Bethenny Frankel Shares Message From Olivia Culpo Amid Ex Paul Bernon and Aurora Culpo Rumors
Bethenny Frankel is sharing how she really feels about those rumors regarding her former fiancé Paul Bernon and Aurora Culpo and the exchange she had with Olivia Culpo.
“I have messaged with Olivia Culpo,” The Real Housewives of New York City alum said on the July 7 episode of her podcast Just B With Bethenny Frankel. “I reached out to her before this media spectacle got out of hand, and she responded to me, which is sweet because she just got married.”
And Bethenny suggested her conversation with Olivia—who recently wed Christian McCaffrey—went well.
“She was really nice and said she's a fan, and she has all my books, and she really looks up to me, and that was really kind,” she continued. “And it was actually a nice warm blanket during this whole crazy thing.”
The whole thing started after Bethenny and Paul ended their engagement after six years together.
“It was a breakup that I wanted to process alone, privately, and I didn't feel that I owed anybody any explanation,” the reality star shared on her podcast. “And the breakup was something that I initiated. I wasn't happy. Something needed to change. It was certainly mutual. The relationship had its challenges, and nobody dumped anybody.”
While Bethenny said she “went through it” after the split, she knew parting ways “was ultimately the right thing.”
“I really made peace with it, and I was happy,” the Skinnygirl founder—who is mom to 14-year-old daughter Bryn from her former marriage to Jason Hoppy—added. “I was thriving, and I was surviving. I was looking good, feeling good. I was in therapy. I wasn't medicating with men. I wasn't distracting. I was comfortable being alone. I was in a place that I had decided I wanted to be, and I was happy and strong enjoying the summer with my daughter.”
Then, she noted, she got “hit with an onslaught of articles.” At first, Bethenny viewed reports about Aurora—whom she never names—and Paul as a “blip on the radar.”
“Then 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, and that 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,” she said. “And the media presented me as some sort of spinster that's just home crying, suffering a breakup and watching this new transition, when in fact I was really happy.”
Still, Bethenny admitted reading details about the rumored romance shortly after her ended engagement was “brutal” and made her feel like she was going through the breakup all over again.
“The one thing that was difficult was constantly reading the headline that my ex is under the radar, making him the hero and me the villain,” she explained. “Isn't the woman always the villain, the spinster, the old maid, the one upgraded from, the crazy one? In this case, the one who must be over the radar when, ironically, I was the one who was very much under the radar?”
However, Bethenny is moving on. “I am in therapy. I am working on myself. I am confident. I am single. I am independent,” she said. “I am happy, and I will survive this.”
Meanwhile, Page Six recently reported that Paul and Aurora broke up after two months of dating.
E! News has reached out to Aurora’s and Paul’s reps for comment on the split rumors but has yet to hear back.
For the latest breaking news updates, click here to download the E! News App