Bravo officially announced earlier this week that Bethenny Frankel is coming back to "Real Housewives of New York City" for its upcoming seventh season. And while there are some people who does not think that her return is a good idea, network's executive producer Andy Cohen said that Frankel's comeback "seemed totally right."
"She said to me, 'You know, I'm coming off this really high profile failure of my talk show, my marriage fell apart.' So she is really starting over," Cohen told Us Weekly at the GQ Gentlemen's Ball in New York City Wednesday, Oct. 22. "It's kind of an amazing unique moment for her to rejoin the show. It really makes sense in a weird way. When I first started talking to her about it, it seemed kind of unbelievable. But the more we talked about it, it seemed totally right."
The 46-year-old "Watch What Happens: Live" host also revealed that he had been working to bring Frankel back to the show as early as June.
"She's one of the most popular housewives we've ever had on any of the shows. This is something I was working on since June," Cohen said. "I think the timing was really right." he added. "I think one of the reasons she's so good as a Housewife is she's really an oxymoron. She's super tough but she's super vulnerable."
Since Frankel left the show after three seasons in 2010, she earned her own spinoff series titled "Bethenny Getting Married?" and "Bethenny Ever After." Both shows followed her marriage with Jason Hoppy prior to their breakup in January 2013. Earlier this year, she also hosted her eponymous talk show, which was canceled in February after only one season.
"I felt very constricted and very handled," Frankel told People of her talk show. "Being on reality TV was very freeing for me." She added that being on reality TV shows "can be challenging, stressful and often toxic," but she personally thinks that "reality TV is a great vehicle."
In an interview with Us Weekly two days before Bravo made the official announcement, Frankel revealed the she decided to go back to the show for a new start. "I'm such a different person and in such a different place than when I was on first season," she explained. "Slightly exciting, a little bit of anxiousness, but it feels fresh. It doesn't feel like [how] I felt going into the third season of the 'Housewives.' There was just so much muck and I just didn't feel it was good energy."
Aside from Frankel, Carole Radziwill, Heather Thomson, Kristen Taekman, LuAnn de Lesseps, Ramona Singer, and Sonja Morgan are also all returning to the show in Season 7, E! News reported.