Getty Bethenny Frankel
Former “Real Housewives of New York City” star Bethenny Frankel sat down with her friend of many years and fellow RHONY alumna Jill Zarin for their first one-on-one conversation in over a decade in a July 17 episode of Frankel’s “ReWives” podcast.
While on the podcast, Frankel and Zarin had a chance to look back at their three seasons together on RHONY and get to the bottom of the miscommunications that led them to put their friendship “on pause” for 12 years.
While talking about the rift in their relationship, which became apparent in the show’s third season, Zarin revealed that she felt like she had lost Frankel as a friend, and Frankel shared, “You wanted us to go and be Lucy and Ethel the whole way and I think I wanted to be a solo act. I wanted to be Beyoncé,” which Zarin agreed was the “crux” to their disconnect.
Does Bethenny Frankel Consider Jill Zarin a ‘Hall of Fame’ ‘Housewife’?
Frankel shared that one of her crew members was looking to find the right metaphor for her and Zarin’s relationship, telling Zarin, “Our camera guy was saying before, ‘What is this in sports? Who is this? […] Is [Zarin] a Hall of Fame player?’
“She would have been in the Hall of Fame, I think she fumbled the ball […]” Frankel said of her friends run on RHONY, before telling Zarin directly, “Your fatal error was having – it’s like a wave cresting through the off season, it’s when the f***ing mind goes crazy, and you came in hot at that fashion show, not talking to me all Summer about ‘You weren’t there for Bobby’, you saved it [for when cameras were rolling].”
“But I thought we would resolve it [in the moment],” Zarin said, maintaining that if Frankel had “done season four, and not gone on your own, we would have made up.”
Frankel agreed the pair may have made up, but it wouldn’t have been genuine because it would have been “for the show”.
Who Does Bethenny Frankel Consider the ‘Mount Rushmore’ of ‘Real Housewives’?
Frankel may not consider Zarin a “Hall of Fame player” during her time on “Real Housewives”, however she has weighed in on some cast members (from across the different franchises) that she considers the best of the best. In a May 2022 appearance on “The TODAY Show”, Frankel revealed which four cast members she would consider the “Mount Rushmore” of “Real Housewives”.
When asked about her involvement in “RHONY: Legacy”, Frankel revealed that she declined the offer to join the Legacy cast and that she didn’t have any plans to reappear on the “Housewives” franchise at this time, even for one of Peacock’s “Ultimate Girls Trip” spin-offs. Frankel did reveal, however, the one casting that could sway her to return.
“If I had to do one ‘Housewives,’ and it would be the Mount Rushmore of ‘Housewives,’ it would be me, NeNe [Leakes], Teresa [Giudice], and Lisa Vanderpump,” Frankel said, “That would be my Mount Rushmore. That’s original. That’s classics. That would be insane.”
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