In news that is probably a surprise to no one, another woman is being judged for what they choose to do with their body. In this instance, it’s former Real Housewives of New York City cast member Bethenny Frankel who, god forbid, wore a thong bikini while walking at Sports Illustrated Swimsuit’s Swim Week 2025 runway show in Miami at the ripe age of 54.

Frankel took to the runway in a range of looks: a cheetah-print one-piece swimsuit, a denim bikini and cowboy hat, and most divisively — a pink and black polka dot thong bikini. Someone call the church elders. She looked amazing. Strong. Happy. But the judgement was immediate and significantly centered around the fact Frankel is a mother to 15-year-old Bryn, who she shares with her ex-husband Jason Hoppy. Yup, the mum guilt — where women are made to feel ashamed of their actions because they don’t match society’s expectations of a parent — was rife.

Other younger, child-free models, like influencer Alix Earl, or Olympian Ilona Maher faced markedly less vitriol. Still, Frankel stood strong when fans asked “what would her daughter think” of the her choice to walk the runway.

“What would my daughter think of me being in a thong in a fashion show…” Frankel responded defiantly on Instagram. “The answer is proud.” Yup, Bryn video called her mother immediately after the performance to gush about how fantastic it had been to see her on the stage. “‘Mama…I saw you, you did so good!’” Frankel recalled the 15-year-old said: “‘You have such a cute tush mama…‘You look like you’re 30 years old.’” No cowering teenage embarrassment to be seen, much to the seething internet’s surprise — a testament to Frankel’s mutually broad-minded relationship with her child, that this display of her confidence and physicality wasn’t a big deal until social media got involved.

Elsewhere, exhaustingly, Frankel was forced to address her weight in an additional post, after fans continually remarked on her appearance. “As the internet is so fascinated with my age, my weight, my face, my hair, I can tell you with certainty, every woman that was with me on that stage did not look that way two hours prior,” she said. “The images you and your daughters see of women, Kim Kardashian, Beyoncé… that there is a lot of work that goes into that, a lot of glam, a lot of make-up, a lot of contouring.”

In the days after the show it was revealed that Frankel had extension put in her hair, had her locks dyed with honey-coloured highlights and wore bronzed makeup to give her a glow for the runway. She also underwent a series of non-invasive body sculpting treatments and hooked herself up to IV drips. But it was walking that she attributed her health to — between 6,000 and 10,000 per day. She walked, she slept, she ate whole foods, in order to feel energised and balanced — rather than skinny.

Frankel explained that, although she now has a good relationship with food and exercise, she spent much of her 30s suffering the opposite. “I was fixated, I would binge and then starve, eat out of self loathing and being lonely…” she said, adding she didn’t want her followers to put themselves through the same cycle of self-punishment: “Allow yourselves to have what you want and not beat yourself up when you indulge,” she told her fans, who were asking her for diet tips and workout regimes thanks to the swimwear show.

Following her bum-baring appearance, Frankel joked about the awkwardness of dropping her daughter off at school after “everyone” had seen her in the divisive g string bikini. “Why is everyone acting weird towards me?” the reality star asked in the TikTok lip syncing video, shared in lighthearted recognition of the absolute onslaught of criticism that had followed in the days before. “I can imagine fewer dads are being sent to pickup duty,” one person commented on the video. “Put your head up, you rocked it,” another commenter, correctly, added.

Bravely, Frankel didn’t retreat into her shell after the wrath of the internet bore down on her for simply wearing a bikini. In the days that followed, Frankel shared another video of herself dancing around the kitchen in, you guessed it, a thong swimsuit while she made herself a coffee. “If the internet says I’m a supermodel? Who am I to argue?” she said, focussing on the significant positive response she also received for the runway show. “We all need this energy!!!” Jeff Bezos’ wife Lauren Sánchez even remarked.

In a separate, more emotional video, Frankel reflected on the runway experience and the undeserving ageist fallout that had ensued: “Whether you’re 18 or 98, everyone deserves to feel alive, happy, and free,” she wrote. “Freedom means living your own truth on your terms at any age.” If only body shamers could remember that.