Bethenny Frankel joined a growing number of women on social media who said they were assaulted while walking in New York City.
The “Real Housewives” alum commented on a TikTok video that was posted by a fashion design student who claimed the same. The video has since been made private.
“This is insane [because] this happened to me a few months ago but I was embarrassed to say,” Frankel wrote in a comment that has since been deleted but was captured by Page Six. “I was on the [Upper West Side]. Insane. I was taking video of a bakery.”
Frankel’s representatives did not immediately respond to HuffPost’s request for comment.
Multiple women have taken to TikTok in recent weeks saying that they have had similar experiences, with one claiming she was punched while walking her dog and another woman fighting back tears Tuesday while recounting her own assault for her 1.2 million followers.
“You guys, I was literally just walking and a man came up and punched me in the face,” said Halley Kate in a video while showing her bruised forehead. “Oh my god it hurts so bad I can’t even talk. Literally, I fell to the ground and now this giant goose egg is forming.”
New York police arrested 40-year-old Skiboky Stora on assault charges Wednesday after a 23-year-old woman was hit in the head Monday while walking in downtown Manhattan. Authorities addressed the matter Wednesday on X, formerly Twitter.
“The NYPD is aware of a viral video circulating on social media depicting a woman who was randomly assaulted in an unprovoked attack,” they wrote. “The individual has been arrested and charged and is a criminal recidivist with an extensive criminal record.”
Frankel is best known as an original cast member of “The Real Housewives of New York City.” Charles Sykes/Invision/Associated Press
The cases recall a purported “knockout game” trend among teenagers that made headlines in 2013. The New York Times reported back then that police in several cities believed this game was an “urban myth,” however, and that the attacks are random.
The fashion design student whose video briefly included Frankel’s comment said in her video that she had just left class and was “looking at my phone” when “out of nowhere, this man just came up and hit me in the face.”
Another woman shared Tuesday that she was punched in Manhattan the week before.
“I was walking alone out of the Delancey/Essex St station where I got punched in the back of my skull from a random man on the street,” she said on X before adding in a follow-up post: “The back of my skull throbbing pain, brain feels rattled.”
It remains unclear why Frankel, who remains best known as an original “Housewives” member of the Bravo series’ New York City spinoff, deleted her comment.
