Bethenny Frankel accuses RHONY star Jessel Taank of trying to ‘stay relevant’ – after she called her the ‘most overrated Housewife’

Bethenny Frankel has harsh words for a new generation star of The Real Housewives of New York City.

On Sunday’s episode of Watch What Happens Live, Jessel Taank, 43, called Bethenny the “most overrated” housewife and the Skinny Girl mogul — who called the environment at Bravo “toxic” — clapped back.

“If you have someone who is now on New York’s ‘Housewives’ in a post-successful era, they’re going to want to squeeze that sponge for every amount of liquid they can squeeze it for,” she said of her ReWives podcast Tuesday.

“And you can never blame them. You can’t blame the talent because they need the relevance and the exposure – that’s why they went on the show,” Frankel added.

“I think Bethenny Frankel is going off the rails,” the fashion publicist told Andy Cohen on September 27.

Shade: Bethenny Frankel Slammed RHONY Star Jessel Taank For Calling Her ‘Overrated’

Frankel also claimed that the question that prompted Taank to call her the “most overrated” was planted by the show’s host.

“The way it works on Watch What Happens Live is in the locker room, Andy comes in and talks about what he wants to talk about,” she said.

But a Bravo spokesperson denied that any pre-interviews took place and said as much Page six that Cohen merely greets his guests before the show.

‘WWHL does not conduct preliminary discussions. Andy will of course stop by the green rooms before the show to greet his guests, but he will not discuss specific questions or topics in advance, unless the guest initiates a topic that is personally sensitive to him/her.

“And Andy and no WWHL producers are certainly providing answers to questions,” they said.

Frankel has been critical of Cohen and Bravo lately, saying the network promotes a “toxic environment.”

She recently promised to fully expose the ‘systemic rot’ behind the scenes of the hit programmes.

And that attitude hasn’t won her any friends at the network, as they doubled down on their support for Jessel after Frankel’s statement.

She continued to rant about RHONY on her podcast, saying the show is “not doing well anymore” and only gets “a few hundred thousand” viewers a week.

However, the X/Twitter account @RatingsBravo reported that the September 27 episode of RHONY drew more than half a million viewers.

“(The show) really needs the press,” Frankel continued. “A woman on that show who isn’t relevant yet — well, who’s new, so by definition you’re not that relevant, and you’re on a show that has taken an arc and is on the back end.”

New Generation Housewife: “If you have someone who is now on New York’s ‘Housewives’ in a post-successful era, they’re going to want to squeeze that sponge for every amount of liquid they can squeeze it for,” Bethenny said of Taank (photo ) on her ReWives podcast Tuesday

New Yorker: ‘And you can never blame them. You can’t blame the talent because they need the relevance and the exposure – that’s why they went on the show,” she added

But someone from the reality TV show’s production team said this isn’t true

However, a production source tells us that they believe the opposite is true, and that Taank has actually “become a breakout hit.”

‘Jessel in particular recently appeared on the cover of Vogue India, did interviews with Variety and CNN, was a guest on Access Hollywood and Crooked Media’s Keep It! podcast, among many others.

“She also just finished Page Six’s very own Virtual Reali-Tea podcast,” they noted.