Real Housewives of New York alum Bethenny Frankel is opening up about her divorce from ex-husband Jason Hoppy in her podcast series Just B Divorced. The former Housewife was involved in a nearly 10-year legal battle with her ex. She initially filed for divorce in January 2013 but it was not finalized until 2022.
In the past, she’s been tight-lipped about the ordeal but now, she’s ready to share her story.
Here are the biggest bombshell moments from part I and II of Just B Divorced:
She says her ex had a ‘toxic’ trait
In part I of the series, Bethenny shared that she was drawn to her ex because of his charm but over time, she began to see the trait as more of a negative quality.
“This life coach that I know believes that ‘charming’ is usually only used for men, not women,” she said. “In small, tiny doses it’s a positive but in large doses…it’s toxic. It’s a toxic trait.”
“[Charm] is something you’re attracted to initially and then eventually, it becomes nauseating,” she continued. “It becomes insufferable after a while.”
She knew the relationship was wrong
Bethenny revealed that there were signs the relationship was doomed before the wedding day.
“It [felt] wrong,” she said. “It all [felt] wrong. The way that we argued [felt] wrong and the way that I [was] spoken to [felt] wrong.”
She said at the time, she found excuses for not leaving the relationship.
“I was pregnant, I was not happy in my relationship. I kept going because I was doing a television show, I was very stupid,” she told listeners.
She urged listeners who had doubts about their relationship to get out now and not stick around like she did.
“If you do not know that it’s right, it’s wrong,” she said.
She said she and her ex almost broke up before getting married
On Real Housewives of New York, Bethenny and Jason looked like a perfect couple but behind the scenes, it was a different story.
According to Bethenny, she and her ex almost broke up “many times” before saying “I do” in 2010.
“I wanted to break up,” she said, adding that fear and outside pressure prevented her from walking away.
She called sex with her ex ‘torture’
In part II of the series, she opened up about her sex life with her ex, telling fans the intimacy was far from perfect.
“He used to say to me, ‘You’re like a block of ice,’ because I did not want to be intimate. I did not want to have sex,” she said on the April 18 episode. “I used to force myself, gag myself through doing it… it is torture.”
She said there was a ‘power struggle’
Bethenny said there was a “power struggle” between her and Jason that stemmed from the fact that she made more money.
“There were these fights that I remember because it felt like there was a disparity in the power,” she said.
The RHONY star said she tried all the little tips and tricks to make sure her ex didn’t feel “emasculated” by her success but it didn’t fix the issue.
“It was awkward that I paid most of the rent,” she told fans. “There becomes this power struggle because the person that you’re in a relationship with resents you for the career that you have.”
She said she was ‘relieved’ when she had a miscarriage
Bethenny and her ex share a daughter and she made it clear on her podcast that she doesn’t “regret her daughter for a minute.” However, she did reveal that she got pregnant a second time during the relationship and felt “relieved” when she had a miscarriage.
“I was so incredibly relieved,” she admitted. The Skinny Girl founder told fans she told her ex her honest feelings about losing the child and he replied, “You are a real piece of sh*t, you know that?”
She shared from that point on, she started to think about how she was going to exit the relationship.