The last time we reported on Bethenny Frankel she was claiming she’d made the wrong choice in marrying her now estranged husband, Jason Hoppy, and should have trusted her instincts, basically. Bethenny added that she did have her daughter by Jason, but it sounded like she was backtracking. She also admitted that she was still sharing an apartment with Jason while they were going through a contentious divorce, and she claimed that he made her feel like a bad person while they were married. Oh and she also called divorce “the most difficult thing you can go through in your life” and complained that her divorce hadn’t been amicable like she was expecting.

So is it any surprise that Jason, who hasn’t talked to the press at all as far as I can tell, is going to court to try and keep Bethenny from talking any more crap about him? Radar has the story claiming Jason is trying to get a gag order that enforces the privacy clause in their prenup:

The latest missive in the War of the Roses split comes after Frankel gave an interview to People in which she revealed the marriage was “a mistake,” and the divorce was making her “miserable.”

Jason, 41, “has had enough and asked his lawyers to go to court asking the judge to impose a gag order on the entire divorce proceedings. He doesn’t want Bethenny discussing the divorce in the media. There are specific clauses in their prenuptial agreement that prohibit either party from talking about their relationship in the press. Jason wants Bethenny to just zip it when it comes to the divorce,” a source told RadarOnline.com exclusively.

As we previously reported, the former Real Housewife of New York star revealed that her marriage to Jason was a mistake, and that she regrets ever getting married in the first place.

“In my marriage, I made a mistake. It is what it is,” she said. “I made the wrong choice. But I do have my daughter, who is so beautiful and amazing in every way.”

Bethenny said that she was devastated when her marriage to Jason turned sour, and she hit a dark and low point with self- reflection.

“All the things that I’ve tried to resolve in therapy and get past from my childhood reared their ugly head in my marriage. My marriage made me feel like I was a bad person, like I was damaged, I was dysfunctional, I was never going to be happy,” Bethenny said.

“But I don’t believe that to be true. Yet there I was in a relationship that made me feel that way.”

Multiple sources tell us that the “Bethenny will fight any gag order. She wants to be the victim, and she can’t do that if she can’t talk!”

[From Radar Online]

Bethenny needs to keep talking about Jason so that she gets press. This is how she makes a living, by making people interested in her train wreck of a personal life. So Jason is talking about Bethenny to Radar, but he’s doing it off the record, which is smart. This reminds me of how Gabriel Aubry attempted to handle his custody battle with Halle Berry, and was ultimately triumphant.

I have to mention some great quotes in an earlier story on Radar, in which they claimed that Jason was “taking the high road” and “refusing to publicly bash” Bethenny. They quote sources who say that Bethenny “is having a temper tantrum because Jason isn’t giving in to her demands, and she wants him to give up custody of their daughter, and move out of their Tribeca loft. There is no way Jason would allow Bethenny to have full custody of Bryn without a dog fight in court. Jason gave their marriage 100% and was always very supportive of Bethenny. She is going to end up a bitter old lonely woman, just like her mother, whom she loathes and despises.” Jason may not be publicly bashing Bethenny, but he sure doesn’t mind doing it through a “source.”

Jason and his daughter, Bryn, are shown out on 5-10. Note that he’s still wearing his wedding ring. He’s also shown outside of court on 4-19-13. Bethenny Frankel is shown on 5-11 and 5-15-13. Credit: WENN.com and FameFlynet

The last time I remember hearing about Bethenny Frankel’s living condition she was staying with a billionaire “friend” while her estranged husband, Jason Hoppy, was holed up in the Soho apartment he used to share with her. She even went on vacation with this “friend” so it looked like she was dating him. Well that doesn’t seem to have worked out for Bethenny because she’s moved back into her old apartment, where the ex who is putting her through “the most difficult thing” she can imagine going through in her life, divorce, is still living. Like she describes everything else, Bethenny frames this as some epic personal struggle:

The former Real Housewives of New York City star opened up about her lengthy court battle and how unhappy she is still living with Jason.

