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‘The Real Housewives of New York City’ Recap: Bethenny Frankel Calls Sonja Morgan a ‘Fraud’ in Company Name Dispute

These girls are more than tipsy! On the Wednesday, May 18, episode of The Real Housewives of New York City, the ladies (though we use that term loosely) served up not one, but two blowout brawls. Trouble started brewing from the first minute, when Luann de Lesseps — who gave up her city apartment — arrived for a stay at Chateau Morgan. Immediately, the Countess began asking Sonja Morgan about her new prosecco brand, Tipsy Girl — or to be more specific, about its name.

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Luann said she thought the moniker might hit Bethenny Frankel, founder of Skinnygirl, “a little close to home,” but Sonja disagreed. After noting that her partners were the ones who came up with the name, she reasoned that she wasn’t “planning to be a mogul” like Bethenny, so there was nothing for Bethenny to worry about. “She wants me to do well,” Sonja added.

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Bethenny Says Exactly What Luann Thought She Would

Meanwhile, unbeknownst to Sonja, Bethenny met up with Ramona Singer and Carole Radziwill for dinner. Suffice it to say, Bethenny didn’t see the drink-name situation the way Sonja did. “It’s a little too close for comfort,” Bethenny said. “If I had walked into that party and seen that, I think I would have just walked out.” She then compared it to watching your husband have sex with somebody else. Yikes.

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“This is a real screw-up,” Carole conceded as Bethenny announced she was “done” with Sonja — except that Sonja was apparently coming into the Skinnygirl office for a chat later that week. In other words, Bethenny was ready to bite Sonja’s head off, and then she would be done.

Dorinda Talks to Ramona About John. Again.

Ramona finally realized that if she wanted to continue to have a relationship with Dorinda Medley, she was going to have to play nice with her boyfriend, John Mahdessian, and she seemed determined to do that — or at least try. Ramona and Dorinda met at Sarabeth’s for brunch, where the conversation started out nicely enough, and by nicely enough, we mean they talked trash about Sonja and her Tipsy Girl prosecco.

Both women agreed that due to the fact that Sonja seemed to have some type of drinking problem, launching a booze line might not be the best idea. Ramona went on to argue that it set a bad example for Sonja’s daughter.

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Once they’d run through that, Dorinda once again turned the conversation back toward her relationship with John. “I need you to respect it,” she told her longtime friend. “I love him, and he’s part of my life, and I can’t feel awkward anymore.” Ramona agreed, but to the camera, she lamented, “Why can’t John just be a better person?” Hmm. Based on that comment alone, it didn’t seem likely Ramona was going to be able to keep up appearances when it came to the dry cleaner.

Bethenny Frankel and Sonja Morgan
Bethenny Frankel (left) and Sonja Morgan

Bethenny Calls Sonja a “Fraud”

The big day arrived, and Sonja waltzed into Bethenny’s office as delusional as ever and excited to talk about Tipsy Girl with the woman she considered her “mentor.” After cooing over the office space and making some nonsensical comments that were meant to be compliments about how she copied Bethenny’s colors for her personal website, Sonja got down to discussing her latest entrepreneurial endeavor.

“So you are saying that you are coming out with a brand called Tipsy Girl,” Bethenny said, which Sonja readily confirmed. Bethenny responded by telling Sonja that her partners were “shady.” Sonja seemed genuinely taken aback by that and explained that her partners were the ones who had the trademark to Tipsy Girl. Bethenny then began grilling Sonja about who her distributors were, and it took about five seconds for it to be obvious that Sonja had absolutely no idea.

“They call it a cheater brand,” Bethenny said. “You’ve asked me for business advice. I’m actually just personally hurt.” Sonja stared back like a deer in headlights as Bethenny laid into her. “I put my neck out for you, brought you into my world,” Bethenny continued. “I’m completely insulted, and I don’t want anything to do with you.”

Sonja’s eyes began to get a bit misty as she mumbled, “Well, I never would have thought that.”

Bethenny snapped back, “Well, you thought wrong.” Then she went for the jugular. “I think you’re a fraud. You’ve come up with six fake businesses, and no one buys any of it,” she said. “Nobody believes any of it.” That’s when Sonja started crying.

“Right now, the aftermath of that chapter 11 is really hitting me. I’m just trying to get back to where I was. I thought the alcohol was a great idea,” Sonja said. “I just thought I would have a couple of things, the rosé and the prosecco — certainly not what you did, not sell it for 10 million or 100 million, just sell what I can in their restaurants.” Bethenny called for someone to get Sonja a tissue as Sonja continued, “I wasn’t thinking anything big like you’re doing.”

Bethenny softened enough to say that she wished Sonja well in her endeavors, but added, “I don’t believe that you didn’t do this intentionally.”

Real Housewives of New York City
The Real Housewives of New York City: Luann de Lesseps, Julianne Wainstein, Bethenny Frankel, Carole Radziwill, Ramona Singer, Dorinda Medley, Sonja Morgan

Dorinda Threatens to Call the Cops on Ramona

As anyone could predict, the truce between Ramona and Dorinda didn’t last long. Sonja, Ramona and Luann were all at an event being hosted by Dorinda and John when Rey, a guy who Luann had apparently dated over the summer, showed up. He was drunk — really drunk — and doing his best to work his way into the conversation with the women. Though he was noticeably creeping out Luann, Sonja and Ramona seemed happy to keep chatting with him.

When John decided that Rey was too intoxicated to stay at the party and asked him to leave, Ramona said that if John was throwing Rey out, she was leaving, too (which seemed odd since they didn’t know each other that well, and the guy was obviously terrible). This prompted John to announce he was throwing both Rey and Ramona out. Ramona replied by getting up in John’s face.

“How dare you ruin another event of mine!” Dorinda screamed at Ramona as the fight moved out onto the street. Ramona was pretty much going crazy at this point, screaming, “I don’t know what happened!” through her tears. Dorinda, angrier than ever, then threatened to call the police.

“Don’t try to put this s–t on John now. Go home!” she yelled.

But that didn’t mean John was off the hook either. After Ramona left, Dorinda put herself in a taxi and took off, too, ignoring John’s pleas that she stay.

Tell Us: Did Bethenny go too far with her harsh words to Sonja? And are you on Ramona or Dorinda’s side?

The Real Housewives of New York City airs on Bravo Wednesdays at 9 p.m. ET. 

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