Bethenny Frankel Walks Back Her Criticism, Apologizes To Meghan Markle & Prince Harry After Oprah Interview

Bethenny Frankel stepped in it a little bit this week, and now she’s owning up to it and publicly apologizing! But did she go far enough?!

The Real Housewives of New York City alum has never been one to hold her tongue, and while that served her very well during her prolific reality TV career, it got her caught up in a big ol’ controversy this time!

As you may recall from our reporting on Sunday, the TV personality openly mocked Meghan Markle‘s “plight” in the days leading up to her and Prince Harry‘s bombshell tell-all interview with Oprah Winfrey.

And Bethenny was doubly mad after the publication of a Wall Street Journal report that claimed the couple received upwards of $7 million for the sit-down — which Meghan forthrightly denied getting paid anything at the very start of the interview. Still, with all that in hand, Bethenny went OFF on Sunday morning, mocking Markle’s “plight” of having to suffer through two years of “tiaras and 7-figure weddings” before this.

Yikes!!!

But now, it seems there’s been a serious change of heart! And all it took was for the Skinnygirl founder to sit down and watch Meghan and Harry tell their story… Imagine that?! In the hours after last night’s bombshell Oprah sit-down dropped on CBS, the 50-year-old businesswoman owned up to overreacting earlier in the day with a surprisingly candid tweet.

“I watched M & H sit down” Bethenny began, before acknowledging some of her own shortcomings and showing empathy to the couple and this whole ordeal (below):

I watched M & H sit down. Emotional distress & racism must feel suffocating & powerless. I’m a polarizing, unfiltered(often to a fault)flawed person w a voice. When I heard of the interview,during a pandemic, it felt like a surprising choice. I’m sorry if it hurt or offended you.

— Bethenny Frankel (@Bethenny) March 8, 2021

Very mature!

But it garnered a very mixed reaction on Twitter!

While Bethenny ought to get a little bit of credit for at least owning her s**t, Twitter users weren’t feeling that generous. One instead called her out on the irony of the whole situation (below):

“Funny how you cried BIG tears on a reality show about your issues w divorce, etc & how hard life was for you but when Meghan talks about her depression and thoughts of suicide you try to capitalize on it & trash her. But now you’re sorry ONLY if it hurt or offended? Girl BYE”

Whoa… Not wrong, tho… And others counseled the reality TV legend to think a little bit more before pressing “tweet”:

“I’m glad you apologized. I’ve always liked you but when I heard of your mean tweet I thought about when you said you were crying saying you were ‘homeless.’ It takes a big person to admit when they are wrong. Next time count to 3 before tweeting.”

Good advice for ALL of us in that last sentence. Others pointed out that Bethenny’s coronavirus pandemic qualifier (in her most recent tweet) was never present in her initial criticism of Meghan:

“Did you speak out against the interview happening during a pandemic? You definitely attacked Meghan. Also, ‘sorry if it hurt you’ is not really an apology.”

“You’re previous tweet didn’t mention a pandemic… we all supported you while your cried about your situation and you protected your daughter at all costs. M&H are just trying to protect their kids. Most of us knew this before the interview. Maybe think before you tweet”

Good points! Critical, but not necessarily wrong! And let’s make these underlying tones clear, Frankel, a white woman, was disparaging Markle, a Black woman, over a conversation about RACE. What would YOU call that??

Does Bethenny deserve credit for owning up to her bad initial take on Meghan’s “plight”? Or should she get called out, if only for how sanctimonious she is being considering her own reality TV history?!