Bethenny, 42, says that she and Jason are “uneasily” sharing their Manhattan apartment, and they both want full custody of Bryn.

“My living situation is very, very stressful,” she told People magazine. “I don’t think it’s very healthy for anyone involved. It’s very upsetting.” Since they both want to live in the Manhattan apartment she said they make the situation work, even though it is miserable.

“You just have to endure it.”

Bethenny said that she was devastated when her marriage to Jason, 41, turned sour and that she hit a dark and low point with self reflection.

“All the things that I’ve tried to resolve in therapy and get past from my childhood reared their ugly head in my marriage. My marriage made me feel like I was a bad person, like I was damaged, I was dysfunctional, I was never going to be happy. But I don’t believe that to be true. Yet there I was in a relationship that made me feel that way.”

Now getting ready to launch her talk show Bethenny, she said that she had reservations about Jason from the start and wished she’d paid attention to her own feelings.

“Maybe that’s the first lesson learned: to go with my gut. Because I waited a long time to see if I even wanted to be in this relationship I didn’t go with my first instinct.”

[From Radar]

This lady is supposed to be beyond wealthy. She has plenty of money. She could easily sublet another apartment at this point, she could even stay in a hotel, but she doesn’t want to do that. She wants to stand her ground and try and force her ex to move out. That’s fine, she just should own that instead of trying to claim that she’s some victim who has to just “endure” her situation. If she would give in a little it would go much easier for her, much like her custody and divorce battle, in which she’s trying to get sole custody of her three year-old daughter instead of sharing 50/50 custody with her ex.

Photos are from 5-3 and 5-4-13. Photo credit: FameFlynet

The last time we reported on Bethenny Frankel’s musings on divorce she was calling it “the most difficult thing you could go through in your life” without adding any qualifiers for death, illness, poverty or accidents. In Bethenny’s carb-starved mind, divorce was the worst thing that could happen to anyone, since it’s the worst thing that’s happened to her so far in her sheltered life.

Well Bethenny is still talking about it, and it sounds like she considers herself a victim even though she’s the one working to strip her ex of 50/50 custody of their nearly three year old daughter. More on that in a moment.

While Bethenny Frankel and Jason Hoppy aren’t scheduled to return to divorce court for a few more weeks, the reality-star-turned-talk-show-host has been giving a lot of thought to how far apart she and her ex have drifted.

At the time of the split, Frankel released a statement in which she said that she and Hoppy hoped to “amicably co-parent” their daughter Bryn, who turns 3 next month.

Now, in an exclusive interview with PEOPLE, Frankel says she can see that’s going to be a challenge.

“I really did think it would be amicable. I absolutely did,” she says. “I wrote that entire statement myself. And everysingle word, I believed to be true.”

Now, faced with divorce negotiations that continue to drag on – while Hoppy continues to wear his wedding ring – Frankel is left to wonder how she could have been so off the mark.

“Someone said to me recently, ‘We see what we want to see.’ And I guess, at the time, that’s what I did,” she says.

Still, the Skinnygirl guru hasn’t stopped looking for the positive.

“The truth of the matter is, you go with your gut at the time,” she says. “Whatever I’m going through now, I’m certain that I’ll learn something from it. When the clouds pass, I will figure out what the silver lining was.”

[From People]

Sidenote: I watched Silver Linings Playbook last night and it was awesome. (I also finished Best Marigold Hotel, which was also worthwhile.) It sounds like Bethenny got that last line from the movie and like she thinks she’s going through some great personal struggle she needs to share with the world. Maybe by sharing her story she’ll help some other very wealthy women with multi-million dollar empires struggling with divorce. I know I’m being a sarcastic bitch, but it’s hard to feel sorry for her at all.

