RHONY’s Bethenny Frankel says Tom Girardi owed Dennis Shields $500k
Bethenny Frankel is getting real and calling out fellow Real Housewives star Erika Jayne‘s ex-husband for his alleged wrongdoings. As fans of the franchise know, Tom Girardi has dealt with serious financial woes and legal battles for the past few years, and Erika has been dragged into that with her alleged involvement.
Now, Real Housewives of New York star Bethenny is revealing the connection Tom Girardi had to her late ex Dennis Shields, a businessman from NYC who was found dead back in 2018 in his Manhattan apartment. The cause of death was ultimately ruled “undetermined,” according to USA Today, however, it was suspected to be an overdose.
Bethenny has been very open about her relationship with her late ex-boyfriend and the tremendous loss she experienced. Now, the 50-year-old reality star is spilling the tea on what Dennis once told her about Tom. According to Page Six, she revealed quite the scoop during an episode of her Just B With Bethenny Frankel podcast.
According to Bethenny, she actually met Tom at a lawyer’s conference and she spoke to him about Erika, not in a good light. Apparently, she called out Erika for bragging about how much money they had while on Real Housewives of Beverly Hills, something Bethenny didn’t think was flattering. The plot thickens, however, when Bethenny spoke to Dennis about the whole ordeal.
Bethenny claimed she brought Erika and Tom up to Dennis, who then revealed to her that Tom owed him a ton of money. Here’s what the reality star recalled Dennis told her:
"“’He owes me half a million dollars. I know this other guy he owes a million and a half dollars. He doesn’t have money. He owes everybody money.’”"
The NYC native went on to explain that she questioned how Erika and Tom had so much money if they owed a lot, enough for Erika to show it off on the reality series and on social media. Bethenny said that Dennis told her, “’It’s because he’s using people’s money to support her lifestyle. He’s using the company’s money to support her lifestyle.’”
“I knew about this since 2017 … and this all came out in 2020,” Bethenny said of Erika and Tom’s financial troubles.
Bethenny summed up how she feels about her fellow reality stars flaunting their money, stating on her podcast:
"“My experience is — especially with the Housewives, but really, everywhere as well — if someone’s flaunting their money, they don’t really have it. Particularly on Beverly Hills, there have been a lot of ‘all show and no go’ girls. The more that they flaunt it and the more that they brag about it, usually there’s something wrong.”"
At the end of the day, we know all about Tom Girardi’s financial and legal mess, so Bethenny’s story isn’t exactly hard to believe. At the time of this article, Erika has not responded to the RHONY star’s claims, but we’ll be waiting to see if she does.