Bethenny Getting Married? star Bethenny Frankel knows how to pursue her dreams -- becoming a business tycoon, best-selling author, and reality TV phenomenon. But when this high-powered entrepreneur met Jason Hoppy, she let HIM pursue HER -- and as a result, realized another dream: marriage to a man she calls "my anchor," and the birth of their adorable daughter Bryn (in Rules-y fashion, she named the baby after her husband's late brother, Bryan).
Bethenny's immense popularity (she's on the cover of this month's People magazine) reflects not just her moxie but also the fact that so many of us have made her mistakes. People describes her in Real Housewives of New York as "the one whose aspiration to be a 'housewife' was often thwarted by partying a little too hard (downing six margaritas after she broke up with a boyfriend) and seeming a little too lost." Finally, "Frankel realized that years of late-night partying with noncommittal boyfriends had left her emotionally and financially strapped." Sound familiar, ladies?
Deciding it was time to take care of herself instead of going out "to find another guy to take care of me" she set about building her own business empire, which now includes a lucrative line of Skinnygirl cocktail mixes, cookbooks, workout videos, and of course, her own show. Being so busy and independent with work, she never really bothered Jason -- she left him alone, which made him only want her more.
And as Rules co-author Sherrie Schneider pointed out to me, though Bethenny is sometimes a bitch in business, bossing around her assistant and terrorizing her wedding planner (e.g., "I will rip your dick off") she does a decent version of The Rules for Marriage during her engagement with Jason. She preferred a small wedding, but as Sherrie observed:
she's having a big wedding instead to please him; she entertains his friends even though she hates to be with people; she's really nice to his mother (asks her to go dress shopping with her)... she's gotten much nicer than when she was single, she really wants to make things work with Jason.
On her reality series, Bethenny describes how she went "balls-to-the-wall" in her business career. But she takes a decidedly different, softer, lighter, more vulnerable and feminine approach with her then husband-to-be. There's a telling scene when the couple meets with the wedding officiant to discuss the upcoming ceremony. The officiant observes that Jason seems to hold the ground so that Bethenny can fly, to which Jason replied: "She's my little kite."
The operative word isn't "kite," it's "little": Despite the fact that Bethenny's fame and fortune would seem to dwarf her sales rep/personal trainer husband, he still calls her "baby" and feels protective of her. Back to Sherrie & Ellen: "When you do The Rules, he treats you like a fragile, delicate flower" -- even if you're a hard-assed CEO to the rest of the world!
When I started watching Bethenny Getting Married? at Sherrie's prompting, I found that there was a lot I could relate to. Like Bethenny, I'm a Scorpio. Like Bethenny, after dating various wealthy, high-profile men, "I fell in love with a regular guy with a regular salary [who] taught me that being taken care of was emotional and not financia" [Bethenny's words]. And despite the fact that I am older, and more affluent -- even taller in heels -- than my husband , I am still "little" to him. In fact, that's his pet name for me: "Little." Sometimes "little thing," or "little bird," or "little flower," but always..."little."
It speaks to the difference between how the world sees you, and how you and your partner see each other, and yourselves as a couple. Whatever the world might see, when Bethenny & Jason saw this playful, exuberantly colorful, almost childlike painting of a groom chasing a bride, by Brazilian artist Romero Britto, they saw themselves. "That's us," Jason said, "because that's you running away." Bethenny agreed: "He'll always have to chase me on some level, because it's hard to catch me."
That's the basic premise of The Rules: "Biologically, the man must pursue the woman," authors Ellen Fein and Sherrie Schneider insist. "The man must be attracted to and pursue the woman. It simply doesn't work any other way."
It worked for Bethenny, and it can work for you: Pursue your goals, conquer the world, but when you find the man of your dreams, let him pursue you, until you catch him!