As I mentioned, Bethenny has been trying to ensure that she has sole physical custody of her daughter, Brynn, while her ex is willing to share 50/50 custody. They live in the same city, I don’t get why she can’t share custody. It sounds like her definition of “amicable” is her ex rolling over and agreeing to whatever she wants. That’s probably why they split up in the first place.

Bethenny is shown out last week with her daughter. Jason is shown on 4-19 outside a divorce hearing. Credit: PCN Photos and WENN.com

Here we have yet another set of photos of Bethenny Frankel, 42, posing in a bikini in Miami. The last time she invited the paps to a bikini photo op was two months ago in Australia so at least she’s mixing it up a little, even if her MO is pretty obvious. Frankel just had a divorce hearing on Friday, in which she had to face off against her soon-to-be ex, Jason Hoppy. It was some kind of financial disclosure hearing.

The last we heard from Bethenny she was proclaiming that “divorce is the most difficult thing you could go through in your life.” She didn’t qualify it or reference any recent tragedies, but to be fair all the horrible earthquakes, terrorism, and stuff blowing up had yet to happen. (Last week was terrible.) Still, it went to show what a charmed, willfully ignorant life Bethenny lives. She goes on a lot of vacations to mitigate the awful things she has to face in divorce court. Bethenny posed for three sets of swimsuit pics over the weekend. The ones you see here are from Sunday, she had on a zebra print one piece at one point during the day and then changed into a purple string bikini. She wore a green bikini the day before. (Those pics are here.) Here’s more on Bethenny’s hearing and trip:

Sunnier days are ahead. After a chilly meeting with estranged husband Jason Hoppy in a New York City courthouse, Bethenny Frankel was in need of some serious downtime. So when the face-off ended, the Skinnygirl mogul packed a suitcase and took daughter Bryn, 2, down to Miami, Fla., for a little weekend getaway.

Lounging by the pool with her little girl on Sunday, April 21, the 42-year-old talk show host showed off her slim, toned bikini body in a bright purple halter-style top and matching side-tie bottoms. She kept the sun out of her eyes with a wide-brimmed floppy straw hat and aviator sunglasses.

As Us Weekly previously reported, Frankel and her pharmaceutical sales executive ex, 41, reunited in court on Friday, April 19, to discuss financial disclosure with their attorneys. According to E! News, the couple didn’t even acknowledge each other during the meeting.

[From US Weekly]

It must be nice to go to Miami for the weekend and to think the worst thing that can ever happen to someone is a divorce. How does someone reach that opinion? You would have to be seriously self centered to even pay a tiny bit of attention to the news and think that your problems, as a rich lady with incredible resources and options, are worse than everyone else’s in the world.

In terms of how Bethenny looks, I think her figure is enviable, but I know a lot of you see a bag of bones with bolt-ons. You told me so in the last post. She looks pretty hot to me. We wouldn’t be talking about her on a red carpet at some c-lister event and she knows that. That’s why she either wears things that are see-through or goes on vacation and invites the paps. Rinse and repeat.

Oh and I googled “Bethenny Frankel see through” in order to provide some evidence for that, and I found these photos of her at an event for Skinnygirl on Thursday in NY, which I then realized were emailed to us. Of course she wore a dress that revealed her wonky cleavage. Of course.

Photo credit: Diane Bondareff/Invision for Skinnygirl Cocktails/AP Image, WENN.com, FameFlynet, PCNPhotos

Sometimes people get mired in their own misery, I get that, but I still can’t help rolling my eyes at Bethenny Frankel’s latest dumb statement. At 42, Bethenny is currently divorcing her husband of a whole three years, Jason Hoppy. This was her second marriage, she was previously married for a year, from 1997 to 1997, to an “entertainment industry executive” named Peter Sussman. Bethenny and Jason have a three year-old daughter together, Bryn, and chronicled their brief marriage on Bethenny’s reality show, “Bethenny Ever After”, the title of which became ironic after it ceased airing last year. (Bethenny now has a new talk show coming out called “The Bethenny Project”.) I only saw some segments of her reality show and was struck by how poorly Bethenny and Jason communicated, and how much they argued over trivial things. It doesn’t seem surprising to me that they didn’t last. Only Bethenny thinks that her personal pain is the worst thing that could happen to anyone. She really said something similar to that, and I don’t think I’m misconstruing it:

The 42-year-old reality star expressed her grievances to morning anchor Greg Kelly on Thursday while guest-hosting on “Good Day New York.”

