Bethenny Frankel is looking back at her time as a cast member on The Real Housewives of New York City.
The Skinnygirl mogul recently opened up about her time on the show and revealed the reason she departed for a second time back in 2019 during an appearance on Paris Hilton's This Is Paris podcast, PEOPLE.
"I left because it became not who I really was anymore, and you can't do something out of fear," she told Hilton, 40, explaining that she "was literally there because of the money."
Frankel shared that the opportunity to join the Bravo hit reality series came at a time when she was "broke" and "didn't have anything to lose."
After she left following the first three seasons, Frankel was offered "a number I couldn't refuse" by Bravo to come back for season 7. Her return, she said, was "on very different terms," and she was able to work on other projects while starring on the show.
However, Frankel revealed that being a cast member on RHONY was "just not what I wanted to be doing anymore," she admitted.
"I didn't want to be having those conversations; I didn't want to be arguing about things that really don't matter to me," Frankel explained to Hilton.
Frankel said that she believes the show has "changed" since its 2008 inception: "I was there in the beginning when it was something that none of us really even knew what it was, and now it's something that … people have a preconceived notion about it, and they know what's going to happen."
"I mean, how many charity events can we go to? How many friends can we not support on vacations, and how much drama do we want to avoid and then go right into the drama on the vacation?" Frankel said. "So … the time had come [for me to leave]."
Frankel left RHONY in August 2019 to focus on other projects, including her philanthropy and family after a contract dispute reportedly did not go her way. She was a full-time cast member from the show’s inception in 2008 until its fourth season (2011). She returned to the show in 2015 for Season 7 and left again at the end of Season 11.
Since leaving the show she landed a competition reality show on HBO Max. In February the news was revealed that Frankel scored an eight-episode series, called “The Big Shot With Bethenny” (working title).
In September 2020, Frankel launched her own podcast called Just B, which she teamed with Endeavor Content for Just B, a podcast devoted to being a self-made mogul in business, lifestyle, and beyond.
Photo Credit: Bravo Media/NBCUniversal
