Luann drags ‘desperate’ Bethenny over ‘Housewives’ podcast after many ‘failed pivots’
Luann de Lesseps took a shot at Bethenny Frankel — and she certainly did not miss.
Shortly after Frankel announced that she’s launching a “Real Housewives” rewatch podcast, de Lesseps went off on her former “Real Housewives of New York City” co-star.
Appearing on Friday’s episode of “Everything Iconic,” de Lesseps, 57, agreed with host Danny Pellegrino that Frankel, 52, has spent the majority of her years away from “RHONY” “sh–ting on the show.”
“Right, and if she s–ts on the show, that means she’s gonna s–t on us on her little podcast about the ‘Housewives,'” the former countess savagely predicted.
“It’s pretty sad and pathetic that she has to resort to ‘Housewives’ because of all of her failed pivots since the ‘Housewives,'” de Lesseps went on, noting Frankel has “tried everything” to separate herself from the series she quit for good in 2019 but that “it doesn’t seem to work.”
According to the cabaret star, it’s a “pretty desperate scenario.”
Alongside de Lesseps, Frankel helped launch “RHONY” back in 2008. Fans watched as the sharp-tongued, quick-witted Big Apple native went from being a struggling natural-food chef to the founder of a multimillion-dollar company.
After she left the series a few years in — due to what her co-stars felt was a case of becoming too big for her britches — Frankel went on to star in a spin-off show, “Bethenny Ever After” (2010-2012), before landing her own talk show, “Bethenny” (2013-2014).
She ultimately returned to “RHONY” in 2015 ahead of Season 7 but dipped out after Season 11.
Since then, the businesswoman has been vocal about her criticism of the “Housewives” shows, tweeting as recently as last year that the concept of the franchise has “devolved.” She also indirectly called out Bravo for “capitalizing on [women’s] weaknesses.”
Ironically, her new podcast (she already hosts iHeartRadio’s “Just B with Bethenny Frankel”) is titled “ReWives.” Dropping Nov. 14, the show will “explore real-life issues including family, fame, finances and friendship, through the lens of the ‘Housewives’ series.”
Frankel told People on Friday that the idea actually came from her fiancé, Paul Bernon.
“He said, ‘You’re the Tom Brady of ‘Housewives,’ so you should be breaking down the game,” she explained, adding that she believes “Bravo’s going to love [it], too, because it’s going to make people go back and watch [the episodes].”
She said, “You can’t forget where you came from, so I always reference [‘Housewives’]. I mean, it led to such tremendous success for me. This is where it started for me. I don’t want to be there in the same way that I was. But it’s such a larger-than-life concept that you can’t help but indulge in it.”
The BStrong founder cautioned that she and her celebrity guests will not be rehashing the shows’ surface-level drama but rather “delving deeper” into the “real dynamics that are going on underneath.”
