Still healing. Bethenny Frankel remembered her late boyfriend, Dennis Shields, in an emotional Instagram post on the first anniversary of his death.
“One year ago today, I woke up to a beautiful sunny day with @biggysmallz by the pool, and my world crumbled and turned upside down in an instant,” the Real Housewives of New York City star, 48, captioned a photo of Shields with her dogs on Saturday, August 10. “A man Dennis, who I loved and respected, who was in my life for 30 years unexpectedly passed away.”
Frankel went into detail about the integral role the businessman played in adding her pups to the family.
“Dennis insisted we adopt biggy AND smallz for my daughter Peanut. He simply couldn’t imagine separating them,” she recalled. “We racked our brains staying up late coming up with the perfect name for two dogs from the same litter with very different body types. Thing 1 & Thing 2 was an option but Peanut found it degrading. Lenny & Squiggy was a good one but I knew it would only appeal to the over 40 set.”
She continued: “Then at 5am, Dennis was waiting for me to wake up and in his stronger than Tequila New Yawk accent said ‘BIGGY AND SMALLZ’ and two stars were born. He loved these dogs and the feelings were mutual. They were particularly fond of his salty bald head. At times, it seemed like he and they spoke the same language and they were the only ones who understood him. He was a loving, sweet, gentle, brilliant, complicated, hilarious, creative and supportive man. He is missed terribly by so many but lives on in his friends and family and furry loved ones.”
Frankel then gave an update on her grief. “I am a different person and in a different emotional place than I was a year ago, and the wounds have begun to heal but the scar will remain on my heart forever,” she concluded. “RIP, August 10. #Unforgettable.”
Shields died of an apparent prescription drug overdose at his Trump Tower apartment in New York City in August 2018. He was 51. His cause of death remained undetermined because an autopsy was not performed “due to a religious objection.”
The entrepreneur dated Frankel on and off for years and proposed to her in April 2018. A source told Us Weekly shortly after his death that she was “absolutely devastated.”
The TV personality has since moved on with boyfriend Paul Bernon.
