Real Housewives of New York City fans will know that Dorinda Medley loved a cocktail or two. But while her less-than-sober moments have made for some of the biggest laughs during the Bravo show, Bethenny Frankel wasn’t laughing on Wednesday’s new episode, accusing her castmate of having a drinking problem.
“I don’t want you to get your fur up ’cause I’m going to be super, super kind,” Frankel told Medley as the two made their way to Puerto Rico for a B Strong relief mission. “You go to a 16 out of 10 and I need to really say it to you — the way that you sometimes treat me is worse than [castmate Ramona Singer], I just cut you slack because you’re a drunk.”
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The mic drop moment came soon after an awkward dinner in Miami the day before their trip, during which Medley appeared to be slurring her words and was criticizing one of Frankel’s fellow relief workers. This led Frankel to tell Medley not to come to Puerto Rico the next day.
“Good. Then I won’t come,” a likely intoxicated Medley said, getting up and leaving. “Thank you so much. Then I won’t I was excited. I was happy to be here. And you did this. I was so happy. Good. I’m done. You always ruin everything. S— show. Whatever.”
Frankel was annoyed with her friend. “It’s sad because Dorinda seems to abuse alcohol,” she told the camera. “I would say acting this way at 7:00 at night to people who only have good intentions would indicate that there might be a problem.”
“Before this dinner, Dorinda and I sat in my room talking about [boyfriends John Mahdessian and Dennis Shields] and drinking wine. And then right before walking into the restaurant we were sitting in the hotel bar having another drink while we waited. And I think Dorinda did a little pregame before she got there. She [was] wasted,” Frankel added.
But despite being frustrated, Frankel wasn’t mad at Medley.
“She likes to drink. I think it gets the best of her,” Frankel explained. “And I think she’s aware of all of this. I think she’s beating herself up way more than we ever could. So I’m feeling compassion for her. She does really want to come and help. She’s going to regret this tomorrow. She is a wonderful, amazing person.”
“The first feeling that I have is compassion for her,” Frankel continued. “Honestly. She won’t even know what she’s done. I know she’ll wake up tomorrow and be on time and dressed and we’ll have a good experience. I’m forgiving.”
And that’s just what happened, with Frankel addressing what happened the night before to Medley in the morning, telling her, “You shouldn’t be drinking. When you drink, you get mean. There’s something going on … you can’t act like that.”
Medley was quick to defend herself against being called a drunk.
“I’m not,” she told Frankel. “I just can’t not eat and drink early, I can’t. I should have gone to bed last night. I shouldn’t drink at 4. I’d been up since like 5.”
“I think there’s a lot more going on,” she continued. “I’m frustrated. I have a lot more going on in my life. It’s not an exclusive, I’m just saying, my frustrations come out very quickly. It intensifies. And I’ve got to work on that.”
Medley continued defended herself in a confessional, explaining: “Bethenny likes to label people. It’s just not fair. It’s not accurate. And Bethenny had had her moments. One night does not define people.”
The conversation then turned to how Medley is still grieving the death of her husband Richard, who died in 2011 from liver failure.
“I have a life now that’s not the life that I expected,” Medley said. “I’ll always miss that. … I was doing so well for five years and I’ve gone a little backwards and I can’t get my head around it. What it is that’s triggering it. Is it all my major jobs in my life that I really enjoyed and appreciated are over? Like motherhood and being a wife. I liked being a wife, I was really good at it.”
Medley also admitted that she fears going off into “an abyss of loneliness.”
“I’m okay living alone but you know there are still mornings where I wake up and I say, ‘Is this it? If I die here is anyone going to find me?’ ” she revealed. “I fell down a ladder one day and almost hit my head … what, are they going to smell me before they find me?”
“Life’s hard,” she added. “You’re always trying to keep it all together and show good faith and be a strong woman and be a strong mother and sometimes it’s hard. And you miss that old life. I had a life where you could come home at night and the person had my back.”
The Real Housewives of New York City airs Wednesdays at 9 p.m. ET on Bravo.
Photo credit: Lifetime
