Bethenny Frankel says she has post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) from her lengthy divorce from ex-husband Jason Hoppy and their custody battle over daughter Bryn.
“I’ve been burned. I have massive trust issues, and I have post-traumatic stress disorder. It was literally the most traumatizing thing I will hopefully ever go through in my life,” she said on Thursday’s episode of her “Just B” podcast.
The “Real Housewives of New York City” alum, 53, called her 10-year divorce “more tortuous” than grieving the death of a loved one.
“I thought I would never survive it. I did not see a way out,” she continued. “It was suffocating. I thought I was gonna be miserable for the rest of my life.”
Frankel even referred to her lengthy divorce as “mental and emotional torture” and reflected on being a “powerless, tortured” individual.
“I have had every single f–king thing except for physical abuse done to me, and I am an expert on this topic,” she claimed.
The Skinnygirl founder then listed off some of the things she’s allegedly dealt with over the last 10 years, like “fraud,” “forgery,” “multiple trials on custody,” “being followed” and “allegedly being hacked.”
“I have been through a f–king war –– a war. I have questioned myself as a human, as a parent, because I was told so many times otherwise how terrible I was and disgusting and old and irrelevant and so abused, because I had no power to get out of it,” she said.
Frankel shared her feelings while explaining that she is finally “ready” to begin talking about “something that has been impossible to talk about” for years. She said she’ll do so in a series of podcast episodes.
“How a person who is so smart and so successful could make such poor judgement calls and decisions or just not know or just have a bad hand, but it’s been a journey, so I’m ready to discuss it,” she added.
The former Bravolebrity clarified that their daughter, now 13, “knows all about” the details of the divorce. Therefore, Frankel feels she can now speak about it “thoughtfully and carefully” with the public.
Frankel also explained that her divorce trauma has affected her current love life with fiancé Paul Bernon, whom she’s been engaged to on and off since 2018.
“It’s why I have not gotten married again, or I’m not sure if I would ever get married again,” she shared.
Frankel did not elaborate on when exactly the new episodes would be released. However, she said she was thinking of addressing it in a series of 10 episodes –– one for each year of the divorce proceedings.
Frankel got married to Hoppy in March 2010. They announced their separation in December 2012 before she ultimately filed for divorce just one month later.
For the next decade, the two appeared in court to fight it out over finances and custody over their daughter.
They reached a financial settlement in 2016, but their divorce wasn’t finalized until January 2021. By December 2021, Frankel had gained full legal custody and primary residential custody of Bryn and no longer had to pay child support to Hoppy.
Frankel has previously spoken vaguely about the divorce and even referred to it as a “nightmare,” but she has yet to share specific details on what led to the split or the nasty divorce.