“It’s rough,” she said. “I have to say, divorce is the most difficult thing you could ever go through in your entire life.”

While the creator of Skinnygirl cocktails expected the road to divorce from her husband of two years, Jason Hoppy, would be a bumpy one, she didn’t know how bad it would feel.

“I never heard how excruciating it is,” she described.

Frankel went on to say that the whole experience of divorce was a “brutal, unnatural situation” that she “never thought” she’d find herself in.

But amid all the rain Frankel’s found sunshine in her “amazing” 2-year-old daughter, Bryn.

“Kids make you do things you’d never do,” she said. “They bring out the best in you.”

And divorce can sometimes bring out the worst.

After Frankel filed for divorce from Hoppy in early January, he counter-filed three weeks later with aggressive demands. Her scorned ex’s papers requested primary custody of Bryn, child support, medical and dental expenses, and exclusive use of the couple’s Tribeca loft in New York City.

Some can speculate his demands are the result of a broken and bitter heart as Hoppy was spotted in a New York City park with Bryn on Monday still wearing his wedding ring.

“We have love and respect for one another and will continue to amicably co-parent our daughter who is and will always remain our first priority,” Frankel previously said in a statement. “This is an immensely painful and heartbreaking time for us.”

[From The NY Daily News]

I get that divorce can be really difficult and gut wrenching and that, in this lady’s charmed life, this is the most difficult thing that’s happened to her. For people who have suffered tragedies though, that sounds ridiculous. What about car accidents, serious health problems, having a close loved one or – god forbid – a child dying? There is some sad, scary sh*t that can happen in life and it can happen randomly. Somehow a rich and semi-famous lady going through a divorce doesn’t seem even close to the “most difficult thing.” That’s not to lessen her pain, but she should have phrased it differently and made it more personal. As it is, she sounds kind of clueless and self-centered. I watched the interview (available on NYDN) and she didn’t qualify it or anything either.

Bethenny and Jason in May, 2012

Photo credit: WENN.com and FameFlynet

These are photos of Bethenny Frankel in a bikini on Bondi Beach in Sydney, Australia today. She went alone and left her daughter back with her soon-to-be ex husband. We get the occasional paparazzi photo from Bondi Beach, usually of the much more camera-friendly Hugh Jackman making us bite our palms and stifle screams from our cubicles at work. It’s safe to assume though that Frankel called the paps here, and that she wanted to show off her lithe bikini body, which is her bread and butter if you will. I guess the idea is for us to see how great she looks and go out and buy Skinnygirl margarita mix.

Last month, when Bethenny announced that her foodie friend had lost 66 pounds following her Naturally Thin book, I looked up the reviews for her diet book on Amazon. It got mixed reviews, with one person summing it up as “Eat whatever you want as long as you don’t go over 800 calories a day, drink water, exercise as much as you can.” The gist is that Bethenny doesn’t recommend “depriving” yourself, in that you can have three little bites of anything, but you can’t have a whole cookie for instance, or a whole steak. She also recommends what another reviewer calls “neurotic, eating disordered behaviors” like pulling the bread out of half a bagel or English muffin and just eating the crusts. (Personally I would rather count calories, and anything under 1,200 a day makes me lightheaded.) So that’s how she achieved this enviable figure, and it sounds like a lot of suffering. It obviously works for her.

In terms of Bethenny’s career, she has a new talk show premiering this fall and she’s writing a book about “the struggles and compromises all single moms face.” As if, with all the money, help and fame she has, she has any idea what’s it’s like to struggle and compromise. Her “compromises” involve going to Australia instead of Italy, where paparazzi are harder to come by.

