Bethenny Frankel continues to battle it out in court with her ex-husband Jason Hoppy over custody of their 9-year-old daughter Bryn Hoppy.
In court on Monday, May 13, Bethenny achieved a small victory when a judge agreed with her that edited scenes from Real Housewives of New York shouldn’t be used as evidence.
It started when Bethenny was questioned by Hoppy’s lawyer Robert Wallack about a recent scene on RHONY where she was talking with a therapist about her ex-boyfriend Dennis Shields’ death.
“In this particular episode, it depicts a grief counselor coming into your apartment and you having a therapist session? Correct?” he asked.
“Yes. But I don’t recall exactly what was said,” Frankel answered.
“Whether you recall or not. I watched it, and you told your therapist how you felt partially responsible for Dennis’s death and how he overdosed?” Wallack continued.
“I genuinely don’t know what happened to Dennis,” Frankel insisted.
Throughout the custody trial, Bethenny has insisted that she only knows Dennis died from heart failure. It’s rumored that he died in August 2018 from an accidental prescription overdose.
“You don’t understand reality television and how it works,” she snapped. “You’re talking about taking one hour from a 40-hour taping and condensing it down. So many things are said, and things are edited out and taken out of context.”
The judge agreed with Frankel, telling Wallack, “If you want to go down that road, you’d have to get a subpoena for us to watch the show and since it is edited you would have to get the uncut version, and that could delay the trial significantly. I don’t think that’s a route you want to go and I don’t think it is necessary.”
Hoppy and his team claim that Bethenny has exposed Bryn to men who have had a negative impact on her life; claiming that Shields had a possible addiction to prescription drugs.
To make matters worse, Bethenny former best friend and former RHONY co-star Carole Radziwill got dragged into her and Jason’s custody battle.
Bethenny and Carole’s vicious RHONY cat-fight was the topic of conversation as Bethenny continued to be crossed-examined by Hoppy’s lawyer.
When Bethenny took the stand on Tuesday, May 14 she snapped back at Wallack’s claims that she posts dramatic videos on social media for attention.
“Isn’t a fact that you would rather take advice from 2 million followers then Jason?” Wallack asked, which was quickly shut down by the judge.
“You were looking to exploit this tragic situation?” he followed.
“No,” she vehemently denied.
“You were doing it for attention, correct?”
“No, I don’t need attention.”
Wallack then asked if the emotional posts filmed around Bryn were “appropriate parenting behavior.”
“Why do you feel the need to share your personal life each time with your 2 million followers?” he pressed.
That’s when Bethenny snapped. The Real Housewives of New York star fired back at Wallack and claimed that those 2 million fans are the reason she has what she has and the reason she can financially support her ex-husband.
“I know a lot of my fans. I do a lot of book signings. They help support me, and they help me pay Jason’s rent, and they are the people that are allowing me to stand on my own two feet,” she said. “That’s how I made money to pay Jason millions of dollars. That’s how he is paying your legal bills. That’s why you have this job right now. That’s how Jason can afford his rent, and that’s how I can afford my rent and support my daughter.”
Bethenny continued to slam her ex-husband as she endured more cross-examination in court on Tuesday.
The RHONY star revealed that she doesn’t attend Bryn’s doctor’s appointments with Jason because of his “abusive” behavior.
Bethenny claimed that not only does Jason yell at doctor’s appointments but he also attacks her when given the opportunity.
“An appointment with Jason is abusing me, making fun of me,” she told Hoppy’s lawyer. “An appointment with Jason is a torture chamber…It is a vacuum of abuse. Going to an appointment with Jason is not a good idea, because he uses every way to abuse me when no one is looking.”
“No, I will not be in a room with Jason Hoppy.”
She said she’s never attended one of Bryn’s events with Hoppy but has run into a few times.
“He may have been in the same room, but we did not interact together,” she explained. “I did not hear Jason or see Jason.”
“My greatest hope is that [the abuse] would stop,” she said. “That we can achieve some level of normalcy, and that I wouldn’t live in fear and that I wouldn’t just feel uncomfortable. That Bryn would be in a happier environment and that she would be able to thrive.”
The Real Housewives of New York airs on Wednesday at 9 p.m. EST on Bravo.
