining example” of reality TV success, surrounded by “all the other victims whose lives were destroyed” by television standards.
WITH Game of Thrones reference, she added, “Instead of just counting my money and not pissing anybody off, I decided to, you know, shake this whole thing up and burn bridges and burn the kingdom, Khaleesi-style.”
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Frankel last appeared on RHONY 2019. Since then, she has appeared on Cohen’s several times Watch what’s happening live, but the pair are not necessarily friendly. The Bravo couple addressed their “feud” on a 2022 episode of his show — which boiled down to Cohen’s claims that Frankel had “trashed” the series as “toxic.”
“I wasn’t actually tearing the show down, I said it wasn’t for me, ’cause I think it was toxic — and I have a right not to want to be there, but still talk about it,” she said.
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