As for her personal life, in the wake of her divorce Bethenny has been staying occasionally in the upper east side home of a billionaire she claims is just a “friend.” That’s extreme luxury, not a struggle. As is a weekend jaunt down under. Must be nice.

Photo credit: FameFlynet

I really don’t understand how Bethenny Frankel warrants her own Us Weekly cover story. I mean, it’s sad that Bethenny and Jason Hoppy are separating (and now going through a quickie divorce), but it’s not shocking. There have been rumors about their marriage problems for weeks, for months. They were reportedly living apart for the better part of 2012. They were rarely photographed together. They were only married for TWO YEARS. Plus, she’s crazy! How is this shocking or scandalous (or sympathetic) enough to get an Us Weekly cover?

Anyway, since we’ve had a couple of requests for coverage of this story, here you go. Over the weekend, Bethenny announced the separation. He’s 41. She’s 42. They are parents to a 2-year-old girl named Brynn. Bethenny has more money than Jason, so if there’s going to be a financial settlement, I suspect she’ll be paying HIM. She first issued a statement to Us Weekly, saying: “We have love and respect for one another and will continue to amicably co-parent our daughter who is and will always remain our first priority. This is an immensely painful and heartbreaking time for us.” Then she tweeted, “I am heartbroken. I am sad. We will work through this as a family Thank you all so much. You give me so much love, and I am so grateful. It feels like your words could get someone through anything.” And here’s a snippet from Us Weekly’s cover story:

Fans of Bethenny Ever After know that there was plenty of drama and conflict in Bethenny Frankel’s marriage to Jason Hoppy — but there was no third party involved when the spouses of nearly three years announced their split Dec. 23.

“No one cheated,” a Frankel friend shares in the new issue of Us Weekly, out now.

“They’re both devastated,” the friend continues of Frankel, 42, and pharmaceutical sales exec Hoppy, 41, who share daughter Bryn, 2. And although the pair butted heads — over Frankel’s staggering financial success and Hoppy’s family — “they really tried,” the pal says. “They grew apart. She is very upset.”

Indeed, Frankel — who has gone from reality star to bestselling author, talk show host and head of the Skinnygirl company — “feels like she disappointed herself,” another source says. “She disappointed her daughter and she disappointed her fans.”

[From Us Weekly]

My take continues to be that Bethenny is kind of crazy and really, really high-maintenance, and Jason just got tired of it. I don’t know if he was fooling around, but if there’s some jumpoff waiting in the wings for him, I wouldn’t be surprised. And neither should Bethenny, because word is that she and Jason haven’t lived in the same house together in six months.

Photos courtesy of WENN.

I’m not sure who will care about this (beyond my mother), but here goes: In Touch Weekly is still focusing on Bethenny Frankel and Jason Hoppy’s marriage, and apparently there will be a divorce-bomb dropping soon. Do you have any problems believing that? From what I’ve seen, Bethenny is pretty self-centered and high-maintenance, and Jason… I don’t know, he just seems like a normal dude who got in over his head. In Touch Weekly’s cover story says that Bethenny is totally over it now and she’s already meeting with lawyers:

In Touch can exclusively reveal that Bethenny Frankel’s marriage to Jason Hoppy is over and the pair are headed for divorce. “She told him they are done,” a source close to the couple tells the new issue of In Touch, on newsstands now. “She’s meeting with lawyers and just figuring out the next steps. It’s over.”

Adds an insider: “They’ve had their exit plan in mind for months. It’s really just a matter of when they’ll file.” Sources say that moment could be coming sooner rather than later. On Dec. 9 in NYC, a somber-looking Bethenny ran errands near the couple’s Tribeca apartment with their 2-year-old daughter, Bryn, in her arms — and without a wedding ring on her finger.

