Bethenny Frankel Admits She ‘Can’t Bring’ Herself to Try Dating Again

Bethenny Frankel isn’t in any hurry to dip her toes back in the dating pool.

“I know what you’re going to say, but I’m going to confide in you. I’m afraid to date. Now, it’s not like I’m actually… actively afraid,” Frankel, 54, said in a TikTok video shared on Sunday, August 10. ‘It’s like I am so hesitant because… You know how, like, when you get food poisoning, you’re just scared to eat that food again, even though rationally you know that you’re likely not going to get food poisoning again from that same food, but you just don’t… you can’t bring yourself to do it.”

That’s the situation Frankel has found herself in, she insisted.

“Like, I dip my foot in and think I’m going to do it, and then start talking to someone, and then I run away. I’ll just, like, stop texting or just…and it’s not a breadcrumb thing. I’m not a breadcrumber. I, like, stick my foot in the pool and then I’m like, ‘It’s too cold. I don’t want to go in,’” she said, adding that instead of pushing herself to date before she’s ready, she’s decided to retreat from the dating scene entirely.

Bethenny Frankel Ditches Her 1st Date Since Paul Bernon Split

“So maybe one day the pool will be warm enough, and it’ll be a beautiful enough day to, like, get in, but… until that day, I’m not even dipping my toe in anymore,” she concluded.

Frankel was last linked to Paul Bernon, but the pair broke off their engagement in March 2024 after six years of dating. (Frankel also shares daughter Bryn with ex Jason Hoppy.)

In a March 2025 appearance on Alix Earle’s “Hot Mess” podcast, Frankel revealed she was dating again — but taking it slowly.

“I am dating,” she explained, “I have always, sort of, wanted to know exactly what everything is, and I’m trying to let the wine breathe more vs. need to know what it is.”

When asked to explain what that meant, Frankel clarified, “Like, what the label is or that [if] I’m getting married.”

But Frankel also made it clear that she wasn’t necessarily having the most success because many men were intimidated by her professionally.

Bethenny Frankel Astrida Valigorsky/FilmMagic

“What I run into is extremely successful men that by anybody’s standards are very wealthy, very successful, very smart. Then they meet someone like me, but they start to question their own business. How successful they are,” Frankel said. “No matter what, it will be intimidating. It just will on some level.”

She also said, “I’ve had several men say to me, ‘Wow, you’re doing all this stuff. I feel like I’m not doing anything.’”

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In response, the reality star admitted she has sometimes been guilty of “dumbing [herself] down” to make men feel more confident.

“I don’t want to make them feel bad. I’m telling them how their thing is the same thing as my thing,” she explained. “So, it’s nice to be with someone who’s not in even the same business. So, it doesn’t feel adjacent or competitive.”