Too big for Housewives? Although the franchise made her a household name, Bethenny Frankel confessed in a sit-down discussion with Bravo host Andy Cohen that she once was embarrassed to be associated with The Real Housewives of New York City.
“You may have thought about yourself that you were kind of too big for the show two years ago,” Cohen asked Frankel in a WWHL special edition, Watch What Happens Live One-on-One with Bethenny, set to air Sunday, March 22, on Bravo.
Frankel admitted that yes, she was not always proud of her association with the show, which helped launch her Skinnygirl empire, led to two spinoff series (Bethenny Getting Married and Bethenny Ever After) and a daytime talk show, Bethenny, which was canceled in early 2014 after one season.
“There was a point when I was a little embarrassed to be a Housewife. I felt like it was a little something to not be proud of,” she told Cohen. “There was a time when I was in it that it felt kind of not what I started out as, and that’s why I walked away.”
But Frankel, who departed RHONY after three seasons of the Bravo hit, is returning in season 7 and feels proud of the show once more.
“Now coming back, I feel I’m proud to do it again and I feel like it is a different show,” she said.
Watch What Happens Live One-on-One with Bethenny airs Sunday, March 22 at 10:30 p.m. ET, and The Real Housewives of New York City returns Tuesday, April 7 at 9 p.m. ET on Bravo.