After more than a decade, Real Housewives of New York City fans can finally rest easy knowing that peace has been brokered between two legends: Bethenny Frankel and Jill Zarin.
The duo reunited over the weekend for a special episode of Bethenny’s “ReWives” podcast, which debuted on Tuesday, July 18. “We’re mentioning it all,” Bethenny, 52, told listeners. “We both need to get a hobby and we’re mentioning it all.”
As Bravo viewers know, Bethenny and Jill, 59, were BFFs during the early days of RHONY, but their relationship fell apart in season 3 after Bethenny accused Jill of being jealous of her success. Jill, meanwhile, slammed Bethenny for not being present as her late husband, Bobby Zarin, battled cancer.
The pair’s podcast reunion marked the first time in 13 years that the former costars had been alone together. According to Bethenny, the détente was first proposed by her fiancé, Paul Bernon, who suggested that the duo watch the RHONY reboot together and discuss it.
“I was surprised, but I wasn’t gonna be impulsive,” Jill said of getting the request to appear on the podcast. “Maybe because I’m medicated now and I wasn’t 13 years ago — in a good way. I have anxiety. I definitely had an anxiety disorder when you knew me, for sure.”
Jill went on to say that she was initially hesitant to say yes, but her daughter, Ally, encouraged her to do it. “And that’s it,” Jill recalled. “That’s all it took.”
Keep scrolling for the biggest takeaways from Bethenny and Jill’s reunion:
Why Jill Was Upset
The twosome’s original feud began because Bethenny felt Jill was jealous of her success after she built Skinnygirl into a major brand and landed her own spinoff, Bethenny Getting Married (later titled Bethenny Ever After). Jill, however, said she didn’t feel envy at all — she just wanted to be included on the ride.
“[I did not] resent your success, What I resented was that you didn’t want to share anything with me. I was happy for you,” Jill said. “[I had] FOMO for sure. I could write a book about FOMO. … I never wanted my own show. I loved being in an ensemble. I think you might have thought I wanted my own thing and I was jealous you got your own show. I was never jealous. I never wanted my own.”
Bethenny disagreed, claiming that Jill “talked about [the spinoff] to the powers that be in a way that was problematic.”
Jill also called out Bethenny for saying a producer invited her to be on RHONY when Jill had been instrumental in getting her in front of Bravo decision-makers. “What I cared about is that I felt I lost you and I couldn’t really say that I was hurt by things that you had said,” Jill explained. “You were on the Today show, I’ll never forget it, and they interviewed you, and maybe you were mad at me at the time. And they said, ‘Well, how did you get on the show?’ And you said, ‘Well, a producer found me,’ and that was like a dagger to me.”
The duo didn’t really come to an agreement on who said what, but Jill said she thought they would have reconciled earlier if Bethenny hadn’t left RHONY after season 3. (Bethenny later returned in season 7, but Jill left after season 4.)
Bethenny’s Take
Though Jill claimed she wasn’t jealous of Bethenny’s success, Bethenny still felt Jill was “gatekeeping certain things” that were happening in the early days of Bethenny’s career. “You made it very challenging to share certain things, because if you said to me, ‘What’s that?’ and I said, ‘[X Company] sent it to me,’ you’d call them in five minutes and they might not have wanted me [to share],” Bethenny recalled. “You were grabby, I’m gonna be honest. You were very grabby.”
Bethenny also referenced an alleged comment Jill made about being unhappy that Bethenny got her own talk show, but Jill said she never made such a remark. “I’ll own my s–t. I own my s–t,” Jill told her former castmate. “It never happened. First of all, I don’t remember what the show was, but I remember you did say it on, like, the Today show … that you had heard that I told somebody that I didn’t want you to have something, that it should have been me. Never happened. I swear to you.”
Brokering a Ceasefire
Jill claimed it was “not true” that Andy Cohen advised her to make up with Bethenny. “I don’t remember him ever saying to me until it was too late. … It was after St. John,” Jill said, referencing the cast’s infamous season 3 trip known as Scary Island. “Anyway, the point is that I definitely made mistakes. And I wanted to be there for you when you got pregnant and all that stuff, and you just wouldn’t let me in. Why didn’t you want to let me back in?”
In response, Bethenny said she felt like she couldn’t do anything for Jill without it becoming a plot point. “Every time I did something, it became public,” Bethenny said. “I sent a freaking gift basket for Bobby, it became public. Everything that happened, you then would later leak if you didn’t get the result you wanted, like, if the next week we weren’t friends.”
Bethenny at the Funeral
Jill wasn’t on RHONY when Bobby died in 2018, but Bravo cameras were present because Bethenny attended the ceremony. Jill, however, claimed she had no idea Bethenny was coming, let alone bringing a film crew with her. “I saw you [and] my heart dropped, I couldn’t believe you were there. You looked drop dead with this black hat and this black suit, and I was so happy,” Jill recalled. “I did see cameras. I didn’t know who the cameras were. I wasn’t on a mic. You were on a mic. I didn’t know that. … You have to know, I’m a little vain. If I knew I was being filmed I wouldn’t have looked like that. You need to know I had no idea. Hand to God, should Bobby turn in his grave.”
Bethenny, for her part, said she thought Jill did know the cameras were coming to the funeral. “What you’re saying is I f–king ambushed a funeral for reality television,” Bethenny said. “That’s disgusting. That’s literally the most disgusting thing I’ve ever heard. I don’t know that I would have gone to the funeral if we weren’t shooting. I don’t know what I was going to do — only because it was a spectacle and it would have been a thing. … But once it got going, I knew that it would be so compelling and an amazing, interesting moment. It was totally real when I saw you.”
Jill went on to say that “Bravo was good” to her and “handled [the funeral] respectfully,” but she still felt “taken advantage of” that day. “You know when I found out [cameras were there]?” she added. “When it aired.”
The RHONY Legacy Negotiation
Jill slammed rumors that she was the reason negotiations broke down for the potential RHONY spinoff known as Legacy. (After the plans for a full new series fell through, some of the OG cast members are reuniting for season 5 of Ultimate Girls Trip, but Jill isn’t part of it.)
“I had just done Ultimate Girls Trip [season 2] and they paid me a certain amount per episode. I was being offered less than half per episode,” Jill alleged, claiming that the amount offered was less than what she got for season 4 of RHONY. “If they wanted me on the show, the offer would have been right.”
Jill added that she doesn’t regret saying no to the offer, but she feels her refusal is the reason why she wasn’t asked to be part of the RHONY Girls Trip. “[It was] 100 percent punitive,” she claimed. “I did feel FOMO about [UGT season 5] because I felt that I gave the idea … and then they did it and didn’t invite me. And I definitely know it was for spite because I said no [to Legacy and] they were mad at me.”
Would Jill Come Back?
Jill hasn’t given up reality TV entirely, but she said she doesn’t think she’d do another Housewives franchise or spinoff. “It’s not good for me,” she explained. “It’s like you wanna go back to smoking but you know you’re gonna die. I know I’m gonna die if I smoke. … I’m totally over it.”
She went on to say that she’s supportive of the RHONY reboot, which premiered on Sunday, July 16. “The Housewives for me has come and passed. I loved it when I did it. I’m happy for the new cast in the biggest and best way,” Jill said. “I’m aged out, and now there’s a new crop. It’s a good thing and not a bad thing. It keeps the show going on longer. I don’t why they’re trying to pit the old against the new.”
