Bethenny Frankel defended Bad Bunny after her earlier Real Housewives of New York City costar Jill Zarin slammed her Super Bowl LX halftime performance.
Frankel took to TikTok to post a video on February 9 to praise the Puerto Rican rapper’s set as authentic and inspiring.
“Bad Bunny is a Puerto Rican man in America on the biggest stage in the world, which is very inspiring to people because he’s expressing his experience in his first language,” she explained.
Frankel compared his artistry to country and hip-hop artists, saying that each genre reflects its own culture and struggles.
“If it’s a country artist, they express their experience and their music and their culture. If it’s a hip-hop artist – I love Notorious BIG and talk about his coming up and what he couldn’t afford when he was eating sardines for dinner.”
She summed it up with a nod to Madonna: “Express yourself.”
Zarin had a very different reaction to the riveting and star-studded performance at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, California.
In a now-deleted video, she called the halftime show “the worst ever” and criticized Bad Bunny for performing in Spanish and for his gestures on stage.
“You have all these young kids watching the Super Bowl and he doesn’t have to catch himself every five seconds because he’s so insecure,” she said, adding that she wished she understood the lyrics since she doesn’t speak Spanish.
The 62-year-old’s comments quickly circulated online, sparking backlash.
