Alerting all Real Housewives of New YorkCity superfans: The First Lady of the series, Bethenny Frankel, just teased a confrontation with Luann de Lesseps in tonight’s episode. And you know what? We’re Team Bethenny.
The Skinny Girl mogul was a speaker at BlogHer Food, a conference for female entrepreneurs and content creators hosted by SheKnows’ parent company SHE Media. In a fireside chat with SHE Media editor-in-chief, Justine Goodman, Frankel touched on how she handles mom-shaming as a public figure. Besides side-eyeing and dismissing internet tolls, her IDGAF attitude also applies to people in her life — including her longtime RHONY costar, de Lesseps, who Frankel describes as having a history of mom-shaming.
And, listen, RHONY fans know that Frankel and de Lesseps have a complicated relationship at best. Already this season we’ve seen de Lesseps talk behind Frankel’s back about some seriously silly stuff (need we remind you of that whole Berkshires shark room debacle?). To Frankel’s credit, she seems to take most of it in stride. Where she draws the line, understandably, is when it comes to her kid.
“The show is on tonight and there’s something in there where Luanne gets annoyed I didn’t stay at her cabaret until midnight on a Tuesday, which was Halloween,” Frankel began. After trick-or-treating with her eight-year-old daughter, Bryn, Frankel went for a brief stint at the former countess’ event. “[De Lesseps] was annoyed that I didn’t see her perform and left at 11:30 and she said, ‘She’s watching her daughter sleep?'”
Without missing a beat, Frankel laid into that comment: “I do watch my daughter sleep. I want to be home with her even though she’s sleeping. I don’t apologize. I am a single mom; this is who I am. I don’t care.”
“I’m never going to regret not going to Luanne’s cabaret on my deathbed, but I will regret not having spent more time with my kid,” Frankel added to a round of roaring applause.
Watch how is all went down in the clip below.
Speaking with SheKnows before she hit the stage, Frankel shared just how much of that mantra translates to her everyday life. When asked what advice she would give to new working moms, she laid it out straight on the table: prioritize, balance and stay organized.
“You just want to be present at work and present when you’re with your child and not be distracted by your kids while at work and not be distracted with work while you’re with your kids,” Frankel said. “You have to not apologize for working and have quality time versus worrying about being there every second. You have to be organized.”
With more women staying in the workforce after having children, work-life balance seems like a myth or only achieved through Sisyphean struggle. But Frankel seems to have it down to a science: “Work is work, and mommy time is mommy time.”
The Real Housewives of New York City airs Wednesdays at 9 p.m. ET on Bravo.
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