Bethenny Thinks It's "Preposterous" To Blame Bravo for Suicide

#StraightTalk

Bethenny Frankel had already responded to Whole Foods' removal of her Skinnygirl Margaritas from its popular health food chain of stores on Twitter.  Whole Foods refused to re-order any more product after discovering the margarita says it's all natural on the bottle with no preservatives, but actually contains the preservative sodium benzoate.

Whole Foods issued a statement to Access Hollywood saying, Skinnygirl “had been offered in 16 of Whole Foods Market’s 310 stores. After discovering that it contains a preservative that does not meet our quality standards, we have had to stop selling it.”

Bethenny released a more official statement, in which she downplayed the controversy. “I’m not making wheatgrass here. If I could put an agave plant and some limes on a shelf I would. [The Skinnygirl Margarita] is as close to nature as possible, while still being a shelf stable product. Skinnygirl cocktails were created to solve a problem: to create a line of guilt free cocktails allowing women to drink the indulgent drinks they actually want to drink with as few ingredients as possible.”

Truly, the small amount of a single preservative doesn't seem like that big of a deal. The idea was to make a healthier margarita. Of course nothing is 100% healthy. The problem is with the marketing. There are consumer laws that protect misleading buyers. And saying the product is all natural without any preservatives can be misleading. The problem is really with the wording.

Bethenny proceeded to dismiss the importance of Whole Foods to their brand, saying, “With all due respect to Whole Foods, we were in a dozen of their stores and have decided not to continue in these stores. They represent an infinitesimal fraction of our business. We are, in fact, the fastest growing spirits brand in the US,” her statement continued. “We were bound to piss someone off and everyone loves to try to tear down a success. This is a non-event. I haven’t lost even a wink of sleep.”

Gotta love the spin. All of a sudden, Skinnygirl decided not to continue in Whole Foods!

Bethenny isn't just giving it straight, with no chaser when she's defending her margaritas.  She also spoke out about the Russell Armstrong suicide controversy.  While admitting how tragic the loss of life was, Bethenny opines, “It’s preposterous to blame a TV show for someone’s suicide,” she tells USA Today. “When the show started filming, I’d heard he wasn’t so kind to his wife. But I know nothing about them.” 

“People sign very lengthy documents and they know what they’re getting into. Life is stressful. It’s unfair to blame a TV show for something personal,” she added. “I believe that. I really do. If I go through something horrendous, there’s no discussion that Bravo had anything to do with that.”

Bethenny doesn't have a lot of positive things to say about reality TV these days, so this is remarkable.