Bethenny Frankel called it “brutal” to hear about ex-fiancé Paul Bernon’s new relationship with Aurora Culpo.
“Last week, I started to see my name in headlines being portrayed as the jilted ex who had been upgraded from, that my ex had moved on from me with a younger woman,” Frankel, 53, shared during her “Just B” podcast on Sunday, July 7. “It regurgitated the continuous narrative that he is a very under the radar person who had now gotten serious with someone, had a girlfriend, met her family, met her kids. She had met his kids. He was in a serious relationship. He had bought her presents, and they were a new unit.”
The Real Housewives of New York City alum felt she was being portrayed as “some sort of spinster that’s just home crying,” but she was “really happy” after the breakup — until now.
“It was definitely shocking, and it’s embarrassing,” she continued. “Hearing about your ex-fiancé committing to another woman shortly thereafter on their first date, and then being inside their relationship, hearing about their sex and their gifts and meeting each other’s kids, and the level of commitment was gutting.”
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Us Weekly broke the news in May that Frankel and Bernon, 45, split several months prior after six years together. Bernon has since moved on with Olivia Culpo’s older sister, Aurora, 35. (Bernon was photographed as Aurora’s date to some events during Olivia and Christian McCaffrey’s wedding weekend in Rhode Island late last month.)
“Everyone has experienced breaking up with someone and then hearing about them with someone else. We’ve all been there,” Frankel explained during Sunday’s podcast episode. “Now times that by 100, because you’re reading it all day every day in articles.”
The former Bravo star said Bernon being portrayed as an “under the radar” guy is what upset her the most because she in turn could be seen as “the villain.”
“In this case, the one who must be over the radar,” she continued. “When ironically, I was the one who was very much under the radar. And I just want to say that I’m OK.”
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Frankel also offered more details regarding their split, revealing she was the one who “initiated” the breakup earlier this year.
“I wasn’t happy, something needed to change. It was certainly mutual,” she said. “The relationship had its challenges, and nobody dumped anybody.”
Elsewhere in the episode, she added: “It wasn’t a relationship I wanted to be in, and it wasn’t a person that I wanted to be with anymore, to be honest, for many reasons that I really had to come to terms with.”
Seeing Bernon move on makes Frankel feel as though she’s going through the split all over again.
“It was rough because I had to experience the same breakup twice, but way worse the second time because I had to hear about all these details. And, you know, I do let the truth get in the way of a good story. I am in therapy,” she concluded. “I am working on myself. I am confident. I am single. I am independent. I am happy. And I will survive this.”
