Entertainment

The 'RHONY' Cast Is Too Hard On Bethenny

by Laura Rosenfeld

If there was a single takeaway from this season of The Real Housewives of New York City , it would be that the struggle is real for Bethenny Frankel. I knew this season of RHONY would be hard on Bethenny. It's the first time she has been on the show since leaving after Season 3, and she has been going through a nasty, high-profile divorce and custody battle with her husband while filming the show. And yet, the other ladies of RHONY are being super-harsh on Bethenny for not making time to hang out with them, and it's just not right.

It's true. Bethenny hasn't been the most available Housewife this season. She hasn't made every social engagement, but she does make enough of them. Tuesday night's episode of RHONY opened with Bethenny attending Ramona Singer's birthday luncheon after all, and she just attended the Atlantic City trip from Hell in the previous episode.

However, Bethenny couldn't join the girls at a boxing match. That's right. The ladies of Gotham are hardcore now, in case you haven't noticed. She was taking care of her daughter that night, so she understandably couldn't attend the fight.

Well, Bethenny may have missed that fight, but her absence has caused one to brew. I want you to understand something. Kristen Taekman doesn't want to judge Bethenny or anything, but she has two kids and can somehow find someone to take care of them so she can sit in the splash zone of a boxing match and watch two guys beat each other senseless. Why can't Bethenny do the same?

I thought it was completely unfair for Kristen to say something like this. Isn't it natural for a mother to want to spend time with her child rather than a bunch of women she only somewhat likes? Plus, with all of the drama with her husband, Bethenny doesn't get to spend that much time with her daughter anymore, so when she does, she relishes it.

Earlier in the episode, Bethenny also told her therapist Dr. Amador, who has appeared with Bethenny on Bravo before, that her divorce has caused her to distrust her instincts because she feels like she doesn't have a good judge of character if she was so wrong about her husband. This has made her guarded and reluctant to jump into a new group of friends.

The ladies can understand that, can't they? Well, maybe not. Later in the episode, Luann de Lesseps and Bethenny met up in Miami. Luann told Bethenny that her fellow RHONY cast mates don't think she's trying hard enough to get to know them. Bethenny said that she understands, but she's also reluctant to get to know them because of everything that has happened to her. And the fact that they would make her choose between them and her daughter is just bonkers. Luann was also understanding, but still maintained that she needs to make more of an effort. Bethenny somehow found time to feed a clown an ice cream sandwich as part of some bizarre performance art at Art Basel, but what are you going to do?

Now Bethenny could do one of two things: Continue to ignore the other Housewives, which would be super-boring for us, or be their new best friend, and you know when the Housewivesare all together, drama always follows. Your move, Bethenny.

Images: Giovanni Rufino/Bravo; perezhilton, realitytvgifs/Tumblr