Nothing will get previous a Housewife. Bethenny Frankel claimed she’s identified about Erika Jayne‘s legal and financial trouble for a number of years earlier than the drama made headlines.

The previous Real Housewives of New York City star bought candid in regards to the Broadway performer, each 50, throughout the latest episode of her “Just B With Bethenny Frankel” podcast, alleging that she initially heard about Erika’s wild spending from her late ex-fiancé, Dennis Shields. Earlier than he died in 2018, Dennis had gotten to know Tom Girardi, Erika’s now-estranged husband, whereas they each labored in legislation.

“I have a specific perspective on this,” the Skinnygirl CEO defined on the Thursday, September 16, podcast, describing her former flame’s connections to Tom, 82, whose law license has been revoked amid his current ups and downs. “This was in 2018, Dennis and I watched the show — the Beverly Hills Housewives. … I was aware of Tom.”

Bethenny Frankel and Erika Jayne. Christine Chew/UPI/Shutterstock; Jim Smeal/Shutterstock

The Huge Shot With Bethenny star recalled assembly Tom at a convention she attended with Dennis and discussing Erika’s revelations about apparently spending thousands of dollars on glam and personal planes that had aired on The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills on the time.

“My experience is — especially with the Housewives, but really, everywhere as well — if someone’s flaunting their money, they don’t really have it,” Bethenny claimed. “Particularly on Beverly Hills, there have been a lot of ‘all show and no go’ girls. The more that they flaunt it and the more that they brag about it, usually there’s something wrong.”

The previous Bravo persona recalled considering it might be “hard to sustain” the type of life-style Erika had proven off on TV, and after chatting about it with Dennis, her suspicions have been seemingly confirmed.

“Dennis said to me, ‘[Tom] doesn’t have it like that. He owes me money. He owes me half a million dollars. I know this other guy he owes a million and a half dollars. He doesn’t have money. He owes everybody money,’” the BStrong basis founder claimed on Thursday. “And I go, ‘What are you talking about? How is she flying around on [private planes]?’ And he said, ‘It’s because he’s using people’s money to support her lifestyle. He’s using the company’s money to support her lifestyle.’ Dennis said this. … I said, ‘Why would he do that?’ He goes, ‘He can’t say no to [Erika].’”

In accordance with the Apprentice: Martha Stewart alum, Tom’s shady financial dealings have been “a well-known secret” to those that labored intently with him. When she joined Dennis at one other legislation convention in New Orleans in Might 2018, they introduced up the “Pretty Mess” singer and her then-husband throughout a dialog with one other “billionaire lawyer,” who hinted that Tom wasn’t as solvent as he let on.

“When Dennis [told the lawyer] … ‘Do you know Erica Jayne spends $50,000 a month on her hair and her makeup?’ The guy was like, ‘What? He owes everybody money. He’s being sued by everybody,’” Bethenny stated. “So it was a thing. So I knew about it.”

In November 2020, Erika filed for divorce from Tom after greater than 20 years of marriage. One month later, they have been accused of withholding settlement from the households of victims of a 2018 aircraft crash. Because the drama performs out on the present season of RHOBH, the Georgia native’s followers and costars wonder how much she really knew about Tom’s conduct, despite asserting her innocence.

The Dancing With the Stars alum has but to be charged with any crimes. Bethenny, for her half, isn’t so shocked it’s taken this lengthy for the alleged controversies to return to mild.

“That’s just what happens. Things take a long time to come out — but everybody in that industry knew about it. All these major lawyers that I’m talking about around the country that are in this industry, they all knew about it,” she claimed on Thursday. “I told [Erika’s makeup artist] Kristofer Buckle about it. I told Andy Cohen about it, just to say, ‘It’s not what you think.’”

Bethenny additionally claimed that she beforehand flagged the duo’s monetary woes to Erika’s costars Lisa Rinna and Kyle Richards, who’ve tried to support their friend on RHOBH season 11.

“When this came out … Andy called me and said, ‘Holy s–t. You really do know it all. You told me about this years ago,’” the Shark Tank alum alleged. “I’m like, ‘Yeah, I told you.’ … I knew about this whole thing. I knew since, yeah, probably 2017 and 2018, I knew about this.”

Erika, for her half, has “been ready” to share her side of the story because the RHOBH reunion approaches, a supply lately informed Us Weekly, including, “[She] won’t be holding back.”

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