Bethenny Ever After

About “Bethenny Ever After…”
Bethenny Frankel is back and busier than ever – in the first season of the series - “Bethenny Getting Married?” she had the wedding and the baby but now is it happily ever after? Between motherhood, marriage, Skinnygirl and skating, this quick-witted New Yorker has a lot on her plate. In the second series of the season – “Bethenny Ever After…” - watch as she continues to grow her business and venture into new areas, all while juggling motherhood and marriage. When things get stressful, Bethenny manages to handle it all with her entertaining wit and biting humor. “Bethenny Ever After” premieres Monday, February 28 at 10PM ET/PT.

On Monday I got the opportunity to sit in on a phone conference with Bethenny. To say that I was thrilled with it is an understatement. It made my Valentine’s Day!

Let me start out by saying Bethenny is EXACLTY as she portrays herself, she is no-holds barred. She says what she thinks and she means what she says!
Bethenny’s daughter Bryn spent the interview on her lap (Motherhood ALWAYS comes first!) trying to grab the phone or eat a blanket, whatever fit her mood at the given moment and she was full of baby talk~ it made me miss those days (just a little though, hubby, don’t worry!).

As a member of Mommysavers I wanted to ask something frugal, but something Bethenny could relate to~ FOOD! Bethenny was a celebrity chef and still enjoys cooking, so I asked what her favorite budget friendly recipe is. She said she has so many of them; she is a big believer in using what you have on hand. Open the fridge and throw it in. She shares some of those recipes at www.bethenny.com The night before the interview she made a turkey meatloaf (she shares that recipe HERE)
I love that she keeps it so real, and also very easy, as moms who work outside the home or not we don’t have hours to spend in the kitchen~ most of these recipes are very easy to prepare.
A lot of questions were asked about her new show and to sum it up- she keeps it real. They film 4 days of the week. She wants the camera to catch her real life. She’s wants us, the audience, to really connect with her as a person, her and Jason as a couple, and her Jason, Bryn, and Cookie as a family. If she’s being fake, what point is the show? If she and Jason have the same fight 6 times over money, family, or whose turn it is to take out the trash, we’re going to see it, because that’s who they are. They have the same worries as the rest of America. They’re relatable and she’s hopes “Bethenny Ever After” shows that.

Midway into the conference no one had really asked about the other “Housewives”. C’mon, I’m not the only one who wants to know if she and Jill had mended fences.
So I stepped up. I apologized beforehand and told her I have to go “there” and asked, “What is your relationship with Jill like?” To keep it simple- There isn’t one. And no, Jill hasn’t met Bryn.

Bethenny isn’t worried about the “Reality TV Curse” (you know the one that has broken up several couples after they do their own show). She isn’t worried what people think because she lost her baby weight so fast. In her words, she “Didn’t treat pregnancy like an all you can eat buffet.” (Whoops, I know where I went wrong!) She didn’t allow herself to go crazy. She maintained a “Healthy before, healthy during and healthy after” eating habit.

How do she and Jason keep the spark alive, even with her crazy busy schedule and Jason’s job? They make time for each other. They make the effort. They even have a date night every week, isn’t that sweet? (Honey did you read that? Every week.)

There were times she considered moving her family to LA. She wants a backyard to play in, a place she can take an evening stroll down a quiet street, a real garage they can park a car in (they currently have a closet the refer to as their “garage”). But Bethenny feels an alliance to New York. NY has been good to her.
The one thing she promises she won’t do in New York? Get caught up in the pre-school hoop-la. There will be no schmoozing or tush kissing to get Bryn into “this” school or “that” school. She has vowed. And we’ll hold her to that.

We’ll be watching Bethenny~ Skinnygirl Margaritas in hand, of course.