Bethenny Frankel Shares Details on ‘Real Housewives’ Salaries

Getty Bethenny Frankel

Bethenny Frankel has often shared some details of her time on Bravo and of her business with her followers on Instagram and on May 13, she gave some insight on the pay that “Real Housewives” stars make to appear on the show.

“There are many different types of deals… let’s discuss,” Frankel captioned her video, which showed her explaining the salary situation as she was applying her makeup. The former RHONY star said a lot of people were “fixated” on Housewives salaries and she said she wouldn’t be revealing her own salary but would be discussing the “concept.”

“Bravo was a partner and I never ever rat out anything that I do with my partners and it would also upset the whole entire apple cart and it would be horrible so I never do that,” she shared. “No one knows [my salary].” Frankel explained that when the show first launched, everybody was paid the same. “When I started, everyone was paid the same number for the first season which was a certain number of episodes. And they all kind of say, ‘you’re getting paid this much for this many episodes.'”

Frankel went on to explain that after the first season, the pay changed as Housewives began negotiating their own deals and there are “different calibers” of Housewives who go on the show now.

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Bethenny Frankel Said Season 2 Is When Cast Members Started Negotiating Their Salaries

Frankel said that cast members were all paid the same for season 1, but that things changed for season 2. “There’s a percentage increase but you always can negotiate because you have the leverage of not wanting to come back and you’re just gonna sleep and not shoot,” the Skinnygirl founder shared in her Instagram video.

“What happened was [the] second and third season, people start banding together and wanna get more money, myself included,” she explained. Frankel said her co-star Jill Zarin told her she wanted to stick with her and have Frankel negotiate for her. “So I negotiated for us to get increased so this is where everybody gets different,” she said.

Some Housewives have deals that get them paid per episode, while others have deals that cover a certain number of episodes, Frankel explained. Other deals cover entire seasons no matter how many episodes are in the season, with the reunion counting as an episode. “There are so many different types of deals with Housewives cause people also are coming in at different times, it’s just changed so much,” she added.

Frankel concluded, “Most Housewives lie about what they’re getting paid the same way that most Housewives lie about whether or not they were fired. Just know that it ranges from $25,000 dollars for the first season to 7 figures, and for some people, more.”

Bethenny Frankel Previously Shared That She Did Negotiate 1 Aspect of Her ‘Real Housewives’ Contract

Frankel has previously shared more details about her pay when she started in season 1 of “The Real Housewives of New York City.” In a TikTok video posted on April 6, 2023, Frankel revealed that she signed a contract for season 1 that saw her get paid $7,250.

Frankel shared that she didn’t argue that pay as she was a “nobody” and had a lot of time on her hands to film since she wasn’t married and had no kids. “That was a lot of money to me,” she shared.

However, Frankel said she did change her RHONY contract to remove the clause that would see Bravo take a percentage of anything she made. She said she thought it was wrong even though she wasn’t really making anything at the time. “I was going places, and nobody was going to own any part of it,” she shared.

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