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Bethenny Frankel opened up about ignoring the red flags early on in her relationship with her ex-husband Jason Hoppy on a recent episode of her podcast.
As she also admitted to suffering from “massive trust issues” and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) following their years-long divorce on another episode, the Real Housewives of New York City alum, 53, revealed she overlooked warning signs and “convinced” herself to be with Jason while at a “low, vulnerable point” of her life.
“I wasn’t really that into him,” Bethenny admitted on the April 12 episode of Just B Divorced, via Page Six. “I convinced myself to be that into him, and when I would hit a low during that general period, it would be like a security blanket and I would like logically say this is something I should do.”
Bethenny and Jason began dating in 2008 and shortly thereafter, Bethenny took note of some odd behavior from her partner after he stayed with her following an evening out.
“Then he asked the driver to take him back downtown to get his car,” she said, stating his actions were either “endearing that he wanted to hang out with me” or a lie and “that he wanted to hang out with me.”
Bethenny was also taken aback at how soon Jason expressed interest in having a child, revealing that he was concerned about her age.
“I did not think of this as a red flag. I don’t know why I didn’t,” she noted. “I think I was 36 or maybe 37, like your biological clock is ticking, but I wasn’t 42. And I was also about to launch a liquor brand. But I led with like my heart and not my logic and my mind and not my gut and my stomach. And I’m not blaming anyone else — my body, my own choice.”
Ultimately, despite her concerns, Bethenny married Jason in March 2010 and gave birth to their now-13-year-old daughter, Bryn Casey Hoppy, two months later.
Then, less than three years later, as Jason’s charm turned “toxic, they separated. But their divorce wasn’t finalized until 2021.
As for the final “fire engine red flag,” Bethenny said that came amid a conversation about Nick Lachey and Jessica Simpson’s 2006 divorce, during which Jason said, “[Nick] should take whatever he can get from her.”
“But nevertheless, I ended up getting engaged and I ended up doing a prenup really fast that my lawyer said I should not allow you to sign. But I said, I’m marrying a regular guy, a small town guy from a small you know town family, a regular guy. He does not want my money, famous last words,” Bethenny said. “I was pregnant. I was not happy in my relationship. I kept going because I was doing a television show and I was very stupid.”
As RHONY fans well know, Bethenny had much more than Jason when they wed and because of that, their divorce, and the finances involved, was long and drawn out.
Due to what she went through with Jason, she doesn’t want to repeat that financial dynamic “because it becomes a problem.”
“I’ve been burned. I have massive trust issues, and I have post-traumatic stress disorder. It was literally the most traumatizing thing I will hopefully ever go through in my life,” she said on the April 11 episode of Just B, via Page Six. “I thought I would never survive it. I did not see a way out. It was suffocating. I thought I was gonna be miserable for the rest of my life.”
According to Bethenny, her and Jason’s messy split was “more tortuous” than the death of a loved one and made her feel like a “powerless, tortured” individual.
“I have had every single f*cing thing except for physical abuse done to me, and I am an expert on this topic,” she claimed, noting that she’s allegedly been faced with “fraud,” “forgery,” “multiple trials on custody,” “being followed,” and “allegedly being hacked.”
“I have been through a f*cking war –– a war. I have questioned myself as a human, as a parent, because I was told so many times otherwise how terrible I was and disgusting and old and irrelevant and so abused, because I had no power to get out of it,” she continued. “How a person who is so smart and so successful could make such poor judgment calls and decisions or just not know or just have a bad hand, but it’s been a journey, so I’m ready to discuss it.”
Over 10 years after their split, and now that Bryn “knows all about” the divorce, Bethenny said she’s finally ready to talk about “something that has been impossible to talk about” for years and will be doing so on her podcasts.
Also, on Thursday’s episode of Just B, Bethenny seemingly signaled her years-long engagement to Paul Bernon.
“It’s why I have not gotten married again, or I’m not sure if I would ever get married again,” she shared.
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