Reality star and entrepreneur Bethenny Frankel has shared some heartbreaking news. On April 20, Frankel shared several photos of herself with her mom Bernadette Birk, announcing her tragic passing.
“My mother has died of lung cancer,” Frankel shared in her statement. “She was complex, in pain, isolated and had demons.”
But despite her hardships, Frankel said Bernadette was “the most stunning woman you have ever seen, who left her abusive home as quickly as I ran from mine. I was born on her [birthday].”
Frankel called her mom “brilliant, funny, cultured, and wise,” but added that she struggled with “self-destruction.” And even though Frankel says Bernadette was not “equipped to be a mother, she loved me and I have beautiful memories of her.”
Frankel said she learned a lot from her mom, including her strength, but she “won’t sugarcoat it, I was an adult long before Bryn’s age, experiencing things no young child should endure.”
“This made me strong, tough, a survivor who is able to handle anything. The universe gave me the most beautiful daughter and my childhood gave me inspiration to break the chain.”
And despite their rocky relationship, Frankel said she and her mom “reconnected” over the years so that her daughter, Bryn, could know her grandmother. “She adored Bryn and they shared a love of art.”
“She had one friend, so my lifelong wish was granted that she wasn’t alone. She was selfish in life, yet selfless in death. She left what little she had to my daughter, wished to be cremated, and wanted no one to be notified besides me,” Frankel continued.
Frankel admitted she had a “sixth sense she had passed. I had started to release some trauma, was dancing to the song ‘I’m alive’ in her favorite designer Alaia dress as she was dying.”
“I mourn her loss, her life, her loneliness and my childhood. I mourn her inability to experience motherhood, the most beautiful gift of a lifetime,” Frankel writes. “Goodbye mom, Bonnie, Bernadette. You did the best you could and you are free and at peace.”
At the end, Frankel encouraged her followers to “please call, connect with, or hug someone you have a complicated relationship with today,” and admitted she was grateful her daughter for “consistently pushing to meet her and myself for re-opening old wounds for their relationship.”