Bethenny Frankel and Paul Bernon have broken up after six years of dating, Us Weekly can exclusively confirm.
A mutual friend of the couple confirmed to Us that “it just wasn’t going to work” between the pair, who split around two months ago. “They are so different – he’s an under the radar kind of guy,” the source said.
Frankel has sparked confusion about her relationship status by selectively wearing her giant engagement ring in social media videos in recent weeks. “She still has the ring,” the source noted. Us reached out to Frankel and Bernon’s teams for comment.
Frankel began dating Bernon in October 2018 after meeting him on a dating app.
“I was pretty lucky when I walked in and saw him,” Frankel recalled to People in April 2021. “He had a twinkle. He came as advertised — better than advertised. He overshot the mark.”
Nearly one year later, a source exclusively told Us Weekly that Frankel and Bernon moved in together and were searching for a new house.
“They live together in the Back Bay area [in Boston] now,” the insider shared in September 2019. “She has been spending a lot more time up there. They are house-hunting in the New England area.”
In October 2020, Frankel and Bernon briefly split but reunited in January 2021 after they were spotted together in Miami. “It was a spontaneous get-together,” an eyewitness told Us at the time.
Following their reconciliation, the couple announced they were engaged in March 2021.
“I’m very excited, and it’s really wonderful,” Frankel shared in an interview with Extra at the time.
One year after their engagement, she couldn’t help but gush about why Bernon is such a “good partner.”
“I’m grateful for balance in my business and personal life and the choices I’m making, the successes I’m experiencing, the daughter I am raising,” Frankel shared in November 2022 on an episode of People’s “Every Day” podcast. “Paul is amazing. He’s a good partner. He’s a good friend. He’s a good dad. So everything’s good. Everything is really good.
After speculation that they had split again, Frankel revealed in July 2023 that her and Bernon were still together — but they weren’t looking to get married anytime soon.
“I don’t want to build a wedding,” she said during an appearance on E! News in July 2023. “I love my life. I love my fiancé. He’s an amazing life partner and I don’t want to sign a contract with someone I love. I don’t want to plan a massive wedding for everybody else and not [do] what we want. I like doing what you want, not what society wants you to do.”
Frankel was previously married to Jason Hoppy from 2010 to 2012, however, they didn’t finalize their divorce until March 2021 after a decade-long legal battle. (The couple share daughter Bryn, 13, together.)
“It was literally the most traumatizing thing I will hopefully ever go through in my life,” Frankel shared in an April 2024 episode of her “Just B” podcast regarding her divorce. “I have been through a f–king war. I have questioned myself as a human, as a parent, because I was told so many times otherwise how terrible I was and disgusting and old and irrelevant and abused, because I had no power to get out of it.”
