Bethenny Frankel challenged Kelly Dodd’s assertion that Bravo and NBCUniversal never forced her to drink alcohol – despite recent allegations against the network amid the Real Housewives of New York alum’s call for a reality TV union.
In a September interview for the “Miss Understood with Rachel Uchitel” podcast, Kelly suggested she was confused by the alcohol allegations and claimed the network never told her to drink or say anything.
After Kelly’s comments, Bethenny called out the “irony” of it on her “ReWives” podcast, referring to a past clip in which Shannon pressured Kelly to drink tequila.
“The irony of that statement is that Kelly Dodd was on an episode where the Housewives were forcing her to drink, and Bravo aired and production facilitated it and helped plan it,” said Bethenny. “And it happened.”
Bethenny indicated that ‘Housewives’ blackout many scenes on the show, which is perhaps why Kelly allegedly forgot about the scene in question.
“[But] production watched it and aired it,” said Bethenny. “So that’s aging like buttermilk.”
Fan account @byewighellodrama then shared the past clip, in which Kelly stated clearly at a table that she wasn’t going to drink.
“I suggest tequila,” said her castmate Shannon Beador, “because it’s an upper.”
“I’m not drinking anything, I promise you,” repeated Kelly, before Shannon expressed, “Do you like your tequila on the rocks? … Let’s get her the same as me. tequila.”
In a confessional interview, Kelly stated, “What the f**k Shannon? No means no. Why are pushing me to have drinks? I don’t want to drink.”
To be fair to Kelly, her recent podcast statements were about Bravo and NBCUniversal – not her former castmembers – though Bethenny is suggesting that production “facilitated” the situation.
Around the same time, Bethenny had dinner with several stars from the network, including Larsa Pippen, Raquel Leviss and NeNe Leakes.
“Thanks for a beautiful night ladies,” she wrote in a caption of her Instagram post, after sharing an image of the group. “I’m still cleaning up all the spilled tea.🍵”
