There's a reason Bethenny Frankel named her company Skinnygirl. The Real Housewives of New York City star, who returned to the Bravo reality series for the upcoming seventh season, is self-admittedly petite — but not as petite as her critics might have you believe.
Appearing on the Today show on Monday, April 6, Frankel addressed the never-ending scrutiny over her weight. "People do comment a lot. Yeah, I am thin. I mean, I have a brand called Skinnygirl, so it's not a big giant mystery," she told host Savannah Guthrie. "You can't please everybody — you try to please everybody, you end up pleasing nobody."
That said, Frankel understands where the concern comes from. "Sometimes I do agree that I look too thin, especially when I'm tired, especially when I'm haggard," she admitted. She stressed, however, that she has a perfectly healthy appetite.
"I do eat," she insisted. "There are nutritionists that comment that I don't even weigh a hundred pounds — I weigh 115 pounds. I'll be happy to get on the Today show scale!"
The Bravolebrity also opened up to Guthrie about her return to RHONY, which she previously left after season three. "People say that because of the failure of my talk show I had to come back," she shared. "I was offered Shark Tank and Dancing With the Stars and Cinderella — but I wanted to go home again."
That wasn't always the case. "I really never thought I'd go back," she said on Today. "It had gotten to a point where I really didn't enjoy it anymore. Now I'm so glad that I waited, because I'm really enjoying it. I respect the women, I respect what everyone's going through."
Frankel is one of eight women on the show this season, along with Sonja Morgan, Carole Radziwill, Heather Thomson, Kristen Taekman, Ramona Singer, LuAnn de Lesseps, and Dorinda Medley.
"Some of them I've known for many years," she told Guthrie of her costars. "It feels like I'm going back to high school — like a high school reunion."
She added, too, that she has a "different perspective" on the series after taking some time off from it. "There is drama, but people are going through so many interesting things personally — so many transformations and transitions — that I think it's the most interesting season," she said.
Don't expect any hair-pulling, though. "I've never personally seen someone smash a glass at someone else or rip someone's hair extension out or flip a table," Frankel mused. "I've never personally seen that, and I've seen a lot. I do think [the show is] real, and we're going through real things."
