Bethenny Frankel reacted to fan backlash after posting a controversial TikTok video in which she filmed herself giving leftover makeup to a TJ Maxx employee, who told her she couldn’t accept gifts due to company policy.
The Real Housewives of New York alum also clapped back at her former co-star Carole Radziwill, suggesting she used the term “white savior complex” against Bethenny as a way to act “smart” – before Carole clapped back.
In a TikTok video shared by @byewighellodrama on Instagram, Bethenny reacted to the recent controversy.
“I’m in a lot of trouble, and I think I’m being canceled. I did something very wrong,” said Bethenny, seemingly sarcastically.
She explained she’s often given a generous quantity of makeup to “try” and “test,” and some of it is not her “shade,” though she has to open the products to see if it’s “right.”
“It’s not used, but I don’t need it,” she said, noting that she keeps the products in her car for random acts of kindness. “If someone is nice to me, I just hand them something.”
Bethenny shared she’ll use part of the products, but she won’t apply it directly to her body because she knows she’ll eventually “give it away.”
According to Bethenny, she uses “Ziplocs” to organize the makeup types, and she chose TJ Maxx because some employees claimed they wanted to “afford it.”
She estimated that the bag of makeup was worth “a thousand dollars” in total, but she had to go back and retrieve it because the store has a “policy” against accepting gifts.
Because of this, she took the bag to Restoration Hardware.
The star expressed she might be “cheap” because she doesn’t “waste anything,” and then she addressed Carole’s “white savior complex” label, which she made shortly after the video was posted.
Bethenny said people like to use “woke” terms like “white savior complex” and “gaslighting” to “act like they’re really smart.”
“So I guess I’m being canceled. What shall we all do?” she eventually asked. “Thoughts and prayers.”
Carole then responded to the shade in a comment, writing via @byewighellodrama, “White savior complex is a term that’s been around for 100 + years…long before Karens & conservatives used woke (i.e. thoughtful, self-aware, inclusive) pejoratively — another big word.”
The alum continued, “Gaslighting has been around since at least the 1940s and decent people don’t film good deeds. But hey go off…”
Around the same time, Bethenny responded to a fan asking why she assumed the TJ Maxx employee could not afford the makeup.
“Bc she is a cashier at TJ Maxx,” wrote Bethenny, via @queensofbravo on Instagram.
Image credit: @bethennyfrankel/Instagram via @queensofbravo/Instagram