Bethenny Frankel’s ex husband, Jason Hoppy, with whom she’s been embroiled in a bitter custody battle over their daughter Bryn, six, was arrested and charged with harassing and stalking her. Bethenny and Jason’s divorce lasted longer than their marriage of two years, and dragged on from 2012 until it was finalized in 2016. Their divorce took almost double the amount of time they were married and it got ugly and complicated. Jason refused to move out of their home in New York, Bethenny refused to move too and they did a lot of passive aggressive sh-t to each other. According to reports Jason showed up at Bryn’s school and made threats to Bethenny. Bethenny reported it to police, after which Jason was arrested at his home, charged and releases. She later obtained a restraining order against Jason. It’s unclear at this point if the custody arrangement will be affected, but it sounds like this situation will be taken into consideration at a future hearing.
Bethenny Frankel’s ex-husband Jason Hoppy has been arrested for stalking the “Real Housewives of New York” star after allegedly turning up at their 6-year-old daughter’s school and yelling, “I will destroy you.”
Hoppy was charged with harassing and stalking Frankel after he allegedly sent a series of abusive emails, then turned up at their daughter Bryn’s Manhattan school on Friday to allegedly threaten his ex.
An NYPD spokeswoman confirmed the allegations to Page Six: “The complainant said Hoppy had sent numerous emails and FaceTime calls numbering in the hundreds after a cease and desist letter was sent on November 22, 2016.
“On Friday, January 27, the suspect approached her and a friend at her child’s school at around 8:15 a.m. and tried to provoke a fight. He said, ‘I will destroy you, you can get all the lawyers you want, you’ve been warned.’”
Hoppy denies the charges.
He was arrested hours later and charged with aggravated harassment in the first degree, harassment in the second degree and stalking in the fourth degree, the NYPD spokeswoman added.
Hoppy and Frankel, both 46, were married for two years until 2012 and became embroiled in a vicious, drawn-out divorce and custody battle over their daughter. “I have cried enough tears to fill the Hudson River,” Frankel said last year. “I’d think, how could this go on for so long? Four years on a two-year marriage!”
They were forced to share the same Tribeca apartment for some time post-split, which she described as “brutal, horrendous, excruciating.”
It reported last year that Frankel and her most recent boyfriend, Dennis Shields, had been on the receiving end of a torrent of vicious emails allegedly written by Hoppy.
Shields, who had been dating Frankel for a year, sent a legal letter to Hoppy accusing him of sending dozens of emails with “increasing frequency and hostility,” TMZ reported, adding that Hoppy accused Frankel of being “ugly, old and irrelevant” and said Shields is just part of a “revolving door of men” and that “he’ll be gone soon.”
Hoppy’s divorce attorney Bernard Clair declined to comment.
Hoppy’s attorney Robert C. Gottlieb said, “There are no words to express how saddened Mr. Hoppy is over his ex-wife’s unjustified actions. His only concern is his daughter and intends to vigorously fight these false charges.”
But Frankel’s lawyer Barry Zone said she had undergone, “Years of systematic bullying, harassment, stalking and torment on an almost daily basis. Indeed, Mr. Hoppy has sent hundreds of escalating texts and emails to Ms. Frankel, her assistants and her boyfriend,…stating that “I’ll never go away” and that “[y]ou left me no choice but to go to extremes”…requesting copies of her life insurance policy, and telling her that “I’ll pray for you”.
These acts of mental and psychological abuse are domestic violence, pure and simple. No woman, celebrity or not, deserves to have their allegations of such abuse taken lightly, and we are grateful to the NYPD for their immediate action to protect Ms. Frankel.”
