Bethenny Frankel felt “ambushed” during her December 2022 “Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen” appearance alongside fellow guest Jeff Lewis.
The “Real Housewives of New York City” alum went off on both Cohen and Lewis in Monday’s episode of her “ReWives” podcast, accusing the titular host and his close pal of being in cahoots to make her look bad.
During the fiery episode in question, the former “Flipping Out” star shaded a “defensive” Frankel’s “Real Housewives” recap podcast for being an unoriginal concept, while Cohen called her “hypocritical” since she had “been trashing the ‘Housewives’ publicly for the last three years.”
Frankel, 52, told her listeners that she doesn’t totally “blame” Lewis because “he, too, is talent on the show, trying to make a living, trying to promote what he’s promoting and [is] part of this machine.”
While Lewis, 53, was “asked very provocative questions,” she felt that Cohen, 55, was the one who really “came for” her — not just during that appearance, but also on other episodes of “WWHL,” on his radio show and “in many interviews.”
“As someone who thought they were his friend on some level, Andy didn’t come to me directly to tell me what he thought about the show that I was doing,” Frankel said, adding, “I’m entitled to talk about something that I was as much a part of as he was. He actually never got dirty; I actually got dirty in it.”
The former Bravolebrity believes that the Bravo honcho publicly sharing his thoughts about her podcast “boomeranged on him because it was [followed by] several weeks of bad PR for him.”
Additionally, she feels “he became a ‘Housewife'” in that moment because “he took the bait” and “said several things negative against” her.
“Andy Cohen has built a fortune and bought beach houses on the backs of like 180 women,” she added.
However, a source close to “WWHL” production tells Pvnew exclusively that since Frankel’s last time on the show, her publicist has pitched her to return as recently as this past April to promote her alcohol line.
During her rant, the Skinnygirl mogul also brought up the fact that her 13-year-old daughter, Bryn Hoppy — who was 12 at the time — was sitting backstage and got very upset that her mom was on the receiving end of a “firing squad.”
“After I returned from my segment, I came back in[to the green room], and Bryn was like, ‘Mama, I didn’t like that. He was mean to you,'” Frankel claimed, adding that the teenager “felt that everybody was ganging up on [her] and bullying [her].”
However, our production insider points out that the age requirement for “WWHL” attendance is 21 or older.
“That’s why she had to be in the green room,” they told us. “We’re not designing this show for 12- to 13-year-olds.”
Reps for Bravo did not immediately respond to Pvnew’s request for comment.
Interestingly enough, Frankel told her listeners just a few days after her “WWHL” appearance that both Cohen and Lewis called her to make amends after their confrontational episode.
“Gotta accept people’s apologies and be transparent and roll with the punches,” she said at the time.
Frankel has been at war with Bravo and its corporate NBCUniversal since early August amid her “reality reckoning” movement; however, she recently clarified that she is not suing the networks.
