Bethenny Frankel Scrambles to Defend Comments About Bad Bunny's Super Bowl Performance

When Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio, aka Bad Bunny, took the stage for the 2026 Super Bowl, it was amid a time of unprecedented, heightened tensions in the United States against Latino individuals. The choice to tap Bad Bunny for the Super Bowl was seen as a political one by many, thrusting the topic of immigration and American citizenship into the spotlight during the annual sports extravaganza.

Bad Bunny charged fearlessly into the tension, hosting a performance that was deep and full of symbolic meaning, leaning into it rather than shying away. He addressed a number of topics that are unique to Puerto Ricans, celebrating his culture, and embraced both Latino and Hispanic cultures from around the world.

To some, the performance was divisive. Multiple celebrities have spoken up, including influencers like Jake Paul and Bethenny Frankel. Here's what the latter had to say about Bad Bunny.

While the majority of viewers seemed to enjoy Bad Bunny's performance, not everyone was on board. Including Real Housewives of New York star and influencer Bethenny Frankel.

On Bethenny's social media, she posted a video seeming to praise Bad Bunny. She explained, “So my take on Bad Bunny and his performance at the Super Bowl is that he is an artist expressing himself, his music and his experience as a Puerto Rican man in America."

However, her TikTok video was soon flooded by people saying that she had originally posted, and then deleted, a video criticizing him.

In the since-deleted video, Bethenny acknowledged that she was likely to get canceled for what she was about to say, then went on to say that she understood how sometimes it was necessary to politicize non-political events, such as during COVID. She added, "Should these entertainment vehicles - the Grammys, the Emmys, the Oscars, the Super Bowl - should this be the place for personal, cultural, political views to be expressed?" (excerpts via Daily Mail).

She compared his performance to past public controversies with celebrities, asking "Where's the line?" and pointing out that some celebrities felt that they were "not allowed to express any opinions about anything going on."

In the kinder and gentler video she replaced the original with, Bethenny explained, "Bad Bunny is a Puerto Rican man in America on the largest stage in the world — which is very inspirational to people because that is him expressing his experience in his first language."

Bethenny's appreciation for Puerto Rico is well-established, as she has organized major disaster relief for the island in the past. However, fans weren't so quick to forgive her walk-back of her original video.

And that seemed to infuriate Bethenny, who took to Instagram fresh from a shower to defend herself.

She explained, “I can’t even wait to get my robe on to say this to you. Let’s say I say something wrong, let’s say I get a word wrong … let’s say for a brief second — even though I’ve been to Puerto Rico, like, six times — realize that it’s a territory but that it is not on the mainland so it feels culturally different … let’s say I get it wrong, let’s say I f--king say it wrong: You have two choices."

According to Bethenny, those two choices include choosing to "educate" her and help her "understand"; or, she said, they could say, “F--k you, you wh--e, you Tales from the Crypt, you Skeletor, you racist, you c--t.”

On Instagram, fans seemed to rally behind her in support. TikTok, on the other hand, was a different story. One user summed up the thoughts of many, writing, "Bethenny, we draw the line at racism. And if you don’t, we aren’t the same."