Bethenny Frankel Says Modern Sobriety for Some People Is 'Get a Bag of Cocaine but Not Drink Alcohol'-quang

"It's like, ‘Let's do heroin and get a facial mask and drink water,' " the reality alum said of some people who abstain from alcohol

Bethenny Frankel sounded off on the evolving perception of sobriety, sharing she’s been cutting down on drinking — but noticed people who say they’re alcohol-free will still do drugs.

“I don't wanna displace [alcohol] with another thing,” Frankel, 54, said in a “rant” on the Jan. 10 episode of her podcast, Just B. She referenced the “California sober” trend, where people “wanna do edibles, and they wanna smoke pot” but abstain from alcohol.

But, the Real Housewives of New York alum said she’s noticed people don’t stop with marijuana.

“Like, ‘I wanna just get a bag of cocaine but not drink alcohol,’ “ she said. “I know people who, like, do crazy s—t. It's like, ‘Let's do heroin and get a facial mask and drink water.’ And I'm not even kidding. So to just be sober …  you need other things.” 

Although she's cutting back on alcohol, Bethenny Frankel references her Skinnygirl cocktails of 2013.

She shared that she’s been abstaining from alcohol as well: “I'm finding that, you know, I haven't had any alcohol in a minute. I have POTS, which makes me severely dehydrated,” she said, referencing her ongoing struggle with postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome (POTS), which impacts the heart rate. “One to two out of every 20 times I'll drink, it'll hit really very dangerous,” she explained.

Frankel continued: ”There have been a lot of changes in the way that the Surgeon General and the health community looks at drinking, so it's just something to discuss,” she said, a reference to how Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy recently called for alcohol to have cancer warning labels.

And abstaining from alcohol has its benefits, she said. “You start to really start feeling healthier and lighter and your eyes whiter and sleeping better after a certain period of time … You're not staying out late doing stupid things.”

Bethenny Frankel in New York in 2024

But having a social life when you’re not drinking is a challenge, explained Frankel, who along with the pioneering Skinnygirl margarita brand, also has her own wine label, Forever Young.  “I was trying nonalcoholic wines, which all suck, by the way,” she said, saying before going out when you’re sober, you have to think, “ ‘What are we going to drink? What's our cocktail of choice? What's our vibe?’ ” 

Sobriety can also add a level of complication when you’re dating, she says, because “Dating is hard to do without drinking. It's something to do,” she explained, adding that she spent New Year’s Eve sober on a date, saying, “That was a feat.”