Bethenny Frankel Shares Touching Tribute To Late BF Dennis Shields One Year After His Death

It was a tough weekend for Bethenny Frankel.

On Saturday, exactly one year after the death of her longtime on-again, off-again boyfriend Dennis Shields, the Real Housewives of New York star paid touching, emotional tribute to him with some powerful words about the loss. And even though it’s been a full year now since Shields’ passing, it’s clear Frankel still misses him terribly, and continues to be affected by his death.

As you can see (below), Bethenny’s powerful tribute to Dennis brought up a lot of emotion and feeling within her — and her fans and followers reacted accordingly:

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One year ago today, I woke up to a beautiful sunny day with @biggysmallz by the pool, and my world crumbled and turned upside down in an instant. A man Dennis, who I loved and respected, who was in my life for 30 years unexpectedly passed away. Dennis insisted we adopt biggy AND smallz for my daughter Peanut. He simply couldn’t imagine separating them. We racked our brains staying up late coming up with the perfect name for two dogs from the same litter with very different body types. Thing 1 & Thing 2 was an option but Peanut found it degrading. Lenny & Squiggy was a good one but I knew it would only appeal to the over 40 set. Then at 5am, Dennis was waiting for me to wake up and in his stronger than Tequila New Yawk accent said “BIGGY AND SMALLZ” and two stars were born. He loved these dogs and the feelings were mutual. They were particularly fond of his salty bald head. At times, it seemed like he and they spoke the same language and they were the only ones who understood him. He was a loving, sweet, gentle, brilliant, complicated, hilarious, creative and supportive man. He is missed terribly by so many but lives on in his friends and family and furry loved ones. I am a different person and in a different emotional place than I was a year ago, and the wounds have begun to heal but the scar will remain on my heart forever. RIP, August 10. #Unforgettable

A post shared by Bethenny Frankel (@bethennyfrankel) on Aug 10, 2019 at 9:01am PDT

Such a sweet, loving picture…

Along with the adorable photo of Dennis with the pair’s two dogs, Bethenny also shared a powerful message about his passing, and how much everyone around — including the pups — misses him to this day (below):

“One year ago today, I woke up to a beautiful sunny day with @biggysmallz by the pool, and my world crumbled and turned upside down in an instant.

A man Dennis, who I loved and respected, who was in my life for 30 years unexpectedly passed away.

Dennis insisted we adopt biggy AND smallz for my daughter Peanut. He simply couldn’t imagine separating them. We racked our brains staying up late coming up with the perfect name for two dogs from the same litter with very different body types. Thing 1 & Thing 2 was an option but Peanut found it degrading. Lenny & Squiggy was a good one but I knew it would only appeal to the over 40 set. Then at 5am, Dennis was waiting for me to wake up and in his stronger than Tequila New Yawk accent said ‘BIGGY AND SMALLZ’ and two stars were born. He loved these dogs and the feelings were mutual. They were particularly fond of his salty bald head.”

The starlet added:

“At times, it seemed like he and they spoke the same language and they were the only ones who understood him. He was a loving, sweet, gentle, brilliant, complicated, hilarious, creative and supportive man. He is missed terribly by so many but lives on in his friends and family and furry loved ones.

I am a different person and in a different emotional place than I was a year ago, and the wounds have begun to heal but the scar will remain on my heart forever.

RIP, August 10. #Unforgettable”

Ugh. So sad! We’ve seriously got a tear in our eye after that one. We can’t even imagine the struggles Frankel has been through in the past year since his sudden death.

Rest in peace, Dennis. You’re clearly still very much missed in this life…

[Image via WENN]