Bethenny Frankel criticizes Meghan Markle for being ‘sanctimonious’ and compared her to a Bravo housewife

Bethenny Frankel criticized Meghan Markle for being “sanctimonious” and “self-important” in a new episode of her podcast, “Just B with Bethenny Frankel,” on Thursday. In the episode, titled “The Real Housewife of Buckingham Palace,” the Skinny Girl founder spoke at length about how she believes the Duchess of Sussex, who recently launched her new podcast, “Archetypes,” is a “polarizing” character and why some people may not like her. “People don’t like Meghan Markle because I think she talks down to other people.

I think she’s sanctimonious,” Frankel, 51, said. “She’s up there, we’re down here. ” Frankel, who left the “Real Housewives of New York” in 2019, also compared Markle to a Bravo housewife.

“She’s very much like a housewife in that she can’t stop talking about the very thing that she wants to be irrelevant. If she were on the show, the producers would say stop talking about security and the state of Frogmore Cottage,” she said. “It’s not relatable.

Most people don’t have a security detail, so while that may be a real concern for you, it’s just not something that’s gonna play to this audience. ” 11 minutes into the podcast, Frankel doubled down on her comments and said that the “poised” way Markle speaks is her “mimicking” Princess Diana. She referenced the second episode of Markle’s podcast, which featured Mariah Carey and her discussing the word “diva” and the negative connotations surrounding it.

“Being aghast at the word diva. Who are you relating to?” Frankel said. It’s not the first time Frankel has shared her views of the Duchess of Sussex.

In 2021, she tweeted “cry me a river” in reference to Buckingham Palace’s investigation into allegations Markle bullied staffers , which Frankel later apologized for . In June, The Sunday Times reported Buckingham Palace won’t release the outcome of the bullying inquiry to protect the privacy of those involved and to limit tension between the Sussexes and the palace. When the allegations first surfaced in March 2021, representatives for Markle denied them and said it was “a calculated smear campaign based on misleading and harmful misinformation.

” In the new episode of her podcast, Frankel said she was nearly “canceled” for her tweet about the bullying allegations and claimed that at the time, an unnamed celebrity who seemingly had a relationship with Markle and Prince Harry asked her to take it down. “I had an A-list celebrity, a very wealthy person, call me when I commented on Meghan Markle before the Oprah interview and said to me, ‘Can you please take down what you said, they can barely stand up in Frogmore Cottage and they can’t afford their security,'” she said. Harry and Markle gave up their right to publicly-funded police protection when they resigned from royal duties in April 2020.

In September 2021, the prince appealed for a judicial review of a government decision that barred him from personally paying for police protection while in the UK. A statement from the couple’s representatives shared by Omid Scobie in June said the Sussexes privately fund a security team for their family. Representatives for Frankel and Markle did not immediately respond to Insider’s request for comment.

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