Bethenny Frankel has slammed the trend of ‘California sober’ people who quit alcohol only to keep indulging in drugs like marijuana and cocaine.
The phrase ‘California sober’ went viral in 2021 when Demi Lovato used it to explain to Joe Rogan that she was on the wagon but still using cannabis.
Demi, who had suffered a near-fatal heroin overdose in 2018, later renounced the label and declared that ‘sober sober is the only way to go.’
Now Bethenny has brutally roasted people who say they ‘wanna just get a bag of cocaine but not drink alcohol,’ on a new episode of her podcast Just B.
The 54-year-old reality star, who has a wine brand called Forever Young and a pre-mixed cocktail line called Skinnygirl and has also invested in Mingle Mocktails, said she herself has not ‘had any alcohol in a minute.’
She noted that she has postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome (POTS), a neurological condition that causes the patient’s heart rate to quicken when sitting or standing up, in a phenomenon heightened by hot weather.
Bethenny Frankel has slammed the trend of ‘ California sober’ people who quit alcohol but keep indulging in drugs like marijuana and cocaine
‘Some people are displacing – that’s the California sober. Now they wanna do edibles and they wanna smoke pot,’ Bethenny said.
‘Like I don’t wanna displace with another thing: “Like I wanna just get a bag of cocaine but not drink alcohol,”‘ she added.
‘I know people who like do crazy s*** – it’s like: “Let’s do heroin and get a facial mask and drink water” – and I’m not even kidding,’ Bethenny dished.
‘You know, I haven’t had any alcohol in a minute. I have POTS, which makes me severely dehydrated. It’s almost like a Shishito pepper,’ she explained.
‘One to two out of every 20 times I drink, it’ll hit really very dangerous and bad and dehydrated and [I] like need an IV and it just doesn’t work for me really.’
However she acknowledged that giving up alcohol raised questions about ‘how to handle’ situations like social drinking and dating.
‘Dating is a big one. Dating is hard to do without drinking. It’s something to do. And so like now there are a lot of non-alcoholic options, but are they weird? Do you feel uncomfortable? And there are sober bars,’ she said.
‘And it’s kind of something you have to break through, you know? You have to break through. It’s almost like a juice fast and you start to really start feeling healthier and lighter, and your eyes whiter and sleeping better after a certain period of time.’
The 54-year-old, who has invested in Mingle Mocktails, said she herself has not ‘had any alcohol in a minute,’ citing her postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome (POTS)
The 54-year-old, who has a wine brand called Forever Young and a pre-mixed cocktail line called Skinnygirl, is pictured in a 2020 video showing fans how to make a watermelon cocktail
She allowed that quitting alcohol means ‘you become a little less social. You definitely do. You’re not staying out late doing stupid things.’
Bethenny added that sobriety ‘kind of can become your personality a little, particularly if you’re not an alcoholic, like if you’re just a person who can choose.’
She recalled that the previous day, she ‘was trying non-alcoholic wines – which all suck, by the way – and took a sip of an alcoholic wine by accident, ‘cause I didn’t realize, and like I’m not gonna die. We’re not gonna go on a bender, which by the way, a real serious alcoholic, it could be very bad.’
Bethenny, who is dating businessman Tom Villante, shared that she ‘was out on a date’ on New Year’s Eve and ‘we didn’t drink, and that was a feat.’
She observed: ‘You had to sort of plan ahead, like: “What are we going to drink? What’s our cocktail of choice? What’s our vibe?” ‘Cause you’re standing around for a couple of hours and it’s like: “What are we doing? What’s our activity?”’
Bethenny was first seen out with Tom in September, before they went red carpet official at a Yellowstone premiere in November.
Her dashing new boyfriend is the CEO of YapStone, a payment processing platform designed for people who run vacation rentals.
Bethenny found herself denying engagement rumors with Tom after she was spotted on the beach on Thanksgiving with a ring on her left hand fourth finger.
Bethenny, who is dating businessman Tom Villante, noted that she ‘was out on a date’ on New Year’s Eve and ‘we didn’t drink, and that was a feat’; pictured with Tom in November
She went public with him just months after the collapse of her engagement to financier Paul Bernon, whom she was involved with off and on for six years.
Over the summer, Bethenny had been spotted frolicking at the beach in St Tropez with the 46-year-old German pop artist Niclas Castello.
Niclas used to be married to Sylvie Meis, who is known as the ‘Dutch Victoria Beckham’ because of her previous marriage to star footballer Rafael Van Der Vaart.
Paul and Bethenny reportedly went their separate ways around March, and she kept the estimated $1 million engagement ring he gave her, a source told Us Weekly.
A friend of the couple said the relationship ‘just wasn’t going to work’ because Bethenny and Paul were ‘so different’ from one another – for example, because ‘he’s an under the radar kind of guy.’
Bethenny later revealed she ‘initiated’ the breakup because she ‘wasn’t happy’ and felt ‘something needed to change,’ but clarified that ‘nobody dumped anybody’ and the final decision was ‘certainly mutual.’
‘Some people are displacing – that’s the California sober,’ Bethenny said: ‘Now they wanna do edibles and they wanna smoke pot’
Paul, 45, rapidly rebounded with Olivia Culpo’s elder sister Aurora, 35, but they were together for just two months before news of their split broke last July.
Bethenny has a daughter called Bryn Hoppy, 14, by her second and latest ex-husband Jason Hoppy, with whom she waged a nearly nine-year custody battle.
Jason and Bethenny were married in 2010 and separated in 2012 – but only in December 2021 did he agree to end the ‘toxic environment’ of their legal war.
Bethenny, who once had a yearlong marriage to her friend Peter Sussman in the 1990s, released a self-help book on love in 2016 in the midst of her divorce proceedings with Jason.
Co-written with Eve Adamson, the book was cheekily entitled I Suck At Relationships So You Don’t Have To: 10 Rules For Not Screwing Up Your Happily Ever After.