“This has been bubbling up for a year,” says a friend of Bethenny’s, whose marital ups and downs were chronicled on her Bravo reality series, Bethenny Ever After. “Over the summer they spent time apart. She lived in the Hamptons for six weeks with Bryn while Jason stayed home in New York.”

Bethenny, 42, met Jason, 41, in 2009, while filming the third season of The Real Housewives of New York and married just 16 months later. Originally, his calm, gentle demeanor complemented the reality star turned entrepreneur’s Type-A personality, but now a source says, “She’s more ambitious than he is.”

“Bethenny will never show it, but she’s devastated that it didn’t work,” says the friend of the self-proclaimed perfectionist. “She wanted it all — the career, the husband and the family.”

Still, sources agree that Bethenny and Jason both want what’s best for daughter Bryn. “Bethenny puts Bryn first and Jason is a great dad,” a friend of Bethenny’s tells In Touch. “They love that kid and will do anything to make her happy.”

A rep for Bethenny did not comment.

For more details inside Bethenny and Jason’s split, the millions of dollars at stake, and daughter Bryn, pick up this week’s issue of In Touch, on newsstands now.

[From In Touch Weekly]

Just more evidence (in case you needed it) that new marriages and reality shows don’t really mix. Oh, well. I guess I’m Team Hoppy by default, because I really can’t stand Bethenny and her dumb “Skinny Girl” stuff and whenever I read her interviews, I just want her to STFU.

And in case you want to read about the second part of In Touch’s cover story – Khloe Kardashian’s marriage problems with Lamar Odom – you can go here. Apparently, Lamar has been partying a lot with other ladies. I’m actually kind of heartbroken. I really like Khloe and Lamar these days.

Photos courtesy of WENN, cover courtesy of In Touch.

Neither Kaiser nor I like Bethenny Frankel. We have some grudging respect for her as a businesswoman, albeit a cagey one, but she just doesn’t seem like a decent person. I have to admit that I try and tune out the news about her, but even I know that she’s been having severe relationship problems with her husband of just two years, Jason Hoppy. The one time I watched her show, she and Jason were fighting. It seemed obvious that they had a hell of a time communicating with each other. What’s more is that Bethenny has admitted that she’s having problems in her marriage. So it seems like it was just a matter of time before they split.

Well the latest issue of Star claims that Bethenny is filing for divorce, and that she’s in a relationship with her male business partner, Matt Hess. At least it’s heavily implied since they’ve been seen out hanging all over each other. Now these two are gearing up for a big battle over who is entitled to assets, since Bethenny is worth a lot of money. (But probably not as much as she’s claimed.) Here’s more, thanks to Radar Online:

It’s no secret reality star Bethenny Frankel and her husband Jason Hoppy have had their fair share of marital problems, but it looks like things could get real ugly in a hurry.

Bethenny and Jason have both met with divorce lawyers, according to this week’s edition of Star, and one source tells the magazine, “They are going to get a divorce … it’s imminent.”

This week’s Star also drops the bombshell that things between Bethenny and her Skinnygirl business partner Matt Hesse might have gotten less professional — and more personal — in their dealings.

Bethenny and Matt said plenty with their body language as far back as three months ago, an eyewitness tells Star, when the two grabbed a meal at Philippe Chow’s Philippe restaurant in New York City.

“They walked through the restaurant with his chest pressed up against her back, and she leaned back and he whispered in her ear,” according to the eyewitness. “Then, they went up the stairs to a private dining area together, literally with their arms wrapped around each other.”

Jason is just biding his time to expose the former Real Housewives of New York City star for her two-timing ways, the insider said.

“Jason has said that when he is ready to officially file for divorce, he is ready to call Bethenny out on her infidelity and name Matt in the papers,” said the insider, adding Matt has said there’s nothing going on between he and Bethenny.

Jason’s and Bethenny’s well-documented inability to get along and the newfound whispers of cheating could set up a $100 million divorce battle, as Bethenny has cleaned up in her entrepreneurial endeavors with her Skinnygirl line of products — and Jason wants his piece of the pie!