Do I think Bethenny is capable of fabricating these claims or exaggerating them to get back at Jason? Yes. Some of these reports are very one-sided and Page Six quotes an anonymous alleged police source who claims that this seems like a revenge report. These two have spent a lot of time and energy fighting through the courts. However it’s also entirely possible that Jason is threatening and harassing Bethenny and that he’s done most or all of the things her lawyer is accusing him of. Both of these people could be awful and vindictive people and that doesn’t exonerate one of them from the crime of harassing and threatening the other. It’s also possible that the truth is somewhere in the middle. I’m not going to come down on either side at this point because I’m skeptical and there’s not enough information. If you read some of our past coverage on this former couple you will see why I am hesitant to side with either party. They have both done a lot to sabotage each other and their respective relationships with their daughter, which doesn’t excuse or explain Jason’s behavior, if it’s being accurately represented. Oh and People reports that a judge issued a restraining order against Jason at his arraignment.
photos credit: WENN and Fame
Not popular opinion , but from watching the show, I got the feeling that under the surface , Jason was mean. Bethenny seemed to adore him.
I agree. He has a mean streak a mile wide, a very passive-aggressive man. He let the facade down on the show several times, and we saw the Jason Bethenny lived with. Bethenny is unlikable, but that doesn’t mean Jason isn’t a piece or work, too. He just hides it better.
Agree. His schtick on the umpteen reality shows they did together was the harmless normal guy in Bethenny’s whirlwind but the mask dropped big time.
He messed with her dog to get to her:
http://people.com/crime/bethenny-frankel-living-with-jason-hoppy-was-brutal-horrendous-excruciating/
“I found out that Jason locked Cookie in the storage unit in our apartment with her dog bed and bowl,” she said.
That same night, while Frankel was out, Hoppy put the dog in a bag, hailed a cab, dropped the pup off at a dog hotel in New York City and “wouldn’t tell me or my assistant where she was until after midnight,” Frankel added.
He also verbally abused her:
http://www.intouchweekly.com/posts/bethenny-frankel-sobs-as-she-testifies-ex-jason-hoppy-called-her-disgusting-and-would-pee-and-poop-and-leave-it-in-the-toilet-38793
“He said, ‘You’re dead to me. I want nothing to do with you. You think I want to be with you on the holidays? You’re a piece of s—t. You’re garbage. You have no idea what I’ve got on you,’” she said, fighting tears on the stand.
The Real Housewives alum also said Jason mocked her age and her appearance, saying, “Is this what 43 looks like? You’re disgusting. You’re gross.”
I was like, eh. both assholes, until someone pointed that stuff out to me.
I feel the same and I’m torn here. Bethenny is always an innocent victim in her mind, she reminds me so much of my mother it’s scary, and I used to like her because i could relate to her relationship with her mother, but now she’s acting just as crazy. That said, Jason needs to let it go and stop harassing her, I understand people like that can drive perfectly stable people to point of insane, but verbal abuse isn’t acceptable, be the bigger person and just walk away. I’m team Brynn.
It’s easy to say walk away if you haven’t been there done that. I’m involved in a similar situation. Since my seperation I’ve found a hidden router for a wifi unit in my home, have had innumerable alerts from Google that my email has been hacked and have had my cell phone ghosted. These efforts are all in attempt to minimize any settlement offers. Initially my atty thought I was paranoid til I bombarded her with all of the evidence over the last 3 years. Now she won’t communicate with me over email or my cell and insists on meeting w/ me in person w/ my cell elsewhere. I’ve don’t claim to be perfect but my attempts at having our divorce settled amicably have been met w/unbelievable hostility.
I’ve never been a Bethany fan but in this case I can relate and sympathize….
How did you know your cell was ghosted?
Sorry just saw this….I happened to be in my trash file when an email from the Detective working on my case came in. The email was copied to an unknown address. When I reviewed my trash file there were about 20 select emails. ( attorney, family, detective) that were copied to an unknown address. My trash file keeps trashed emails for 25 days so God knows how many had been sent prior. The police aknowledged that my phone was hacked but said the didn’t have the resources to track the address.
Just a comment on the mysterious ways of genetics; that 2 dark brunettes produced such a light-haired child. And this child is not just blond, she was quite tow-headed as a baby, and has remained very blonde.
