Bethenny Frankel is doing better than ever.
“I am in a very, very serious transformation. And I’ve never said this before, so it’s not like I’m one of those people that is always like, ‘I’m the happiest I’ve ever been.’ I’ve never heard me say that, I don’t think,” Frankel, 53, exclusively told Us Weekly on Tuesday, June 11, while promoting her upcoming Lifetime original movie, Danger in the Dorm, and the release of her second 2023 vintage Rosé from Forever Young wine.
“I have had a profoundly transformative experience after my divorce [from Jason Hoppy], [my self-titled] YouTube series [and] my mother’s passing,” Frankel continued. “I am in the deepest transformation and I am in shock at how happy I am. I’ve never felt like this, it’s wild. I’m really, really happy [and] at peace. … I’m really happy emotionally.”
Frankel, who split from ex-fiancé Paul Bernon in May, also noted that she is “perfectly happy being alone,” which she thinks has had a positive effect on her 14-year-old daughter, Bryn, whom she shares with Hoppy, 53. (Frankel filed for divorce from Hoppy in 2013 after three years of marriage and the exes finalized their split in 2021.)
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“I will say, ‘Oh, are you going to invite a couple of girls and a couple of boys?’ [And Bryn will] say, ‘I just want to be with the girls this weekend,’ which is so cute,” she said. “And I love that because I like that she’s not boy-crazy or desperate. But again, she sees that in me. … I like being alone.”
Frankel was candid about her own mom’s shortcomings when she announced her death via Instagram in April, writing that she was “not equipped to be a mother” despite loving her and teaching her about “food, wit, culture and strength.” Although her own upbringing was complicated, Frankel told Us that parenting has come “naturally” to her.
“It’s something that I wasn’t even necessarily really looking for. I never had baby fever. I don’t particularly love all kids. I just had my daughter, clicked in, connected and felt like I knew where I was supposed to be,” she explained. “I knew what I was supposed to be doing. It feels like I’m confident and secure in it the way that I am in business. I know what to do, I know the decisions to make.”
Bethenny Frankel has a special bond with her and ex Jason Hoppy’s daughter, Bryn, often sharing their mother-daughter milestones. The Real Housewives of New York City alum gave birth to her daughter in May 2010, two years before she and Hoppy split. After years of a tumultuous custody battle, Frankel was awarded full legal custody […]
Frankel thinks that sense of confidence, “particularly as it pertains to business,” is something that her critics fail to understand about her.
“Many people criticize a lot of the ways that I’m expressing myself now, I think because they don’t know the way my chess board works, because I don’t share my chess moves with people,” she said. “But I’ve always got a plan. I always know exactly what I’m doing and why I’m doing it.”
Frankel’s recent chess moves include a foray into acting for Danger in the Dorm. The film, which premieres on Lifetime Sunday, June 16, is based on the true story of the same name by crime novelist Ann Rule.
“I saw the whole experience as an adventure,” Frankel told Us about her role as concerned mother Joanne, who tries to get her daughter Kathleen (Clara Alexandrova) to return home from school after another student is murdered.
“I was able to laugh, not at the amazing opportunity I was given, but kind of at the fact that at this age I was being offered a dramatic role about a murder,” she explained. “But everything I do, whether I’m joking about it or not, I take seriously. I don’t ever waste anyone else’s time. I’m a hard worker. I’m on time. … I think also part of me was self-deprecating because I was in shock at the fact that Lifetime would give me that kind of a role. I didn’t understand their choice.”
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Despite her doubts, Frankel surpassed her own expectations for herself.
“I think I rose to the occasion. I loved the role, and when it mattered, I mustered it up,” she said. “My daughter, who would criticize me — not in a rude way but she would tell me [if I did badly] — she was like, ‘Mama, you were good.’ … So, I think I stuck the landing.”
In addition to her newly discovered acting chops, Frankel is also proud of her wine brand Forever Young, which recently debuted its second bottle of rosé.
“It’s very elite. It’s a very sophisticated wine,” she told Us. “The taste is impeccable, the bottle is, the name is, and it’s the spirit of the summer, just to be forever young. Everyone wants to feel young during the summer, so I really love it so much.”
Danger in the Dorm premieres on Lifetime Sunday, June 16, at 8 p.m. ET.
With reporting by Christina Garibaldi
