Confession. I used to watch The Real Housewives of New York. I did. The first season (or two). Yup. Go ahead, get on your Supreme Court robes and get all judge-y. I’m ok with it. I’m not particularly proud of this once upon a time weekly habit, but you know how it is when you pass a car accident on the highway, you want to look, you don’t want to look, but you do, and you keep looking until you practically cause an accident on your side of the road. That’s how it was. I just couldn’t drag myself away from such pathetically compelling characters with so much money and venom. Plus there was loads of good jewelry and clothes. I once saw the countess walking on Fifth Avenue near FAO Schwarz. She had on a killer leather coat. I considered fighting her for it (she probably would have won, she is monstrously tall).

Anyway, the housewife, who was curiously not a housewife, but desperately wanted to be one, Bethenny Frankel was my favorite. She was a fast talking, tell all, New York chef with a seriously killer bod, and a business about to go boom, called Skinny Girl. She was funny and self-deprecating and looking for a man (so she too could one day get divorced like some of the other pathetic women on the show). She was the breakout star who met her prince, became pregnant, got married, received a spin-off show about her marriage (and pregnancy and burgeoning biz) and then another show about her first year of marriage and baby. And just when I was convinced she had actually managed to get it all, despite her difficult childhood, she announced her divorce, about the same time she announced that Ellen Degeneres was giving her a talk show (I would consider a divorce if Ellen gave me a talk show. Hey Ellen, what about me?)

Anyway, I thought this was sad. See, I still really liked Bethenny. I mean, she has the kind of candor that gets me. She will tell you anything. She had a really challenging upbringing and she talked about it freely and openly, often with lots of tears and a discourse on all the ways it had crazified her life. That’s a girl after my own heart. But let me just talk about her husband Jason for a minute. What a seemingly great, grounded, hunky guy. A regular guy, if you will. He was made for the camera, but he had a Mid-west down-homeness that seemed perfect for the deeply damaged Bethenny. Our girl was getting a do-over and I was rooting for her. A good choice, it seemed. Her business got purchased for a bajillion bucks, her baby was cute.

They bought a killer loft downtown, with a closet for Bethenny as big as my house (not really, but it sure looked that way). Jason’s parents were kind and sweet and really supportive of the marriage and their only son’s happiness. But you could see that they were sort of leery of Bethenny. These two kids were different alright, but I thought that was a positive. I thought this was what would make it work.

Well, the whole reason for this post is that Bethenny, on her Ellen Degeneres talk show, just announced that she had “settled” for Jason, that the love of her life was someone else that she couldn’t be married to. They’re battling for custody and not even divorced yet, and she is airing this piece of particualry dirty and tainted laundry? Actually, battling or not, this is a no-no. How do you make a public statement like this when you have a child? TMI, Bethanny. You should change the name of your drink line from Skinny Girl to Naughty Girl. You don’t publicly humiliate the baby daddy. EVER. Not ok. I want to dislike her for this. What a shit thing to do. But I suppose I will continue to watch with one eye closed, because like a train wreck, it’s hard to turn away. But yech, teach me to watch reality tv and believe it. It’s just as scripted as a bad sitcom, but with real people getting hurt. For me, it’s   a good lesson in knowing that you can share too much. And that’s more valuable than any amount of money Bethenny is making from her latest bout of oral diarrhea.

Alone, on her talk show set. And with the kind of bad tell all behavior she is exhibiting, she might just stay that way.