Bravo reportedly pulled out all the stops when writing up Bethenny Frankel’s contracts for “Real Housewives of New York City.”
“They asked me what I wanted. I asked for it. I got it,” the Skinnygirl founder told Us Weekly of how negotiations with the network were handled when she returned for Season 7 of the reality show.
Frankel raved that not only was she able to get the pay she wanted, but she got Bravo to agree on when she wanted to shoot, down to how many hours of filming, and “the way” she wanted to shoot the show.
“I had a very cushy contract,” the “Bethenny Ever After” alum, 54, admitted.
Page Six has reached out to Bravo for comment but did not immediately hear back.
Frankel claimed that because she had such a favorable agreement, it “created some resentment” with some of her other cast members. She filmed Season 7 with Luann de Lesseps, Ramona Singer, Sonja Morgan, Carole Radziwill, Heather Thomson, Kristen Taekman, and Dorinda Medley.
“I was able to come to a cast trip two days late, leave two days early. I would maximize the most of the content when I was there,” the “Big Shot With Bethenny” alum added.
Frankel began her journey with Bravo in 2008 for Season 1 of “RHONY.” At the time, she received a much lower pay of only $7,250 for a full season.
“I wasn’t looking at the money … you can’t always look at the money, you have to look at the big picture, the other opportunities, you have to look at the whole board, not just the pieces — and the money was just the pieces,” the businesswoman said on “The Tamron Hall Show” in 2021.
During her tenure on “RHONY,” Frankel catapulted into superstardom and launched successful businesses, including her popular Skinnygirl brand, her own talk show, book deals and spinoff shows.
After a four-season hiatus, the Bravolebrity returned for Season 7, but then exited the show again in 2019.
She said in a statement at the time that she was leaving to focus on her “next chapter,” adding, “It’s time to move on and focus on my daughter, my philanthropy and my production partnership with Mark Burnett, producing and starring in shows which represent a shift in the conversation for women.”
Page Six learned at the time, though, that the real reason Frankel quit was because of money issues.
We were told the multimillionaire “threw out a huge number to see if Bravo would agree” but “they didn’t.”
She then went on to launch a public rampage against the network dubbed “reality TV reckoning,” in which she argued that Bravo’s production tactics were “toxic” and it needed “systemic” changes.
Frankel told Us Weekly, however, that she is open to going back on reality TV for the right dollar amount.
“Someone just recently asked me to do a show with them. They’re pretty famous, and we could get a show. But, like, I don’t want that bulk,” she explained.
“I don’t want the bulk of the suits. I don’t want the bulk of the camera, the shooting, the hair, the makeup, the editing … It would be a very specific situation, and it would have to be an astronomical sum.”
Frankel concluded that her ideal pay to return would be “definitely seven figures for a couple of months.”
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