Bethenny Frankel is clarifying why she is taking up the reality TV fight with her former employer NBC, attempting to explain her issues with the industry she once championed in a new social media post.
“Many of you will say that I don’t owe you an explanation for this reality reckoning but I would like to give one anyway,” she said in a TikTok video posted just yesterday (Sunday, August 6).
Taking on Bravo and NBC directly, the former Real Housewives of New York City star hit back at claims she is doing so for nefarious reasons. “So, there are people who say that I have been very successful because of this medium,” she said, referencing her many shows on the network. “That is entirely true and most of the work was done myself and I certainly have taken many, many hits as a result and I’ve been significantly more successful since I left and there have been hundreds of people who have gone through this machine that have not been as successful as I have in all areas of business and philanthropy.”
Bethenny Frankel seems to take credit for a certain type of woman being cast on the Real Housewives shows over the years, saying she set the benchmark for what to look for. “I would have gotten somewhere else on my own and I definitely helped the medium be successful, too,” she said. “A different level of person and goal set came through since I paved the way.”
The RHONY star also hit back at allegations that reality TV stars know what they are up against when signing on the dotted line. “”Some of you say that ‘people,’ overall, ‘sign up for this and they get what they deserve.’ This entire systemic change and systemic problem is not just about talent, it’s not about people who have made millions of dollars,” she explained. “It’s about production, it’s about people that are weak that have been used and discarded, it’s about manipulated contracts. It’s an entire sphere and space in entertainment that has gotten away with manipulation and exploitation without compensation.”
“I am one person who has had my content all over the world without me even realizing the arms and legs of it, without being compensated,” she continued. “That is one micro aspect of this entire issue. It’s workplace conditions, it’s everything from sexual exploitation, to race… we have learned so much since Me Too and Black Lives Matter and it being 2023 and having so much information at our fingertips.”
In the video, Bethenny seems to think her fight against NBC will result in the end of reality TV. “The same things that people used to get away with in those areas people don’t get away with anymore and reality tv is a shining, glaring example of that,” she said. “[Reality TV] is the wild wild west and people do exactly what they want because there is no union and there are no rules and it is a faulty environment and there has been no governor, no principal, saying ‘This cannot be correct.'”
“I have seen it, everyone on reality TV has experienced and you cannot know what it’s like until you’ve gone through it. It’s over now,” she stated in the video which has almost 500 comments on TikTok. “It will never be the same because the things that people and money and power and these giant, multi-billionaire corporations have gotten away with.”
She ended the video with one final warning to fans of the reality TV genre: “You will soon understand and it will give you clarity and you will realize that it’s a massive, massive problem and it’s a reckoning that’s really deserved,” she said. “It’s cool until it’s not and it literally is over. There’s a reason why I left and have not gone back.”
Bethenny vs. Bravo
As previously reported on TVDeets.com, Bethenny Frankel’s attorneys Bryan Freedman and Mark Geragos sent a legal letter to NBC’s counsel notifying them of the many claims of “grotesque and depraved mistreatment” coming from a group of “current and former cast and crew members” of its many Bravo, E! and CNBC shows.
The letter included some pretty shocking allegations against the organization:
- Deliberate attempts to manufacture mental instability by plying cast members with alcohol while depriving them of food and sleep
- Denying mental health treatment to cast members displaying obvious and alarming signs of mental deterioration
- Exploiting minors for uncompensated and sometimes long-term appearances on NBC reality TV shows
- Distributing and/or condoning the distribution of non-consensual pornography
- Covering up acts of sexual violence
- Refusing to allow cast members the freedom to leave their shows, even under dire circumstances
The lawyers mentioned “distribution of revenge porn” but they have not elaborated on that specific allegation, sending Bravo fans on the investigative hunt. The letter is demanding that NBC preserve a variety of receipts and information including footage from various shows, with the attorneys alleging the organization has “threatened [cast members] with ruin should they decide to speak out about their mistreatment.”
While the other participants in Bethenny’s effort to bring accountability to NBC and the reality TV industry have not been named publicly, former cast members on The Real Housewives of Dallas, The Real Housewives of New York City, and Summer House are rumoured to be involved.
