Bethenny Frankel: They Wanted Me to Be More Huggable
Who told the no-nonsense chef to be like Paula Deen?
The road to $120 million doesn't come without its bumps along the way. "I remember writing my book and my original agent saying to me, 'You need to make your book Six Weeks To A Better You.' This whole cookie cutter thing," Bethenny tells PowerwomenTV. "I said, 'I feel like I'm Lauren Hutton and you're telling me to take the space out of my teeth.' And I wasn't famous then. I wasn't big enough to make these choices where I could say no, but I did say no."
And it's a good thing: Bethenny's book Naturally Thin went on to become a New York Times Best Seller. But this wasn't the Bethenny Ever After star's only tug of war with branding herself. "When I started out, people around me were like, 'You need to be the chef. You need to be the wholesome one.' I remember meeting with Food Network and them [telling me], 'You need to be more huggable, like a Paul Deen.'"
Huggable? Have they met Bethenny? Taking charge of the game as usual, B says, "It became I'm doing this my way. Who says that anyone else is smarter than I am? Who's going to tell me what to do?" Now that sounds like the Bethenny we know and love.
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