Bethenny Frankel Claims She Knew About Erika Jayne's Legal & Financial Troubles Years Ago

Bethenny Frankel is making some allegations about Real Housewives of Beverly Hills star Erika Jayne.

In an episode of her podcast Just B on Wednesday (September 15), the Real Housewives of New York alum claimed that her late boyfriend Dennis Shields had first shared his thoughts about Erika and her ex-husband Tom Girardi‘s spending in 2018.

Click inside to find out what she said…

Bethenny said that she first questioned Erika after an episode of RHOBH where she said she spends $50,000 a month on hair and makeup, and also had two private planes.

“You know, I was like, that’s rolling really deep and that’s just a number that would be hard to sustain,” Bethenny said. “And Dennis said to me, ‘He doesn’t have it like that. He owes me money. He owes me half a million dollars, I know this other guy he owes $1.5 million. He doesn’t have money. He owes everybody money.’

“And I go, ‘What are you talking about? How is she flying around on the big plane, on the small plane?’” she continued. “He said, ‘Because he’s using people’s money to support her lifestyle. He’s using the company’s money to support her lifestyle.’ … Dennis was like, ‘He owes me money and it aggravates everybody.’ I said, ‘Why would he do that?’ He goes, ‘He can’t say no to her.’”

Bethenny also alleged that other lawyers were aware of Tom‘s financial issues.

“Things take a long time to come out, but everybody in that industry knew about it,” she claimed. “All these major lawyers, and I’m talking about around the country, that are in this industry, they all knew about it, and I … told [her makeup artist] Kristofer Buckle about it, I told Andy Cohen about it, just to say, ‘It’s not what you think.”’

She went on to say she believes a lot of Real Housewives stars exaggerate their wealth on the show.

“My experience is, especially with the Housewives — but everywhere, as well — but really, particularly with the Housewives, if someone’s flaunting their money, they don’t really have it,” she said. “That’s happened with a lot of the girls on all of the shows, and I can tell you on New York, people write that they have $50, $70 million, all the girls have probably between $4 and $8 million. … particularly on Beverly Hills there have been a lot of ‘all show and no go’ girls. And the more that they flaunt it and, you know, the more that they brag about it, usually there’s something wrong. I’ve always found, if you’re really flaunting your money, you probably don’t have it.”

Erika filed for divorce from Tom in November 2020 after 20 years of marriage. A month later, Erika and the 82-year-old lawyer were sued for allegedly faking their divorce to embezzle money that was intended for Tom‘s clients, who lost loved ones in the 2018 Boeing plane crash.

Her legal woes have been a storyline throughout this season of RHOBH, and on a recent episode of the series she alleged that Tom had been having an affair years before their split.