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Bethenny Frankel is best known for her role on Bravo’s Real Housewives of New York. Over the years, the reality star has started her very own empire, bringing her brand Skinnygirl to life back in 2011. From there, she has not only further developed Skinnygirl, but she has also signed on to be a guest shark on ABC’s Shark Tank.
“I’ve always had an entrepreneurial streak in me. In high school, we wanted to be able to have this big nightclub party, and so I rented out a space and charged the people in my senior class to get into that space and had a nightclub. When I was 13, I think, I wanted to have a party at my house, and so I worked at a bakery first to be able to pay for the party. Then I ended up also charging guests to come because it was an expensive party, and I’d have to pay for all the cleanups, and my parents didn’t kill me at the time,” Frankel told Business Insider in July.
Bethenny Frankel Net Worth: $25 Million
Bethenny Frankel has a net worth of $25 million, as estimated by People Magazine. She earned the majority of her money in 2011, when she sold Skinnygirl Cocktails for a reported $100 million.
Here’s what you need to know:
1. Skinnygirl Cocktails Became the ‘Fastest-Growing Spirit Brand’ & Frankel Sold the Company to Fortune Brands’ Beam Global for a Reported $100 Million
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Frankel’s former company, Skinnygirl Cocktails, was named the “fastest-growing spirit brand” by food industry observer Technomic, according to the Huffington Post. The company showed a 388 percent growth in volume from 2010 to 2011, outpacing the next closest-brand, Familia Camarena Tequila, by 150 percent.
“Launched in 2009, Frankel built the burgeoning brand from a single offering — the Skinnygirl Margarita. The line now includes three wines, four flavored vodkas, and a pina colada mix. All of the offerings are low calorie, adding to the brand’s female-centric appeal. In 2011, the brand was sold to liquor giant Beam for an undisclosed — and hotly debated — sum,” Huffington Post reported.
According to Forbes, Frankel sold her company to Beam Inc. for $100 million, but structured the deal in a rather shark-like way.
“It turns out that low-calorie margaritas may just be the gift that keeps on giving. Rather than accept the purchase of Skinnygirl as a lump sum of easy money, Frankel decided to bet on the business and continues to get payouts if Skinnygirl alcohol products sell well,” Forbes reported back in 2016.
2. She Launched Skinnygirl Jeans in August 2018 & Sells Them on HSN
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Frankel may have sold Skinnygirl Cocktails for a big payday, but, according to the aforementioned Forbes report, she retained the Skinnygirl name.
“In the deal with Beam, Frankel smartly negotiated to keep the rights to the brand name “Skinnygirl” (a moniker viewers of the most recent season of Real Housewives of New York would know she is very protective of). This means she can use the powerful brand name to market other products,” Forbes reported.
And with that power, Frankel recently launched Skinnygirl Jeans.
“Frankel teamed up with One Jeanswear Group to create and distribute a line of denim, knit tops and jackets. The items in the line, which Frankel described as ‘fun, flirty and guilt-free,’ will be $100 or less,” according to the SkinnygirlGlobal website.
Per the brand’s website, Frankel told E! News that all of her RHONY pals will definitely be wearing Skinnygirl Jeans and that Housewife Sonja Morgan is “really obsessed.”
3. She Founded B Strong After Hurricane Maria Hit Puerto Rico in 2017
Among Frankel’s philanthropic efforts is bstrong, a “disaster relief initiative” that she founded in 2017.
“Our mission is to empower people struck with tragedy by providing gift cards, emergency aid, food and shelter to disaster victims,” read’s the organization’s description on Frankel’s website.
Over the past year, Bstrong has partnered with multiple aid programs, including Delivering Good. In recent events, the charitable team announced it was monitoring Hurricane Florence, and that their social media channels would be updated with relief efforts on a regular basis.
According to an infographic on the Delivering Good website, the partnership with bstrong has delivered more than $1.1 million as of July 2018.
4. She Earns a Salary From ‘RHONY’ & Her Time on ‘Shark Tank’
Frankel is paid for appearing on both Shark Tank and The Real Housewives Of New York.
While her exact salary is unclear, it’s believed that Frankel makes a pretty nice penny for each Housewives episode that she films.
“She earns about $40,000 per Real Housewives of New York City episode, which made her the one of the highest paid reality television stars in 2016,” Cheat Sheet reported in July 2018.
In addition to what she’s paid by Bravo, Frankel has managed to avoid sharing the wealth on money her companies make. According to the New Yorker, her contract for the entire first season of the show was for a less-than-stellar $7,250. It also included a clause that said Bravo would receive a percentage of any brand that was promoted on the show. Frankel refused to sign it; Bravo ended up relenting and the stipulation has since been dubbed the Bethenny Clause.
Frankel is a guest shark on this season of Shark Tank. She is paid for her appearances, though her salary is unknown. Additionally, Frankel has the opportunity to join forces with various entrepreneurs, potentially expanding her very own net worth through a given products’ success.
5. She’s Published Several Best-Selling Books & Put Out a Workout Video
In addition to her various other ventures, Frankel has published a handful of books as well, according to her author page on Amazon. Frankel’s first book, Naturally Thin: Unleash Your SkinnyGirl and Free Yourself from a Lifetime of Dieting, was published in March 2009 and became a New York Times Bestseller.
Frankel followed up her first Skinnygirl book in December of that year with The Skinnygirl Dish: Easy Recipes for Your Naturally Thin Life, a recipe book and another bestseller. Only five months later, she released Body By Bethenny, a video with “body-sculpting workouts to unleash your Skinnygirl.”
The following year, in March 2011, Frankel published A Place of Yes: 10 Rules for Getting Everything You Want Out of Life, with contributor Eve Adamson. Publishers Weekly described it as “a familiar but intensely personal guide that, yes, stands apart from the pack.”
Frankel’s next book was her first foray into fiction; she published Skinnydipping: A Novel, in May 2012. A year later, she followed that up with Skinnygirl Solutions: Your Straight-Up Guide to Home, Health, Family, Career, Style, and Sex, in August 2013.
In 2014, Frankel delved into children’s literature, publishing Cookie Meets Peanut in September. Illustrated by Daniel Roode, the boom is described as “a story inspired by her own life about two siblings – a new baby and one diva dog.”
Her most recent book, I Suck at Relationships So You Don’t Have To: 10 Rules for Not Screwing Up Your Happily Ever After, was published in 2016.