A song for Dennis Shields. Real Housewives of New York City star Bethenny Frankel dedicated a tune to her late boyfriend while on vacation in the Bahamas.
The entrepreneur posted a video to her Instagram Stories on Saturday, September 22, of herself relaxing with her best friend Sarah to “Sail On” by Lionel Richie and Jill Johnson.
“Dennis would like this right now, he’d be happy,” the reality star says in the clip of her boyfriend, who died on August 10 at the age of 51. “He would appreciate this. He didn’t care what we did,” she adds with a laugh.”This one’s for Dennis. He’s sailing on.”
Frankel, 47, also shared a video of herself singing Richie’s “Stuck on You. “Are we ever going to have sex again?” she asks her longtime pal from boarding school, who is laying in a separate bed across from her. Frankel quickly clarifies, “Not with each other, just with anyone,” as the two women burst into laughter.
It was a moment of relief for the Skinnygirl founder, who has been open about her struggle with overwhelming grief in the wake of Shield’s untimely death. “If you can’t laugh, you [cry],” she captioned a subsequent Story with a sad face emoji. “In bed, we’ve been in bed since 9:30 on vacation, listening to Lionel,” she says.
The TV personality revealed on Friday, September 21, that she has been on a “#griefdiet” since losing her on-again, off-again boyfriend, who proposed to her in April.
Frankel shared earlier this month that spending time by water has been therapeutic for her. “Doing anything in or by the water is life saving. Beach walks. ocean swims, wakeboarding, clamming, infrared sauna, jacuzzi & my swim really help,” she tweeted on September 2. “When you feel sad, you cry then you just have to force yourself to shift. It’s so hard but it works.”
Shields was found dead in his apartment at Trump Tower in NYC on August 10. While it was reported by The New York Post that the businessman had died of an overdose of prescription pills, his cause of death is undetermined, as a religious objection prevented an autopsy from being performed.
An insider confirmed to Us Weekly in August that Frankel has been “absolutely devastated” following Shields’ death. “She lost her best friend, her partner, her business partner,” the source said. “He’s family. His family is her family. She is living her life because there is nothing else to do. You have to go on. Everyone experiences loss and the only think you can do is pick yourself up and go on.”
