Bethenny Frankel claimed she was behind Lisa Rinna’s casting on “The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills.”
During a March 2025 appearance on “The Skinny Confidential” podcast, the former “Real Housewives of New York City” star reflected on how other stars followed her lead in using reality TV fame to launch businesses. “Everybody copied,” Frankel said. “I mean everybody, including Lisa and Harry [Hamlin], saying that, you know, it was for the business platform.”
“Lisa and Harry, I was the one who told Andy [Cohen] about Lisa,” Frankel further claimed. “I was the one who told him. He didn’t like Lisa. He didn’t want to have her on. I was the one who told Lisa to do ‘The Apprentice’ and the ‘Housewives.’”
“Harry said, ‘Ask Bethenny,’” she added. “He didn’t want her to do it. They’re not going to say that now because they’re mad about the sauce, but it’s okay.”
Rinna was a main cast member on RHOBH for eight seasons before announcing her departure from the show in January 2023.
Andy Cohen Once Admitted He Didn’t Think Rinna Was a Good Fit for RHOBH
Bravo
Cohen has admitted that he didn’t initially think Rinna was a good fit for RHOBH. During a 2018 episode of the “Watch What Happens Live After Show,” he revealed that the “Days of Our Lives” alum was in talks to join the first season of RHOBH four years before she actually signed on.
“We did talk to Lisa at the beginning and put her on tape, and I felt very strongly for better or worse that – I felt like it was…I didn’t get it and I thought it should be all unknown people,” Cohen admitted of the original casting. “I felt like Lisa Rinna was too much of a personality and name. I just felt like the show needed to establish itself on its own.”
Once the show was established with OG stars such as Kyle Richards and Lisa Vanderpump, Cohen told himself, “Oh my God, we need Lisa Rinna, it’s the time.’”
In the same episode, Cohen admitted he was not in favor of Frankel joining RHONY early on. “I was like, she was just on the Martha Stewart ‘Apprentice,’” the Bravo producer said. “And, I thought, she just was on a reality show, people are going to think she’s just going from reality show to reality show, I don’t get this. So, I was not in favor of Bethenny coming on.”
Harry Hamlin Responded to Bethenny Frankel’s Review of His Pasta Sauce
Getty
Frankel’s comment about Rinna and Hamlin being “mad about the sauce” came months after she posted a scathing TikTok review of Hamlin’s product, Harry’s Famous Sauce. In a video review, Frankel blindly tasted Hamlin’s sauce versus the already established Rao’s brand.
“No! I don’t know what that is!” she complained of Hamlin’s long-awaited sauce brand. She then questioned why the pasta sauce entrepreneur bothered to send her a sample.
Hamlin told The Daily Mail he had no hard feelings toward Frankel. “I’m a huge fan of Bethenny’s, and all I can say is that taste is a personal thing,” he said. “Some people have good taste, some people have bad taste, but you know, there’s no accounting for it, right? That’s the saying, there’s no accounting for taste. …If somebody gives us a try, if you like it, you like it, if you don’t, hey, buy something else.”