Jason “feels absolutely entitled to half of her fortune,” the source said.”He feels betrayed and doesn’t care about Bethenny’s financial fallout once he gets what he wants.

[From Radar Online]

If the tables were turned and the husband was making more than the wife, she would absolutely be entitled to half the earnings during their marriage, so it seems like Jason should go after the money. It’s kind of despicable for Bethenny to wait until she has another relationship before she divorces her husband (if that’s what’s going on) but it’s also common. A lot of people wait until they have a jumpoff before they have the courage to pull the plug on a failing relationship. And a lot of relationships fail because a partner cheats in the first place. How can you be a decent spouse if you’re already involved with someone else?

I first read this story on Crazy Days and Nights, where they point out that Bethenny seems like a hard person to get along with. Kaiser and I have that opinion too, but I haven’t watched the show as much as she has.

Also, Bethenny probably slept with The Situation. Ew I would say, but they seem oddly suited to each other.

Jason and Bethenny are shown out in NY with their daughter on four separate dates in April and May. Look at their body language. Frankel is shown promoting her book, Skinnydipping, on 5-1-12. Credit: WENN.com and FameFlynet

You know, after writing up a number of posts on the “Jersey Shore” crew, I’ve built up quite a tolerance to their requisite element of tastelessness, but even I am grossed out by this particular story. Apparently, this is all based upon a relatively recent item from Blind Gossip about a bizarre, unexpected hookup between two reality stars of varying shows and statuses. Some of the guesses from the site’s commenters included Kim Kardashian and any number of “Jersey Shore” men. If given the opportunity, I probably would have guessed Kim K. and a few of the “Shore” dudes for a tag team, but that’s just me. Oddly enough, Kim has nothing to do with the reported true identity of the female subject of the blind item, who is allegedly … Bethenny Frankel. The dude? Mike “The Situation” Sorrentino. Seriously! A story in this week’s Enquirer states that Bethenny is completely mortified:

Skinny girl Bethenny Frankel has a serious “Situation” on her hands!

Rumors are swirling that the 41-year-old former “Real Housewives of New York City” star hooked up with “Jersey Shore” [cast member] Mike “The Situation” Sorrentino — and the fallout from the cheating scandal is threatening to destroy her already troubled marriage!

What’s more, the whispers are making waves just as she’s getting set to launch a new talk show.

The embarrassing story began to unfold in October, when a website printed a “blind item” that read: “Strangest hookup ever…This controversial female married A-list reality star spent a good five minutes making out with this second fiddle reality star who thinks he is way better than he is.”

On April 21, the site revealed that the subjects of the item were Bethenny and 29-year-old Sorrentino! “Bethenny has vehemently denied it, calling the rumor ‘a lot of B.S.,’” a source at the Bravo network said. But her husband of two years, Jason Hoppy, isn’t so sure.

“She’s been suspicious for some time because of all the problems they’ve had,” the source continued. “Bethenny’s marriage to Jason has already been hanging by a thread, and this could finally sink it.”

Bethenny is also worried how the rumor could affect her new talk show, which will begin test run on FOX stations in June.

“Getting mixed up with someone like Mike Sorrentino, who has just been through rehab, is the last thing Bethenny needs right now,” added the source. “The timing couldn’t be worse.”

[From Enquirer, print edition, May 14, 2012]

Is this story true? At the deepest pit of my soul, I hope that it’s absolutely made up, but it is entirely possible that these two famewhores swapped some reality-based spit. Regardless of the veracity of the blind item, this wouldn’t be the first time that someone worried about Sitch ruining their reputation, but as gross as this story is (on both ends), it would only (in Sorrentino’s eyes) help him out by quashing the gay rumors that so threaten his nonexistent brand. Here’s Sitch out for lunch in Beverly Hills on 4/12 with his “dudes,” who may or may not be part of his highly paid entourage that (let’s face it) won’t last forever.

Photos courtesy of WENN