Bethenny Frankel Calls Out Andy Cohen For Asking ‘Problematic’ Questions on WWHL

“He’s always protected, and we’re always f–king skinned alive with Tabasco sauce all over us, naked,” said Frankel, as she and podcast guest NeNe Leakes reflected on their former friendships with the host.

On Thursday’s episode of her Just B with Bethenny Frankel podcast, the former Real Housewives of New York star slammed Andy and his late-night talk show, claiming the Bravo EP asks his guests “problematic” questions, while he’s “always protected.”

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“The last time I went on that show, I was with my daughter,” Bethenny told her guest, RHOA alum NeNe Leakes. “We’re so used to that environment … he’s always protected. He’s asking these questions like, ‘Who’s the ugliest Housewife?’ And you’re like, ‘Oh, let me think.’ A question that bad, like, ‘Who’s the worst mother?”

“Questions that are so problematic,” she continued, sharing more examples of questions she deemed “problematic.”

“All these things that somehow he’s always protected, and we’re always f–king skinned alive with Tabasco sauce all over us, naked,” Bethenny added. “… We’re out there, and we get thrown like pieces of meat to just get ripped apart by that vehicle that we kiss the ass to get on. … And we all play the god damn f–king game … because we’re using him like he’s using us, because we want to promote our s–t. … But it all just seems so gross.”

Meanwhile, during the two-part conversation on Bethenny’s podcast, both Bethenny, 52, and NeNe, 55, didn’t hold back while sharing their thoughts about Andy, with whom they’ve both had a nasty falling out.

Looking back, NeNe doesn’t believe she and Andy were ever “good friends.”

“My good friends, I go to their house, or I visit their home at some point, so I never visited his home,” she told Bethenny. “So I’d have to say, no I don’t think feel like we were good friends. I feel like we were probably a little more than [colleagues] because I could call him on his cell. I have gone out with him, out on the town, and I’ve gone drinking with him, and I’ve partied with him. … [But] I did not know where it stood. I thought we had a good relationship.”

According to the Real Housewives of Atlanta star, all Housewives play a “real game” with Andy.

“He’s at the top, and he is moving everybody around on the board,” NeNe said, to which Bethenny agreed that all Housewives stars are “in the game.”

“There’s always questions, ‘Who texts you the most? Who do you text the most?’ And the thing is, we’re all in the game,” she told NeNe, before recalling a personal experience. “I remember one year, I was off the Housewives, and I went to his house for his Christmas party, and there were all these famous people there, and I felt special. And then, you know, I’m sitting next to him at this reunion, and now I feel special. And it reminds me of you with your parents … we all want his approval, we all want to be the favorite. We want to be able to say, ‘I’ve been on that show the most.’ It’s like a calling card.”

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“There’s a psychology that goes on with this group and this show,” she added. “He used to be an executive, and he’s a producer, which is like this power position. … It’s tricky.”

Bethenny said she felt like she was in a “hybrid world” with Andy, in which they didn’t “like each other.”

“I thought this whole time that Andy and I were kind of really friends ’cause we text back and forth, but we don’t really — I’ve been to his house once for a Christmas party 10 years ago,” she explained. “Every time we’re together, we’re only talking about the Housewives. Am I coming on, am I going off? Is that person getting fired, is that person coming on? We’re not really — you know what your real friends are like.”

“So now I’m in this hybrid world where I think, ‘We kind of really don’t like each other, but we’re both playing this game,'” she continued. “And yet, when things are happening for me, he’s not really congratulating me. And I feel like he has this sort of resentment because I’m supposed to be beneath him, because we sort of came up at the same time. … So I’m thinking, ‘I don’t think he likes me at all. I think we were both playing this game for some time.'”

The Skinnygirl founder added, “One day I just decided not to be afraid and open my f-k-ing mouth because the only person I was protecting in that whole realm was him, and he hasn’t been protecting me.”

NeNe agreed, telling Bethenny, “I kind of feel the same you do. I don’t think he ever liked me.”