Bethenny Frankel is speaking candidly about the painful decade she spent navigating her divorce from her ex-husband, Jason Hoppy. During her December 3 appearance on the “Call Her Daddy” podcast, Frankel grew emotional as she revisited the years-long legal battle that she says eclipsed every hardship she had previously endured.
“I have seen my mother slit her wrists. I have lived my whole life chasing her into bathrooms, trying to catch her throwing up. I’ve been around guns, the mafia, and the race track. I’ve been through everything,” Frankel, 55, said on the podcast. “I have seen everything. Nothing compares to what my divorce was for 10 years.”
Frankel had already discussed her turbulent upbringing earlier in the episode, but she explained that even her mother’s long struggle with mental health felt like “child’s play” compared to the “trauma” she faced during her split. She described losing hair and feeling as though she wouldn’t survive the ordeal. “It was so traumatic. It was 10 years of my life, and I lost my hair. I thought I would never survive it. I didn’t want to,” she said, adding that her daughter was the reason she kept going. “I literally thought I’ll never be happy again.”
Though she didn’t mention Hoppy by name, their contentious divorce is well-documented. The pair married in 2010 and separated in 2012, but their legal battle continued until 2021. Their daughter, Bryn, now 15, remained at the center of their custody disagreements. Frankel described the years as a grind she approached like a long-distance race. “I treated it like a marathon, and I went one mile at a time, and I checked every box,” she said, alleging “it was fraud, it was stealing, it was hacking, it was harassment, it was abuse.”
The conflict extended beyond the courtroom. In 2017, Hoppy was arrested after allegedly threatening Frankel at their daughter’s school. A judge later issued an order preventing him from contacting her. Frankel eventually sued for custody in 2019, and a judge later finalized their divorce, though the terms of their agreement were never made public.
“It was torture,” she said. “Literally, the only thing that got me through was saying, ‘One day I’ll be able to help people.’ It was torment from one minute to the last minute of the 10th year.”
Frankel urged women to protect themselves before marriage, calling a solid prenup essential. She also reflected on parenting through conflict, saying she never spoke negatively about Hoppy in front of Bryn. “Just because you’re not saying it in front of the child, it doesn’t mean they don’t feel,” she said. “I have navigated it by always telling her that she is loved.”
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