Living with a potentially fatal food allergy is hard work; just ask Bethenny Frankel. The Real Housewives of New York star has been open about her serious fish allergy, which results in a deadly reaction if she eats or even smells the sea dwellers, and now she’s taking things to a whole new level.
While en route to California on Friday, January 25, the Skinnygirl founder, 48, took to her Instagram Stories to show off her new travel disguise, which she hopes will deter other airplane passengers from recognizing her and being annoyed by her ailment.
“This is how I travel on planes now so no one can see who the pain in the ass w the allergy is … #fishallergybitch,” she wrote alongside a snapshot of herself wearing a wide-brimmed hat, glasses and scarf covering much of her face. In another photo, Frankel held an open newspaper in front of her face and made small holes in the publication for her glasses.
Though it’s good to see the entrepreneur poking fun at what it’s like to travel with a potentially deadly illness, her jokes come after not one but two health scares related to air travel.
Earlier this month, the reality star boarded a flight where fish was set to be served as the in-flight meal. “Called airline mult x to say I have fish allergy. Got on & they’re serving bass,” she explained on Twitter at the time. “They couldn’t not serve it they said. Then they were turning around which I protested bc it would delay people. Cabin asked to not serve it & pilot made announcement to plane. That was fun. #epilife.” The plane didn’t end up turning around.
A similar thing happened several weeks later when the Shark Tank panelist almost took another problematic flight. “You can’t write this. Now another airline is serving cooked salmon for my next flight,” she tweeted on January 23. “I have contacted them multiple times to no avail. I guess I’ll have to take another poll w my cabin. BC everyone is dying to eat cooked fish on a plane.”
Both airplane mishaps followed a scary incident in December 2018 in which Frankel nearly died after eating soup at a hotel that, unbeknownst to her, had fish in it. “I have [a] rare fish allergy. Sun, I had soup, itched & was unconscious for 15 mins then [taken] to ER & ICU for 2 days w BP of 60/40,” she shared at the time. “I couldn’t talk, see, thought I had a stroke & [was] dying & told if 5 mins later I’d be dead. 911 & EPI saved me. I’ll never not carry an #epipen.”
That ordeal, Frankel said, left her with vision and memory problems. “Can anaphylactic shock affect memory or vision afterwards?” she asked her Twitter followers in early January. “I had 20 20 [vision] & it does not appear to be the case now.”
In addition to her necessary disguises, the Bravo personality has also vowed to wear a medical ID bracelet and donate EpiPens to those in need following her health scare. “This will be a mission of mine,” she has said.
