Bethenny Frankel was reportedly upset after learning her former Real Housewives of New York City producer, Barry Bernstein, suggested she wasn’t needed on the show during a panel event at BravoCon last year.
According to a new report, Bethenny, who quit her role on the Bravo reality series in August of last year after appearing on eight of the show’s 12 seasons, threw a fit after Barry said her co-stars “don’t need” her to succeed. She ultimately chose to block Barry from contacting her.
“She’s jealous [because] she’s not on still. She made a rash decision [to leave] and she misses the limelight of it all,” a production insider revealed to Page Six on April 20. “And she can’t believe it will be as successful without her and may be better.”
During the November 2019 event in New York City, Barry pointed out that the RHONY cast saw three successful seasons years ago after Bethenny left the series to pursue her own reality spinoff, Bethenny Ever After, and her short-lived talk show, Bethenny.
“Bethenny of course is Bethenny. We did three seasons without her in the middle, it was successful, a lot of fun, some of the best trips,” Barry explained. “And the ladies, they’ve done this for a while, and they don’t need Bethenny. I think this season we’re really excited to shine that.”
Following the comment, the insider said Bethenny was “very angry.”
“Bethenny got wind of it, got very angry and blocked [Barry] from her phone,” the source explained.
As fans may have heard, Bethenny dissed RHONY during an appearance on Extra TV earlier this month. She suggested the ratings were down because the series wasn’t inspiring to viewers.
“The ratings overall in television have never been higher and perhaps the ratings on Real Housewives aren’t doing well because it’s sort of not maybe the content that is inspiring people to do what they need to do right now,” she shared.
The Real Housewives of New York City season 12 airs Thursdays at 9 p.m. on Bravo.
Photos Credit: JOHN NACION/startraksphoto.com, Bravo
