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Daily Mail
14-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
Bethenny Frankel, 54, reveals what it would take to make her 'retire' from her business empire
Bethenny Frankel is already thinking about retirement despite being more than a decade younger than the standard age. But in a new interview, the 54-year-old Real Housewives Of New York City alumna admitted that it would take one major thing to make her finally give up the business empire she has cultivated since in recent years: 'a billionaire.' And not just any billionaire, she told ADWEEK, but a billionaire with 'a big boat.' After making it clear that her finances were doing just fine, the former reality star admitted: 'I would definitely retire — like, if I end up with some billionaire on some big boat.' Bethenny — who put her Connecticut home on the market for $8 million last month — made the admission during a conversation on the main stage at the magazine's Social Media Week event while chatting with is chief content officer, Zoë Ruderman. In the six years since she ended her second stint on RHONY in 2019, Bethenny has emerged as a social media star with 3.8 million Instagram followers and 2.8 million TikTok fans, and she added that she wouldn't be able to give up her newer passion. Even if she gave up her regular business obligations to live the sweet life on a billionaire's superyacht, she thought she would still 'end up doing social media on the boat.' In fact, she said she was even looking to hire more people for her social media team, and she joked to the audience, 'We'll hire everybody.' Bethenny's most recognizable success, her SkinnyGirl brand, was first unveiled in 2009, the year after RHONY premiered. She began by releasing a diet book and a follow-up recipe guide, followed by an exercise DVD and an audiobook. But the branding broke out with the release of her branded pre-mixed Skinnygirl line of margaritas. Soon, the Skinnygirl branding had spread to a line of other popular cocktails, and the success of the diet-focused alcoholic beverages led Beam Global — now known as Suntory Global Spirits — to snatch up the line for around $120 million just two years after it was introduced. But Bethenny saw the value in her Skinnygirl name and only sold the rights to the alcohol brand while allowing her to keep using the name for other products. It was soon plastered across all kinds of foods, clothing, and most recently cookware lines that debuted in 2021. The reality phenomenon expanded her empire into property flipping, which she collaborated on with Million Dollar Listing star Fredrik Eklund for the single-season reality series Bethenny & Fredrik, which aired from 2017 to 2018. Bethenny urged influencers chasing her success to 'be honest' and 'authentic' and avoid 'kissing the a** of brands that don't notice them' for clout or deals; seen May 2 in Miami Beach During her on-stage conversation, Bethenny — who shares her 15-year-old daughter Bryn Hoppy with her ex Jason Hoppy — gave some crucial advice for anyone hoping to have success rivaling hers: 'Be honest' and 'be authentic.' Although plenty of brands and businesses claim authenticity in hopes of appealing to customers, she emphasized that the real thing — and not just empty talk — attracts fans. She theorized that influencers who give fans a glimpse into their lives had become so popular in recent years because 'the world got so sick of filtered B.S.' that corporations had pumped out. But she also called out influencers who went to extremes to pander to big brands in hopes of making a quick buck. Part of staying true to yourself requires influencers to avoid 'kissing the a** of brands that don't notice them [or] care about them,' she said. 'They don't want you. She compared those influencers who are desperate for corporate sponsorships to a high schooler 'trying to get the cool girl to be your friend.' Earlier this month, Bethenny revealed that she had gotten slightly closer to her yachting fantasy after she and her daughter moved from New York City to Miami after Bryn had begged to move to the Sunshine State. The social media star had planned a move to Florida years down the line, but after realizing that she was tired of spending much of her time in an isolating Connecticut mansion, she put it on the market and headed south.
Forbes
06-05-2025
- Business
- Forbes
Trump Organization Admits President Still Controls His Business
Politics pays: Donald Trump is now worth about $5 billion, with his social-media venture accounting for more than half that sum. Photo byD onald Trump, who has long tried to suggest he has little to do with the operations of his business empire, retains power over the trust that holds his assets, according to a filing his business submitted to British regulators last month. The document, titled 'notice of individual person with significant control,' identifies Donald John Trump, born in June 1946, as someone with influence over Golf Recreation Scotland Limited, the entity through which the president holds Trump Turnberry, a golf resort that hosted four British Opens before Trump purchased it in 2014. A more detailed section of the filing, labeled 'nature of control,' specifies that 'the person has the right to exercise, or actually exercises, significant influence or control over the activities of a trust.' The Donald J. Trump Revocable Trust holds Golf Recreation Scotland Limited and, via a web of additional entities, virtually every other asset in Donald Trump's empire. By stating that Trump has control over the trust, his business appears to admit that Trump maintains a grip on his entire empire. The 'nature of control' section goes on to describe the role of the trust's designated trustee or trustees, during Trump's first term his son Don Jr. and executive Allen Weisselberg (with Eric Trump serving as chairman of the advisory board of the trust). 'The trustees of that trust (in their capacity as such) have the right to exercise, or actually exercise, significant influence or control over the company,' the document says. Or, in plain English: Trump delegated authority while retaining ultimate power. Of course he did. In early 2017, after Trump promised he would not talk about his business with his heirs, first son Eric Trump told Forbes that the president would receive financial updates 'probably quarterly.' Around that time, ProPublica obtained a document suggesting that Trump could demand money from the trust at any point. The president spent much of his first term visiting his properties, decamping to Mar-a-Lago so often that he nicknamed it the 'winter White House.' His ambassador to the United Kingdom reportedly told people Trump asked him to look into whether the British government could help direct the British Open to Turnberry. The president also tried to steer the G7 meeting of global leaders to his golf resort in Miami. A document filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission in December 2024 said that Trump remains the sole beneficiary of his trust. Even in moments that the president has feigned separation from his business, he sometimes hints at the truth. For example, in 2017, Trump hosted a press conference to highlight his moves to hand things off to his heirs. At the conclusion of the event, however, he couldn't help but assert control: 'I hope at the end of eight years, I'll come back and say, 'Oh, you did a good job.' Otherwise, if they do a bad job, I'll say, 'You're fired.'' He also named an ethics lawyer during his first term, Bobby Burchfield, then replaced him with William Burck. In a social-media post last month, Trump suggested his business should ditch Burck. Eric Trump confirmed within hours that the Trump Organization was parting ways with the attorney. Nonetheless, efforts to portray the president as separate from his multibillion-dollar empire persist. Contacted last month about a story that measured the impact tariffs had on Trump's business, a spokesperson for the White House responded, 'The president's assets are in a trust managed by his children while he is working overtime to lead the country to economic prosperity.' White House representatives did not respond to inquiries about the new filing. A spokesperson for the Trump Organization did weigh in, however. 'This was a simple administrative update,' a spokesperson said. 'The structure of the business has not changed.' In other words, despite efforts to make it seem otherwise, the president has apparently been in control all along.
