Erika Jayne Shares Thoughts on Bethenny Frankel’s Reality TV Reckoning

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Erika Jayne hasn’t always seen eye to eye with Bethenny Frankel and on August 28, the “Real Housewives of Beverly Hills” star sounded off on Frankel’s ongoing calls for a reality TV reckoning.

Jayne was a guest on the “Two Ts in a Pod” podcast hosted by Tamra Judge and Teddi Mellencamp and she was asked for her thoughts on the RHONY alum’s calls for reality stars to unionize and call for more rights and residual pay.

The “Pretty Mess” singer replied candidly that she wasn’t sure what was driving Frankel to push so hard on that subject and said, “She’s interesting to me. I think in some ways I agree with her on some things and on other things I’m like, ‘If you hated reality TV and if it was so bad, why would we continue the conversation?’ She’s made enough money to do her own thing and that’s great… You did really well and you have reality TV to thank for that.”

However, Jayne did say she agreed with Frankel that Bravo stars should get paid residuals. “Do I think we need residuals? I do. I think that we could get a better deal,” she said.

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Erika Jayne Said She Was Never Forced to Do Anything on the Show by Producers

Mellencamp asked Jayne what her thoughts were about Frankel’s comments about reality TV and Bravo and told her podcast guest, “She’s making it seem like we were all forced to do things.”

Jayne replied, “I’m an adult woman. I make choices. I’ve never had a producer say to me, ‘Hey you need to go chew somebody up’ or ‘Hey, you need to drink some more’ or something like that.”

The divisive RHOBH star said she’s always done what she wanted on the show and recalled a conversation at the RHOBH season 9 reunion when her co-star Camille Grammer called out production. “She blamed production and Andy [Cohen] said, ‘Hold on a second, you have free will.’ And that is true.”

Jayne shared that she’s said on multiple occasions that there are things she didn’t feel like doing but simply didn’t do them. “I have had to have a drink in order to get through it cause it’s f****** tedious,” she admitted. “That’s a choice I make. I’m also a grown woman, I’m not a teenager, I’m not in my twenties trying to be famous. Everybody has to do what’s right for them.”

Erika Jayne & Bethenny Frankel Have Had a Rocky Past

Frankel and Jayne appeared together on Bravo screens during RHOBH season 6 when the cast visited the Hamptons. However, their meeting didn’t go too well as Frankel shaded one of Jayne’s music videos. Jayne showed her the clip at a group dinner and Frankel admitted, “I don’t love the production value of it, like I think it goes too slow in the beginning, and it looks cheap.”

She said it looked like the video was trying to be “avant-garde” but it wasn’t succeeding. In a confessional interview, Jayne said, “Everyone’s entitled to their opinion. I just don’t agree with her. I don’t think she knows what she’s talking about. Whatever.”

The two have also had a couple of public clashes, including in 2022 after Frankel took offense to comments that Jayne made about her late ex-fiancé, Dennis Shields, on “Watch What Happens Live.” She replied that Jayne’s comments “hurt, offended and disgusted” Shields’ children, E! News reported at the time.

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