Bethenny Frankel’s “ReWives” podcast is coming to an end.
“I’m canceling myself. I’m canceling ‘ReWives,’” the Real Housewives of New York City alum, 54, announced on the Wednesday, February 28 episode of her iHeartRadio podcast, “Just B with Bethenny Frankel.”
In the episode, titled “It’s Me… I’m the Problem, It’s Me,” Frankel noted that the main reason behind her decision was because it wasn’t a “natural interest” of hers.
“As of late, there has been so much dirt and garbage and crap, like a dark cloud over this space, this medium, this vehicle in entertainment,” she explained. “It just feels dirty. It always felt somewhat dirty, but it got dirtier and it got toxic and now it’s the worst version of a toxic dumpster fire and I don’t want to be associated with it in any way and I don’t want to talk about it and I don’t even really want to have people on who are currently on it unless we’re talking about their kids, or their motherhood or something else. I just don’t need to trash it. I just don’t want to be associated with it.”
The Real Housewives of New York City premiered in 2008, but not every Housewife has gone the distance. The season 1 cast of RHONY included Luann de Lesseps, Ramona Singer, Bethenny Frankel, Jill Zarin and Alex McCord. While Kelly Killoren Bensimon joined the cast during season 2, Sonja Morgan became a full-time cast member during […]
Instead, Frankel shared that she wants to be connected to things her 13-year-old daughter, Bryn, whom she shares with her ex-husband Jason Hoppy, would admire her for.
“I want to work on shows and projects that my daughter would be proud of. That are a good role model for her. That are a good examples for her and for other women,’ she shared.
Frankel went on to tell listeners that she initially only did the show because she felt like it was a good business idea.
“So in the beginning, the reason I did ‘ReWives’ was Paul [Bernon, her fiancé] said to me, ‘Someone’s going to do this, and don’t they want to hear from the Tom Brady of Housewives?” she said. “Because I’m a businesswoman, it seemed like a good piece of business…and then I thought of having interesting people talk about the Housewives episodes, because it would just be a vehicle. It would just be talking about infidelity or marriage or children or arguments or different cities.”
However, over time she said things changed.
“I liked the guests and talking about something different, not just interviewing them about themselves, but talking to them about these plotlines, but as it went along, I started to see things differently than I used to see them,” she explained. “Like, I’m an older wiser…I’m a mother. I’m at a different point in my life. I’m in my 50s. I value integrity and health over making it.”
Scandoval may have dominated pop culture in 2023, but no one on Vanderpump Rules was capable of delivering one-liners like the Real Housewives (except for maybe James Kennedy, who deserves an Emmy for “worm with a mustache”). The women of Bravo worked overtime this year to bring fans quotes that will look great on novelty […]
Frankel, who was an OG member of the Housewives and featured on RHONY when the show first premiered in 2008, appeared on the first three seasons of the Bravo hit before returning in season 7. She ultimately left for good after season 11 in 2019.
“I joined the Housewives so long ago, more than 15 years ago and it seemed like an adventure,” she told listeners. “I was so broke [at the time] and it just seemed like something interesting, and it was.”
She added that the reality series isn’t the same as it once was and it’s become so “toxic” and has such a “bad stain on it” and “gotten embarrassing,” which is why she says she “never really, really felt great about [doing the podcast]” to begin with.
Before wrapping up the episode, Frankel announced that despite the end of ‘ReWives’, she would be diving into a different podcast with iHeartRadio in the near future.
“They said ‘Amazing! Let’s do one of the other shows you’ve wanted to do,” she shared, “so I really am grateful for iHeart for this platform.”