In real life, it's tough when a friendship ends, especially when both people are part of the same social group. On a reality franchise like the Real Housewives, these moments are played out in front of an audience, as cameras follow the cast members as their relationships change and fall apart.
Bethenny Frankel and Jill Zarin had a big fight that ended their friendship, and Jill has had some arguments with Ramona Singer.
Bethenny also had a feud with another co-star on The Real Housewives of New York: Carole Radziwill. The two were super close and yet their friendship crashed and burned. Let's take a look inside their feud.
Carole's Tough Time
Viewers saw big arguments in season 12 of RHONY and it's true that each season seems to have at least one fight.
Fans of RHONY got to know Carole Radziwill when she joined the show in 2011 for the fifth season. She was married to Anthony Radziwill, who passed away in 1999 from cancer. This was, of course, a heartbreaking and devastating time in Carole's life.
Bethenny often said that Carole had stopped contacting her and didn't seem to want to be friends. She felt left out, but Carole said that she had a tough summer where she helped a friend whose husband had passed away. The friend is named Cassandra Grey.
While fans of RHONY had thought that Carole was neglecting the friendship in season 10, as that's how it seemed, it was only at the reunion that viewers heard what happened.
According to Refinery 29, Carole hosted an L.A. dinner and had friends come to Montauk, and Bethenny said she wasn't invited to those. Carole explained that Cassandra, who had recently become a widow, was having a hard time and couldn't be around people she didn't know.
Carole said that Bethenny kept texting her and she wanted to discuss it at a different time. Carole said, “So I say, ‘It’s a lot and not a conversation for text. I’m relaxing. Please, let’s talk after the new year. XO.' And [Bethenny] continues to text, ‘Well we’re friends. I keep trying out. You’re shutting me out. It’s hurting my feelings.'"
It sounds like because Carole was with her friend, she only had so much emotional bandwidth, and she wasn't able to talk to Bethenny about their friendship at that time.
Carole's Side Of The Story
According to Cheat Sheet, Carole Radziwill went on a podcast, The Juicy Scoop with Heather McDonald, and said that she assumed everything was okay with the friendship but season 10 of RHONY told a different story.
Carole said of the show, "It’s like they take the littlest thing and turn it into a life-changing event.” She mentioned how the Real Housewives always has a "storyline."
She also explained, "The audience sometimes knows things that are going on that the characters in the show don’t know. So I didn’t know [the drama with Frankel] was going on. I was having a good time on the vacation. And then when you watch it back you’re like, ‘Oh what? She’s crying that we’re not friends?’ Which wasn’t even true.”
Adam?
There was a bit of drama regarding Carole's ex-boyfriend, Adam Kenworthy, as Dorina Medley asked him to take photos for disaster relief after Hurricane Harvey. Adam didn't want to work for free and Bethenny said "it just rubbed me the wrong way." Later Bethenny said "I think Adam is a good person. He is entitled to not want to work for free."
Carole tweeted that her bad blood with Bethenny didn't have anything to do with Adam. She said, "No it has to do with Bethenny and the way she talks about me behind my back and to my face. It's all Bethenny. Twilight Zone....."
According to Bravo TV, Carole explained it as "a little too much Bethenny and not enough Carole in the relationship" when she went on The Jenny McCarthy Show.
Where do Bethenny and Carole stand now? It doesn't sound like they have repaired their friendship, but they have seen each other.
In 2019, Bethenny Frankel went on Watch What Happens Live and told Andy Cohen that she had seen Carole and they could be polite and civil to one another. According to Nicki Swift, she said, "I ran into her at a charity event a couple of months ago. We had a really nice time. I saw her at the bar, we had a conversation, we talked about [her rumored on-again boyfriend] Adam and just life. You know, it was nice. We actually just had a moment. It was clean. I like when things are clean."