Thanks to court documents stemming from the nightmare known as Bethenny Frankel and Jason Hoppy‘s divorce, we have been given an inside look at the Real Housewives of New York star’s finances.
According to the documents, Bethenny had a net worth of $22 MILLION, with assets valued at nearly $612,000, when she and Jason signed their prenup in 2010. And this was before Bethenny sold Skinnygirl for a reported $100 million. At prenup time, Jason was reportedly worth $475,000.
Two years later, Bethenny‘s gross annual salary was listed as $4,011,726 on her W2 forms. At that time, Bethenny and Jason each had their own checking and savings accounts, a joint checking account, a joint brokerage account, and a 529 college savings account for their daughter Bryn.
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The breakdown of those accounts:
Bethenny only – $282,207
Jason only – $13,331
Joint Checking – $3,774
Joint Brokerage – $248,774
College Savings – $149,187
This brings us to one of the many reasons this divorce hasn’t been settled yet. Jason argued, given the amount of money that came into the marriage, he’s grown accustomed to the good life. Jason’s monthly living expenses, according to the court documents, total $35,559. A breakdown:
Clothes for Jason – $470
Hobbies for Jason – $450
Summer rental – $4,000
Vacation budget – $2,500
Clothes for Bryn – $600
Toys for Bryn – $500
Bryn’s babysitter – $320
Bryn’s summer camp – $350
So I assume Bryn needs a babysitter for only a handful of hours a month. If it’s more than that, dude, I’d like the babysitter’s phone number. But I digress.
Apparently the amount of money Jason said he needs per month for vacations has been a source of contention. In the documents, the judge noted that there are “disputes about whether their often luxurious travel constituted vacations (according to the husband) or work (according to the wife).” And she added, “It is difficult to make a precise finding as to the marital lifestyle.”
I think the judge should “find” that Bethenny and Jason are both insufferable, spoiled, manipulative whiners, therefore, the monthly vacation budget should be awarded to us for the pain and suffering we’ve endured the past two years.
In other “these two asshats could have fed a small country with the amount of money they’ve Bethenny has spent on lawyers” news, their battle over the Tribeca apartment, which has been a huge sticking point for Bethenny, is far from over.
Long story short, to the best of my understanding, the judge has ruled that the trust that was created to hold the apartment is invalid. This, because the lawyer who “witnessed” the signatures wasn’t present when the document was signed, and the notary who certified the signatures, Jason‘s mother Carol, was not licensed in New York. If the trust is invalid, Jason is no longer the trustee. And if Jason is no longer the trustee, Jason loses his “hold” on the apartment.
According to court documents, Bethenny insisted she was misled by Jason when she signed the trust documents. “Specifically, she claims that when she signed, she believed, based on her communication with her husband, that the trust ‘was only to maintain privacy given her public recognition and Jason would only be managing the property for her benefit.’”
Bethenny claimed that Jason “duped her into executing the trust agreement, in order to make the apartment joint property under the prenuptial.” Also, she “alleges the apartment was purchased with her separate property and seeks an award of the apartment to her on that basis.”
“It is undisputed that the signatures of the parties were not acknowledged in the presence of the person claiming to have acknowledged those signatures,” the judged stated. “It is also undisputed that the power of attorneys were not even signed in the state where the notary public was credentialed, Pennsylvania.”
The judge continued, “Where no valid trust was created by reason of failure to comply with the formalities … any transfer into or out of the putative trust is null and void. Accordingly the transfer of the apartment into the trust was null and void. The deed must be reformed in order to reflect the proper identity of the purchase, since the trust never existed, and cannot. therefore, have taken title to the apartment.”
I see Jason as passive aggressive and manipulative. I see Bethenny as bitter and selfish. That said, I do think Jason is more to blame for the low-down antics that have caused this divorce to turn so nasty and take so long to settle. I hope Bethenny and Jason settle this mess soon, put Bryn‘s needs above their petty bullshit, and learn to co-parent.
TELL US – SHOULD BETHENNY PAY FOR JASON’S LUXURY VACATIONS? YOUR THOUGHTS ON THE TRUST SITUATION?
Photo Credit: Peter Kramer/NBCUniversal Cable Entertainment
