'RHONY' alum Bethenny Frankel reveals she has Stage 2 chronic kidney disease
Published in Entertainment News
NEW YORK — Bethenny Frankel on Thursday announced to her fans that she’s been diagnosed with Stage 2 chronic kidney disease.
“I have a medical announcement. Not because I want you to worry, but because I want you to take precautions in your own life, be mindful,” "The Real Housewives of New York" alum said in a TikTok video.
Frankel, 55, went on the explain that she recently decided to be “very proactive about blood tests, bone density, all the things I had heard people talking about.”
But after repeated tests came back showing that her “kidney function was coming up low,” she was eventually referred to a specialist, where she ultimately learned she had kidney disease.
“He said to me, ‘You have Stage 2 chronic kidney disease,’” the Skinnygirl founder said of the meeting, noting the diagnosis could be autoimmune or the result of a near-fatal allergy attack.
In 2018, Frankel, who suffers from a rare fish allergy, went into anaphylactic shock and spent several days in the ICU after eating soup that unknowingly contained fish flakes.
That attack, Frankel said, “could have done damage to the kidney.”
According to the Mayo Clinic, Stage 2 kidney disease occurs when the kidneys are damaged from more than a few months, leading to “mild loss of kidney function.” This can cause a buildup of fluid or waste in the body, or a buildup of acids, potassium and phosphate in the blood.
The former reality star told her fans that her first step in managing the condition is focusing on hydration, an area she admits she struggles with.
“I don’t drink a lot of water … I’m holding a bottle, but I’m not usually drinking it,” she said, noting that her doctor told her, “Water is your medicine.”
Frankel said she wanted to share her diagnosis with the public because “maybe this is something I’ll have to deal with forever, but I just wanted to tell you because I think it’s important to go get all your bloodwork done.”
“Be thorough,” she urged, “then do the follow-ups for anything that seems like an outlier. And frankly, get your bloodwork done maybe six months and then six months later, because different stuff could come up and sometimes it’s an aberration and sometimes it means something.”
©2026 New York Daily News. Visit nydailynews.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.












Comments