Bethenny Frankel

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, who converted to Judaism when the couple married. Her father left her mother when Frankel was four years old. When she was five, her mother married another horse trainer, John Parisella. Frankel describes her childhood as difficult. Her biological father stopped supporting the family and 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 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, and New York University.

Career

Bethenny worked as a production assistant on the set of Saved by the Bell.

In 2005, Frankel was a contestant on The Apprentice: Martha Stewart, a reality competition series, and was one of two finalists. 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.

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 and 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 not endorsed 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."

Bethenny

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. Fox network continued to air repeats of the show in its time slot until September 2014.

Causes

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, and gave birth to a daughter, Bryn, in May of the same year. 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 her personal time, Frankel participates in adult mentoring program ageless wonders where she mentors New York based consultants Jeremy Thomas and Ramy Abouseif.