Bethenny Frankel: I Built a $120 Million Empire Thanks to Reality TV

Bethenny Frankel turned a small business into an empire -- and she owes it all to reality television. The natural chef-turned-reality star has raked in a whopping $120 million thanks to the exposure

provided by 'The Real Housewives of New York City' and 'Bethenny Ever After,' according to the Hollywood Reporter.

However, Frankel didn't exactly jump at the chance to join the Bravo franchise when producers first approached her. Having previously seen her on the ill-fated 'The Apprentice: Martha Stewart,' producers saw reality gold in Frankel's, well, frank personality.

"I was worried it would ruin what I had going," she said about her hesitation to join the show, which debuted in 2008. "I went on the show single-handedly and exclusively for business ... When I went on the show, no one was going on for business, no one had done anything."

Bravo had no problem with Frankel promoting her businesses on 'Housewives.' She wasn't there to attend cocktail parties seven nights a week, she used the opportunity to create her empire.

"I'm not running around buying diamonds and getting facials," Frankel says of her 'Real Housewives' experience. "I just decided to be totally honest and own it. You can't do something you don't stand for just to make money. It's a smart audience, people will realize it."

She continues, "Everything I create is a solution to a problem that women have. I don't like to wear lingerie, but my husband loves it. So I created lazy lingerie. You wear it under a blazer or sweater during the day, but when you pull it off, you have on lingerie. It solves a problem."

Frankel has created an umbrella of problem-solving products and endorsements under her name: workout DVDs, books, clothing and weight-loss supplements, just to name a few. However, it was her love of margaritas but hatred of their high calorie count that gave Frankel the business idea of a lifetime: the Skinnygirl Margarita.

It took some time, but the low-calorie alcoholic drink eventually took off and Frankel has been in the black ever since. The reality star now has a hefty deal with Fortune Brands' Beam Global -- hefty as in $120 million -- to produce the drink worldwide.

"Now, every company I pitched this idea to has either tried to buy Skinnygirl or has copied it," Frankel says. "I created a sub-category that never existed. I wasn't an expert -- I was just another person bothered by a 700-calorie margarita."

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