Pop Culture Confessions: Bethenny Frankel's TikTok
Mention(ing) it all!
Let me start by saying that I’m not super into TikTok.
As we slowly approach the release date for my book, I realize that I might need to become more of a ~creator~ there. For authors, it’s BookTok’s world and we’re just living in it. It is what it is! In the meantime, though, I’m purely a consumer of content there—and a rare one.
There are, however, a couple of accounts that I find myself consistently falling into as very real online rabbit holes. When I do allow myself to scroll TikTok, I’ll navigate to these feeds and lose an embarrassing amount of time “catching up” on their latest videos… and/or scrolling through older content “just to make sure” I haven’t missed anything especially juicy.
One of these accounts belongs to Bethenny Frankel.
I hear all of your reactions through the screen: the groaning, the sighing, the laughter, and maybe even whatever noise is associated with recognition and kinship from those of you who, like me, first came to learn about Bethenny from her days on the Real Housewives of New York and have followed her on the wild ride that’s ensued since.
It’s precisely because I can hear all of those reactions that I’ve decided to take on a Pop Culture Confession for Bethenny’s TikTok. It’s the first time I’ve shared a TikTok-centric installment of this series—and since we all know how much our girl Beth loves making history, I guess that’s pretty fitting.
Pop Culture Confessions is a place where I break down the media I love but feel weird (or worse) about. I’ll give myself the space to fangirl while also being transparent about my ambivalence (or worse) and how I might be able to untangle it. You can check out the last installment in the series HERE.
(It’s been a while since I shared one of these! Does that mean my pop culture intake has become less shameful? Uh…. no.)
Before I break down all of my thoughts on the TikTok of it all, let’s talk about how we got from this:
… to this:
Rest assured that this very brief, very inconsequential history lesson has been written with those of you who are unfamiliar with Bethenny in mind. I realize that there are many people who have opted out of this roller coaster journey with her, a decision I deeply respect.
Born in 1970, Bethenny Frankel lived plenty of years outside the public eye, but here are a couple of the milestones that put her front and center:
Her 2005 appearance on The Apprentice: Martha Stewart, on which she finished as the runner-up. The two reunited in an interview on Bethenny’s short-lived talk show in 2014, when Bethenny confronted Martha about why she hadn’t been chosen as the winner. Yikes.
A starring role in the original cast of Real Housewives of New York, which premiered on Bravo in 2008. From the beginning, Bethenny was cast as the sort of antithesis to the uptown, old money vibe that many of her cast mates brought to the table. At the time, she was hustling to get her health food business off the ground, and she became a (polarizing) fan favorite with her one-liners and straight-talking sensibility, which often felt like a grounding force for the rest of the show. If you happen to have 16 minutes to spare, you can watch THIS highlight reel of her run on RHONY, which spanned the first three seasons, along with a second stint from season 7 to 11.
Her Skinnygirl Cocktails line, which was subsequently sold to Beam Global for an estimated $100 million in 2011. At the time, this was an especially big deal not only because of the dollar amount, but because it represented a departure from the usual old boys club vibe of the liquor industry.
A very public divorce from ex Jason Hoppy, who co-starred with her on a Bravo spin-off show called Bethenny Ever After. They were only married for two years, but their split took nearly a decade to settle. It feels icky to speculate about this and many people already have, but from what I can tell, the ugliness was both financial and related to custody of their daughter, Brynn.
A guest spot as one of the Sharks on Shark Tank, which she reprised several times between 2017 and 2019
Skinnygirl products beyond the cocktails (she retained her rights to the phrase/branding in the aforementioned Beam deal), including salad dressing, shape wear, preserves, and jeans. Some of those product lines are still kicking, while others have quietly disappeared.
Her bestselling books, among them Naturally Thin, A Place of Yes (I’m ashamed to admit I read this one after watching her frantically navigate its publication on Bethenny Ever After), Business is Personal, and I Suck at Relationships So You Don’t Have To
The BStrong Disaster Relief Initiative, which has furnished over $400 million to folks impacted by natural disasters
Clearly, the woman has had her hand in a lot of projects, and it’s made her very successful in spite of plenty of public criticism and some personal setbacks.
Consistent throughout her endeavors is a scrappy, headstrong, prove-’em-wrong attitude. Bethenny has written and spoken extensively about the challenges she faced growing up, which makes her ascension that much more impressive.
And I’ll be honest: there was a day in the not-so-distant past when I would have listed her as a real inspiration, someone I’d like to take for coffee in search of professional advice, a name I might have dropped as a possible guest in one of those dream dinner party scenarios.
(Those days are gone, and I think the rest of this post will explain why.)
Currently Reading: Magnolia Parks by Jessa Hastings
I just finished this one last night! I loved the grown-up Gossip Girl energy of it—so much style and money and glamour—but I think it was 50-100 pages too long. I was into the will-they-or-won’t-they relationship elements at the beginning, but by the tenth round of indecision, I was a little bored. I still might check out the sequels later in the summer, though—and I’m definitely planning to read the latest novel from Jessa Hastings, The Conditions of Will.
After all that, here we are in 2025.
Like many current and former reality television personalities, Bethenny has parlayed her TV success into the influencer economy. She’s worked her way through all of the platforms, and in recent years, seems to have found (what she believes to be) her niche on TikTok.
I don’t pretend to have a truly comprehensive picture of her life on the app, but as far as I can tell and remember, it started with a lot of make-up videos, during which Bethenny would review various products and “de-influence” viewers, telling them what fancy brands were really worth the money and what they were better off buying cheap at the drugstore. From there, it snowballed into lots of other content: shopping videos, snack reviews, organizational ideas, home tours, hacks, and recipes (Kelly Bensimon might have you believing that this is a lie, but Bethenny is, technically, a trained chef). She’s also dipped her toe into what I can only describe as… takes?
Some of the takes are hot, others are cold, and plenty of them are straight-up controversial. Much has been written about the “unhinged” nature of Bethenny’s TikTok presence these days. I think it’s kind of gross to speculate about someone’s mental health based on their GRWM videos, but I guess we can only evaluate what people give us.
Anyway, Bethenny will always be Bethenny, which means she’s leaned tf in to the “unhinged” label. At this point, I don’t think we can say for sure if it’s real messiness or her new brand. Bethenny Frankel is, if nothing else, a branding expert.
But it’s time for me to confess. I’m going to start with the bad.
Here are the reasons I don’t feel so great about following along on Bethenny’s TikTok train wreck journey.
Bethenny has a tendency to make everything her business. This was part of her character (and, arguably, charm) on RHONY, but I do think she has a tendency to take it too far in her influencer chapter. She seems to have no qualms commenting on basically every public person—and much of the commentary is critical. I actually think these are her worst videos because her opinion of someone like Prince Harry is 0% interesting to me. Plus, I would have a lot more patience for this content if she paired it with productive, informative videos about people in power who actually have an impact on our lives.
I think it’s cool that Bethenny tries to present herself as an advocate of the people, sniffing out the needlessly expensive products and catching brands in traps that might hurt consumers. Here’s the annoying part: she rarely (if ever) acknowledges her own privilege, and the resulting hypocrisy inherent in her content. According to the internet, her current net worth is $80 million. Whether this is super accurate or not is kind of irrelevant once we get into that range. It’s cool that Bethenny wants me to know where to buy cheap mascara, but let’s not pretend that she doesn’t have the pricey stuff to use for herself.
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