Bethenny Frankel’s dating pool appears to be appropriately shallow — sources are snickering about the close connection between the daytime TV talk-show host’s rumored wealthy flame Warren Lichtenstein and her former fiancé Larry Butler.
Lichtenstein and Butler co-founded hedge fund Steel Partners in 1990. They were close friends and business partners, until Butler left the fund after a rumored rift between the two.
“Warren was Larry’s best friend and business partner for 20 years,” a source explained to Page Six. “Bethenny knows Warren through Larry.”
Skinnygirl mogul Frankel and Butler were a couple in the mid-1990s after the former “Real Housewives of New York City” star split with her first husband, Hollywood executive Peter Sussman. Butler — who at the time was still managing Steel Partners with Lichtenstein — and Frankel dated for a year before getting engaged.
But things quickly fell apart, and they broke it off. While some snickered that Frankel (who’s never one to miss a business opportunity) sold Butler’s engagement ring on eBay, others insist she gave the ring back. “Larry and Bethenny are still friends to this day,” a source close to Frankel protested.
Fast-forward 20 years — lantern-jawed Frankel became a reality TV star, launched her line of Skinnygirl food products, sold the brand for a reported (and wildly overestimated) $100 million, and married and divorced her second husband, Jason Hoppy. And don’t forget the time she was bizarrely “lost at sea” for 20 hours.
Now back on dry land, Frankel is rumored to be dating her ex’s old business partner Lichtenstein, who is said to be worth $1 billion.
They were spotted on vacation together this summer in St. Tropez, where Frankel reportedly “leaned on” the banking tycoon during her messy divorce proceedings, even staying at his Upper East Side apartment with her daughter, Bryn, 3.
A rep for Frankel insists of her and Lichtenstein, “They are absolutely just friends. They’ve been really great friends, and nothing more.”
Frankel tweeted Tuesday morning: