A near-death experience provided a strange sense of closure for Bethenny Frankel after the Real Housewives of New York City star’s allergic reaction connected her somehow with late boyfriend Dennis Shields. Frankel spent most of Thursday’s season finale of the Bravo series recovering from an incident that nearly cost her her life, but revealed a spiritual experience in the process.
“I got back from being in Boston with [boyfriend Paul Bernon] yesterday,” she explained of her poor health. “The two prior days I spent in ICU in Boston because I had an anaphylactic shock incident.”
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Frankel has always suffered from a severe fish allergy, and went into severe shock after eating miso soup that, unbeknownst to her, had fish flakes in it.
“I felt my hands get really swollen, they got super tight,” she continued, recalling Bernon leaving the room to grab her medication in a hurry. “He came back three minutes later and I was unconscious.”
Forcing the medication down her throat, Bernon called 911 and had the Skinnygirl founder transported to the hospital via ambulance.
“I heard the [doctor] say that if it had been five more minutes that I would have passed away,” she said, beginning to cry. “If no one was with me I would have been dead.”
Later, she explained to her driver that as she was somewhere in her health crisis, she felt the presence of her late on again, off again boyfriend, who passed away after a suspected drug overdose last year.
“In the middle of all the craziness, I felt Dennis pulling at me,” she insisted. “I didn’t think it, I felt it. I felt that he was pulling at me.”
While she ultimately decided not to go towards the light where she saw Shields, Frankel thought the entire experience helped her move on from his tragic death.
“Now I’m done with him,” she told the camera. “That is over. Let me be. You go be where you are, and I’m going to stay here. It was some sort of closure with Dennis. I’m not going with you.”
“I’ll always love Dennis,” Frankel continued to her driver. “I talk about him. I think about him every single day, but he always wanted me to be happy, ultimately.”
The Real Housewives of New York City three-part reunion premieres on July 11 at 9 p.m. ET and continues Thursdays through July 25 on Bravo.
Photo credit: Alessio Botticelli / Contributor / Getty Images
