Bethenny Frankel Claims Martha Stewart 'Can't Stand Me' - And The Feeling Is Mutual!

The strangest beef you’ve never heard of? Turns out Bethenny Frankel and Martha Stewart HATE each other!

Y’all know us. We are all about celebrity feuds. Who doesn’t love a good back-and-forth between two A-listers — especially when neither one of them can let it go?! But this spat goes waaaaay beyond that. This is, like, pure ferocity!

This has apparently been going on for a long time, but the former Real Housewives of New York star just opened up the old wounds. On the latest episode of her popular podcast Just B with Bethenny Frankel, the reality TV veteran detailed her not-so-sweet history with the long-running queen of homemaking content.

Speaking candidly (when has Bethenny ever done anything else?), the 52-year-old boss babe said this about her personal experiences with the 81-year-old lifestyle expert:

“We’re definitely not friends, but we almost did this TV project together despite the fact that she can’t stand me. And I can’t really stand her either.”

Whoa! Can’t stand each other?! Where does that come from??

Well good news for us, Perezcious readers! The Skinnygirl founder only made her listeners wait about 0.4 seconds before explaining the backstory! Bethenny said:

“I’ve always respected her work ethic, and that she’s a ball-buster going for it her own way, and whether or not she’ll admit it or not, she feels the same way about me.”

An uneasy alliance based on mutual respect of… how tough each other are? Fair enough.

As Frankel went on to reveal, the root cause of all this strife goes back to 2005. That year, Bethenny appeared as a contestant on The Apprentice: Martha Stewart. The spinoff of Donald Trump‘s competition series didn’t last long, but it gave us this feud, which is still going two decades later!

Bethenny explained a “series of misunderstandings” led Martha to believe Bethenny was trying to make people think she was more successful than she actually was in real life. Someone on The Apprentice faking their business success for TV?! Heaven forfend…

In one instance, the Skinnygirl exec wore a Louis Vuitton suit on set, which upset Martha. Then, during the show’s live season finale, Bethenny had an “awkward” interaction with former President Bill Clinton in front of the lifestyle icon.

Even though Frankel made it all the way to the last ep, Martha fired her at the very end. To this day, the RHONY vet has never forgotten what the ex-con said to her, either:

“What she said to me when she fired me was insane. She said, ‘Bethenny, you’re pushy, you’re a show-off and you feel the need to make a physical impression which is not entirely necessary at Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia.’ Oh yeah, she hated me. She hated me.”

Wow!!

It’s not not harsh — but does it mean she hated her? Or is it just her sincere criticism for a prospective employee?

But the drama doesn’t end there! A few weeks after filming ended, Bethenny traveled to the Caribbean for a yacht party. And who did she see on the yacht but Martha Freakin’ Stewart?!?! The RHONY star recalled what happened when Martha introduced her to a friend standing close by:

“‘This is Bethenny, she was on my show but she didn’t win, so she’s mad at me.’ I looked at her and said, ‘Martha, I’m not mad at you. You’re like someone I used to date that I’m still in love with.’ That was that, and it was icy.”

Icy, indeed! And the rift continued to grow in the months after all that!

Once Stewart’s reality TV spinoff finally made it to air, Bethenny got caught in the crosshairs of a media firestorm. Tabloid mags found old still images of her appearing topless in a low-budget film from years before she was famous. The headlines were scandalous and salacious. Of course, they made Bethenny look bad. But they apparently angered Martha since the controversy occurred alongside her reality venture, too.

Soon after that brouhaha blew up in the media, Bethenny saw Martha at a restaurant in NYC. Even after all the shade that had already been tossed out by that point, Frankel chose to sit down next to the lifestyle star. But this time, the Bravolebrity got the last laugh! She recounted:

“I see her at a restaurant and I sit down next to her and she goes, ‘Oh, Bethenny, I just saw your movie.’ The movie was from years ago… for her to say that was the sickest, sickest statement anyone’s ever said. So I say back to her, ‘Oh really Martha? Well I just got an insider stock tip.'”

OMG!!!

Frankel admitted the two have continued to “frequently” run into each other over the years. Stewart was even a guest on Bethenny’s podcast way back in 2013. She used that interview to admit she thought Frankel was a “pest” in the aforementioned reality TV run. Awkward!!

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[Image via MEGA/WENN]