Bethenny Frankel suffered from a bit of imposter syndrome while living in Connecticut. Turns out, selling her home and relocating to Florida was the cure.
“It was bogging me down. It was a lot,” Frankel, 54, exclusively told Us Weekly of her Connecticut house, which she reportedly sold earlier this year for $7.83 million. “I hadn’t even thought about all the expenses and all the maintenance and all the things I didn’t do, and it made me feel guilty about the things I didn’t do.”
The former Real Housewives of New York City star explained that she had an “idea of this life in my mind and the property reflected that,” but it wasn’t who she really was.
Frankel noted that “the piano in this room that I never entertained in” was an example of the difference between her dream and her reality. “I felt like a loser,” she said.
“And then the big fancy dining room and Bri and I ate there once Christmas Eve together and I was like, ‘What a loser,’” she reflected. “I just felt like I was never using [everything]. I never once entertained in the entertainment bar. So it made me feel like I wasn’t living the life that house required.”
Frankel announced in April that she was moving to Florida with her daughter, Bryn. She revealed to Us that selling the Connecticut home to a family “that is going to use it” the way it was intended to be used made her “really happy” with her decision.
“My friends aren’t there. So it was feeling forced. I was going to have to force the life to go with the house,” Frankel said of her New England experience. “So it was extremely shackling.”
The Skinnygirl founder noted that the “only bittersweet” thing about leaving Connecticut was saying goodbye to her staff.
“I feel like we haven’t had our good goodbye,” she explained, noting she was traveling and walking in Sports Illustrated Swimsuit’s Miami Swim Week runway show as the sale went through so she didn’t properly bid farewell to her staff.
“I’m a little bit gaslighting it because I’m not good at that. So I’m sad about my staff [and] for them because it was meaningful,” she confessed.“That property was kind of where we all were.”
Despite missing her staff, Frankel told Us that the move was exactly what she and Bryn, 15, needed. (Frankel shares her daughter with ex-husband Jason Hoppy.)
“I went to high school in Florida and I’ve been going there my entire life, even since I was younger, since I was a baby. And I connect to Florida,” she shared while promoting her partnership with Heluva Good! Dip.
Frankel noted that although she got an apartment in Miami last year, it wasn’t until this new purchase that she felt fully at home in the Sunshine State.
“It feels very different in the right way,” she said of calling Florida her home base. “Sometimes a place feels like [that]. I used to live in L.A. and love[d] it. And then when I started to visit L.A., I didn’t like that relationship. I’m a nester, so living in Florida feels very different from vacationing there.”
In addition to juggling her move, Frankel has been gearing up for summertime hosting festivities with the help of Heluva Good! Dip. The reality star teamed up with the brand to announce The Host’s Hidden Heluva Good! Vessel — which is a fake potted plant that doubles as a secret dip holder.
Frankel told Us that Heluva Good! Dip makes “entertaining inspired and easy and delicious,” noting the dips are “made with real milk, real cream.” She added, “It is a hell of a good food, a hell of a good dip. It’s straightforward [and] it’s a good brand.”
Frankel noted that even the packaging is “cute” and makes it easy to use. Plus, with all the different flavors she said Heluva Good! Dip “kind of leads you in the direction that you should go in,” whether it’s topping off a baked potato or turning a sandwich into chicken salad. It makes you “think of it a little bit differently,” she concluded.
Fans can get their hands on Heluva Good! dips on the brand’s website. They can also enter for a chance to win their own Host’s Hidden Heluva Good! vessel by visiting heluvagood.com/giveaway between now and Friday, June 27.
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