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‘RHONY’ Star Bethenny Frankel Breaks Down During Custody Battle: ‘I Was Abused’
She’s reached her breaking point. Real Housewives of New York City star Bethenny Frankel is continuing to face off against her ex-husband Jason Hoppy in their ongoing custody battle. On Wednesday, March 6, In Touch can confirm that Frankel, 48, took the stand in their court hearing and she broke down in tears as she detailed all of the abuse she allegedly suffered in the six years since she filed for divorce.
Frankel is currently attempting to change her custody agreement with Hoppy because she claimed it is “no longer viable.” Currently, the exes have joint custody but Frankel wants sole custody of her 8-year-old daughter, Brynn, while giving Hoppy full access. The RHONY star was examined by her lawyer, Ronnie Schindel, and she got emotional when she explained the reason why she agreed to the joint custody agreement.
“I believe because we had been in war and I wanted to stop the bleeding. I had been told by our first judge that a custody battle is like being on a dock and watch your child drown in front you and not be able to help them,” Frankel said, as she started to tear up. “I wanted to get on with it.” Radar Online was the first to break the news about Frankel’s testimony.
But Frankel explained that she had suffered a lot of verbal and mental abuse from Hoppy — so much that she obtained a restraining order against him for allegedly stalking and harassing her in January 2017.
“I hired a criminal attorney because I was beings systematically abused,” Frankel said. “I was getting hundreds and hundreds of emails. I was afraid it was affecting my daughter’s emotional well being. I felt like what he was doing was illegal. I was abused, and I knew it was no longer a custody issue.”
During their first hearing on March 4, Frankel’s attorney said that Hoppy had allegedly sent her more than 500 emails within a 90-day period. Frankel said that he would allegedly CC her staff in emails asking about her health insurance policy and calling her names. “He was like, “You’re a sad miserable person,'” Frankel said. “He would say, ‘You’re ugly and old and you’re irrelevant.'”
She went on to describe her life with Hoppy in the months after she filed for divorce as a “torture chamber,” and she accused Hoppy of putting Bryn in the middle of their fights. “He would be dressing Bryn and say, ‘I don’t know you don’t want to go with mommy,'” Frankel said, as she started to sob. “He would read witch stories and say, ‘Mommy would be great at being a witch.'”
In their current custody agreement, each parent is allowed two phone calls a day with Bryn, which is another reason Frankel wants the agreement to be adjusted. “The phone calls were Jason’s new tool in his arsenal to abuse me,” Frankel said. “When I had Bryn, he would ask her on the phone who was with me in the car, ‘Is it Leslie?’ Or, ‘Bryn, mommy wouldn’t let me talk to you last night … It was abusive to Bryn.”
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