She was probably always a brunette, he might have actually had blond hair as a child, who knows…
My hubby was very blonde when we started dating in high school…since then he started cutting it short and its no where near blonde anymore. My hair has always been a dark brown, almost black. Our daughter had dark hair when she was born and now it’s very blonde. Hair is a strange thing.
Yeah I was light blonde and very curly until the age of three or four, then my hair got almost black, dark brown with reddish hues. Then it got super straight. Then in my teenage years it started to get wavy, then curly again. Perhaps it has something to do with hair renewal or something..
My brother was white blonde and blue eyed until around 12. It darkened slowly until he hit olive eyes, almost Mediterranean skin (I am so pale you can see my veins its unfair) and thick curly brown hair.
Genetics are weird.
Recessive genes for the win
The kid looks so much like her father, I don’t doubt her paternity.
Everyone in my family is a brunette now, but my mom jokes that us kids were all bald until we were three, not because we *were*, but because we were all so blonde that our hair was nearly invisible.
I don’t like Bethany either but people seemed to think Jason was a saint when he wasn’t. He always seemed to hide his awful behavior while Bethany owned hers. I completely believe he sent her threatening emails. And clearly a judge agreed because it’s not like it’s simple to get a restraining order these days.
You don’t have to be a nice person to still have an ex who is vindictive and harassing. I believe it.
Team Brynn. Even if Jason is an abusive s.o.b, he is still always going to be around. My ex husband was abusive and crazy to boot, and it made little difference to our custody agreement. We started out not being able to be in the same room together and now we can get thru 5hr cheerleading competitions together. Bethany needs to set boundaries and then be civil for the sake of her daughter. Co-parenting is a necessary evil, fake it til you make it.
Yeah but he’s allegedly threatening BF and harassing her. That’s not part and parcel of co-parenting. No one has to suck it up and take abuse for the sake of co-parenting. Apparently JH ain’t respecting boundaries and that’s when the law steps in.
As for texts, block his number and if it doesn’t work, change your number; as for email, block his email or change your email; as for in-person altercations the Court can put in place a schedule for drop-off/pick-up and a separate party for exchange of the child for parent-time. The restraining order is in place. Yes, this all very inconvenient. Blame yourselves for creating the situation. When the child is secondary, parents behave like they are the only ones alive. PIGS, both of them.
I feel so sorry for that kid having to grow up with these two characters as parents. And to top it all off, she’ll be able to read all about it on the Internet when she’s a teenager, or as soon as she gets unrestricted access to a computer. Poor poor child.
Yah I used to be team hoppy but it really does look like he cant let this go and is incensed that she’s moving on. She couldn’t really date anyone seriously while her divorce occupied all her time so it was his way of keeping her and controlling her and now that their divorce is finalized he can’t stand it that she’s dating and moving on and his stuff is escalating. Some men just cannot take rejection. He will not be cast aside!!
I used to be on his side, too.
They’re both nuts. I equate them with the Gosselins. She treated him like garbage and wanted to be a star, ala Kate. I sided with him because I hated the way she treated him on the show. Then she used her “fame” to try to win every custody battle, etc. Well the other shoe dropped and he IS a piece of garbage. I don’t know if there was ever any love, she so wanted to have her own show “Bethenny’s Getting Married,” but at what price. Neither of them ever heard you have to love your child more than you hate your ex. Sigh
Bethany is back on the RHONY and drama seems to follow her. Anything she does and says is suspect…a play for publicity. I bet she’s thrilled that she on Page Six, although she’ll say to anyone who will listen that she’s “so upset this made Page Six”. I imagine she could care less about how this will all affect her daughter.
Fam!!!… Do you all remember when they got married/together the show etc?!?!? I could tell the way she was towards his family that we were dealing with people with vast differences on how they relate to people etc .. it was odd but here we are a Full on sh!tshow and a child later
I do not care for or side with either of them. I could see her driving someone to going mental and screaming. They should BOTH be evaluated because they are both a disgrace and have put that poor child through enough.
That poor child. The Lord should have made some people barren; Duggars and these two come high on the list.