The couple's engagement became public in March.
Bethenny Frankel is gushing about Paul Bernon's proposal! The 50-year-old reality star tells People that her engagement to the film producer and real estate developer was "intimate."
"Just the two of us, on an island off of Florida. No makeup, no manicure, no ring photos," she says. "It was very simple and beautiful."
While news of her engagement became public in March, Bernon actually popped the question more than a month before that. "It felt like a strange thing to announce," Frankel says. "That just felt counter-intuitive."
The proposal came more than two years after they first began dating in October 2018, after meeting on a dating app.
"I was pretty lucky when I walked in and saw him," Frankel says of the first time she met Bernon. "He had a twinkle. He came as advertised -- better than advertised. He overshot the mark."
After a brief split in October 2020, Frankel and Bernon sparked reconciliation rumors in February 2021, before confirming their reunion later that month.
Through it all, Frankel opted to keep her relationship with Bernon largely private, following her highly publicized marriage to and split from Jason Hoppy.
Frankel and Hoppy, who share a daughter, 10-year-old Bryn, got married in 2010 and announced their separation two years later. Their divorce, which Frankel calls "the hardest experience of my life," wasn't finalized until March 2021.
"In the past I've been in a fishbowl, but that hasn't always worked out so great," Frankel acknowledges.
With her divorce behind her and her engagement out in the open, Frankel is focused on her charity work, daughter and HBO Max series, The Big Shot With Bethenny.
As for her upcoming wedding, Frankel only notes, "I'm not going to be the old lady about to hit menopause going to the newsstand to buy bridal magazines. I'm like, 'What are you doing?'"
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