Jeff Lewis Fights With Bethenny Frankel at ‘Watch What Happens Live’ Taping

Bethenny Frankel and Jeff Lewis

BRavo Bethenny Frankel and Jeff Lewis argue during the Dec. 7, 2022 episode of "Watch What Happens Live."

Jeff Lewis had it out with Bethenny Frankel during a joint appearance on “Watch What Happens Live.”  On the December 7, 2022 episode of Andy Cohen’s late-night show, the former Bravo stars butted heads over mutual friend Kyle Richards.

Lewis was the star of the long-running Bravo reality show “Flipping Out” from 2007 to 2018 as well as the spinoff, “Interior Therapy with Jeff Lewis,” per IMDb.  He is also the host of the “Jeff Lewis Live” radio show on Sirius XM’s Radio Andy. Frankel was an original star on “The Real Housewives of New York City,” but left the show in 2019. She recently launched the Housewives-themed “Rewives” podcast.

During the live taping, Lewis and Frankel clashed multiple times.

Here’s what you need to know:


Jeff Lewis Called Out Bethenny Frankel For Unfollowing Kyle Richards on Instagram

During a viewer question segment, Frankel was asked, “Why did you unfollow Kyle Richards on Instagram and what is your friendship with her right now?”

“I love Kyle,” Frankel replied. “I have a good relationship with Kyle. I don’t actually follow all of my friends because I like to catch up with them personally. There are people on there I’m not good friends with, and I’m not that methodical about it. You could probably look through there and it is like a garage sale.”

But Lewis didn’t go for Frankel’s explanation. As the Skinnygirl founder spoke, he mouthed the words, “Not buying it.”

Frankel then asked if something was “going on,” then turned to Lewis and said of Richards, “Call her up and ask! We talk all the time. I’ll get my phone and text her!”

Lewis offered to grab his phone, too. “I’ll text her to find out the real story since you’re not being honest,” he told Frankel.

Frankel then called Lewis “desperate.” “It is weird you’re so desperate, that you care I’m not following her,” she said.

“It’s weird you don’t follow her and you’re friends,” Lewis fired back.

After Frankel pointed out that she has a friendship with Lewis but doesn’t follow him on social media, he replied, “You’re closer to Kyle than you are to me!”

“We were really good friends, but I don’t see her that often,” Frankel explained. Lewis noted that it was actually Frankel who introduced him to Richards during a dinner in New York City, but Frankel didn’t recall the night out.

“’Why are you so angry?’ she asked Lewis. “This guy is intense, he’s more intense than me. …If we were on a show together, it would be carnage.”

On social media, fans sided with Lewis for calling out Frankel.

“Love Jeff for calling her out!” one commenter wrote. “Randomly unfollowing your friend so you can catch up personally is the most outlandish thing I have heard her say,” another agreed.

Others speculated that Lewis “obviously knows something.” “Kyle has spoken to him. They’re friends,” one fan wrote.


Kyle Richards Also Unfollowed Bethenny Frankel & Responded to the WWHL Fight About Her

 

During a 2021 episode of “Watch What Happens Live Aftershow,” Richards revealed that she also stopped following Frankel on Instagram. “She unfollowed me,” Richards explained to host Andy Cohen. “And I was like, ‘Why do I want to follow someone who doesn’t follow me?’ So, I just said, ‘I don’t need to keep up with her either, then.'”

“We still talk and text,” Richards added. “We text each other. I don’t know, she just unfollowed a lot of people.”

But after the WWHL episode aired, Frankel began following Richards’ Instagram account again. Richards also responded to Frankel and Lewis’ WWHL feud on social media. On her Instagram story, she reshared a clip of Frankel saying, “I’m following Kyle Richards right now. Let me know any other suspect unfollow/followers on my account.”

Frankel captioned the clip with, “Are we really doing this again? This is a big commitment.”

Richards also shared the WWHL clip of Frankel and Lewis’ argument and captioned it, “I’m dead” with a crying-laughing emoji.

Frankel knew Richards well before they both became Real Housewives stars. Decades ago, the future RHONY star was employed by Richards’ sister, Kathy Hilton, as a nanny for her daughters Paris and Nicky when they were little, she revealed on her “Just B With Bethenny Frankel” podcast in October 2020.

“I’ve known Kyle for years. I used to work for Kathy Hilton and take Paris and Nicky to school. So I knew them through Kyle, who’s a friend of mine,” Frankel told E! News in 2015.

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