Good Morning AmericaBethenny Frankel revealed on Good Morning America Wednesday that a fibroid issue forced her to scale back her time on The Real Housewives of New York City's current season. Because the Bravo star had lost nearly 10 percent of her blood, doctors said the fibroids needed to be surgically removed ASAP. "The bleeding was so excessive and I was so weak," Frankel said. "I felt like I looked so haggard and had such black circles under my eyes that I had to take care of."
Cameras were there when Frankel and co-star Luann de Lesseps were shopping at Home Goods and realized something was seriously wrong. "It was part of the show and it was affecting the way I was acting during the show," Frankel, 45, recalled. "I was very stressed and I couldn't hear something that Luann was talking about. I just felt zoned out. Because when you're iron deficient and you've lost so much of your blood, you just feel depleted. I just felt really terrible."
"I'm not really good at being the patient, the victim, the weak one," Frankel added. "It was challenging on the show, and some of the girls were really supportive. It was really amazing."
Frankel spent three days in the hospital in May after undergoing a myomectomy, a surgical procedure to remove uterine fibroids. "I suffer from a lot of female problems: cysts, and I had endometriosis," she told Lara Spencer. "I now think—and have been told—that the fibroids probably caused my miscarriage a couple years ago." Doctors said it should take six weeks for Frankel to recover. "I think it's done," she shared. "I have to start menstruating again and see how that all works. I've lost a little bit of weight, which people have commented on, of course."
"I definitely feel good. I feel better," she said. "I had a lot of anxiety as a mother, just going under and having to have a living will. It was very stressful." More than that, she was also concerned that her issues were "pulling down the show a little bit and changing the dynamic."
She needn't have worried. "I feel good. I think the way that you take care of yourself is really important. I'm drinking more water. Everyone thinks because I have a brand called Skinnygirl that I'm all focused on health all the time and I'm not. I'm stressed. I'm a mom, just like anyone else. But since the surgery, I was drinking green juices and eating more vegetarian foods and trying to just eat healing foods," she said. "I did go to school for food and healing, so I've tried to really exercise that. I think that's why the recovery's been more quick than my doctors said."
Frankel, who hopes her divorce from Jason Hoppy will be finalized soon, also revealed that her personal life is "really good" for the first time in a long time. "I've had such a difficult road in certain areas," she said. "I'm so blessed with my daughter and my career, but I've had a couple of difficult years. My personal life is really good. I feel like I'm coming out on the other side."