Bethenny Frankel and Bravo deny report that "lost at sea" claim fake

Bethenny Frankel and Bravo have denied a recent report claiming the reality TV star's "lost at sea" adventure was faked for the upcoming season of her Bethenny Ever After reality series.


"Let's review last week's idiocies 1) I have a "nice" coach 2) I'm getting divorced 3) I'm pregnant 4) I lied re:being lost at sea -- Anything else?" Frankel wrote on Twitter last week.

"I wish that boat trip were fiction rather than the nightmare it actually was," the Bethenny Ever After star added in a subsequent interview with E! News. "My truth is stranger than fiction."

Bravo also came to Frankel's defense, insisting she really needed the help she sought while out sailing in September. 

"It is accurate that Bethenny, Jason [Hoppy] and their therapist were stranded at sea when the navigation on their boat broke during a taping for the new season of Bethenny Ever After," Bravo said in a media statement.


"The Coast Guard referred a private tow vessel who eventually led their boat out. When people see the episode, they will certainly see for themselves that this was very real."

Frankel -- the former Bethenny's Getting Married? and The Real Housewives of New York City star -- told E! News last month she was on a sailboat for 20 hours because they got lost at sea. She said the captain had to call the Coast Guard and the incident was "absolutely traumatic."

However, according to a recent Jewish Journal report, the Coast Guard confirmed Frankel's GPS was in working order and the boat was "not in distress," telling them to call a tow company instead for assistance.

Frankel then reportedly had her therapist -- who was captaining the sailboat -- contact a tow service run by Tim Russell, a veteran sailor who has worked on the water for 40 years, and he motored out to the alleged stranded boat to ensure their safety.

But Russell told the Journal he discovered their boat was fine, they did not need a tow and that Frankel, Hoppy, the therapist, and a Bravo film crew of six people simply followed him back to shore.


"If it was all not faked, it was something short of 'reality,'" the Journal suggested based on Russell's account.






About The Author: Elizabeth Kwiatkowski