Bethenny Frankel and Jill Zarin have mended their relationship years after The Real Housewives of New York City stars had an epic falling out.
On Wednesday’s episode of the Bravo show, Frankel and Zarin came face-to-face for the first time since the former friends’ dramatic relationship-ending fight during the third season of RHONY, which aired in 2010.
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Eight years later, it was the tragic death of Jill’s husband, Bobby Zarin, that brought the two back together. Bobby died in January at 71 following a battle with cancer. The Zarins had been together for more than 20 years, and married for 18.
“I haven’t spoken to Jill in years,” Frankel said during Wednesday’s episode, traveling to Riverside Memorial in New York City, where the service was held. “Despite what’s happened with Jill, Bobby loved me and I loved him.”
“I’m going to Bobby’s funeral, for Jill,” she added. “I want to see her again. I’m feeling badly, not about our relationship, just about a woman who lost her husband. A loss. I mean, they were married for all these years. That’s a real loss. No matter what, they were together all the time.”
When the two finally met again, there was nothing but tenderness between the former friends.
“I’m alone now. I don’t know what I’m going to do without him. What am I going to do? I haven’t been alone since I was 20 years old,” Jill told Frankel as they met outside after the funeral. “You know I’ve been crying for a year. And the last six months and the last month, all I did was cry in the hospital. He was gone. He was gone.”
Frankel then tried her best to comfort the grieving widow. “We’re all alone. I’m alone too. But you have good friends,” she said, adding that she wouldn’t leave Jill’s side. “What are you going to do now? I know, I’m sorry. It didn’t hit me until yesterday. He’s not here. He’s supposed to be next to you.”
Jill also didn’t hesitate to tell Frankel how much she was loved by her late husband. “Bobby’s here. He’s still here. I’m so proud of you. I just have to tell you: Bobby loved you.”
Days later, Frankel visited Jill at her Manhattan home, bringing with her 8-year-old daughter Bryn. It was the first time Jill had ever met Frankel’s daughter.
“The whole way up here, I explained, ‘This is a girl I used to be friends with.’ I said, ‘I want you to be so sweet and give her a hug and she’ll freak out because she never met you,’ ” Frankel explained to co-star Sonja Morgan after the visit. “She died. She couldn’t believe she was meeting Bryn. Bryn gave her a hug, Bryn said, ‘Hi Bobby,’ like to the pictures. It was so sweet. She’s like, ‘Oh my God.’ “
Frankel even revealed that Jill and she had put their differences aside from years past.
“She said, ‘I was wrong.’ And I swear, she seemed different,” Frankel told Morgan. “She seemed humble. She said, ‘I did the wrong things, I didn’t know what I was doing, I had the wrong priorities, I’m not the same person.’ I believed her. I really did. I could be crazy. I believed her. … It was just us. There were no other girls, it wasn’t an ordeal, and we had a nice conversation. She was calm and real.”
And while Frankel was happy to let bygones be bygones, she was also keeping some barriers up. “Let me just keep this where it is right now,” she told the cameras. “I was burned. If she reaches out, I reach out back. I’m happy we had closure, I’m happy I came to the funeral, but I just want to keep it where it is.”
The Real Housewives of New York City airs Wednesdays at 9 p.m. ET on Bravo.
Photo credit: Bravo/The Daily Dish
