Bethenny Frankel defends Teresa Giudice’s viral wedding hair after extravagant updo sparked memes

Real Housewives of New Jersey star’s towering wedding hairstyle sparked countless viral memes earlier this month

Bethenny Frankel has shared her candid thoughts about the voluptuous hairstyle that Teresa Giudice chose for her wedding to Luis Ruelas.

The Real Housewives of New Jersey star married Ruelas on 6 August in an extravagant wedding ceremony in New Jersey. For the occasion, Giudice opted to wear her hair, and more than $7,000 worth of custom hair extensions, in a half-updo style with intricate curls, with the look then completed with a custom crystal tiara.

The reality star’s wedding hairstyle went viral shortly after the nuptials, with the style prompting comparisons to everything from a “bad 80s prom ‘do’” to an interpretation of Marge Simpson’s towering beehive hairstyle.

“I’d bet money that Remy from Ratatouille was actually hiding in Teresa Giudice’s iconic wedding hair,” one person tweeted after the wedding, while another admitted: “I just can’t get over Teresa Giudice’s wedding hair. I can’t stop thinking about it. It’s consuming me.”

However, the former Real Housewives of New York star has since defended her New Jersey counterpart, with Frankel addressing Giudice’s viral hairstyle on her podcast Just B with Bethenny Frankel on Monday, where she applauded the newlywed for remaining true to herself.

“Her hair is a big topic and of course, when I saw her I was like ‘Oh my god, the hair,’” Frankel said. “The hair was its own being getting married, right, and people like ‘Why, what, wait, how’ and being critical and she and her hairdresser are defending it and it has 50 million bobby pins.”

Frankel then took the opportunity to reflect on Giudice’s debut on the reality show, which saw her pay for the furniture to decorate her large home with cash, while noting that the extravagant wedding shows that the reality star has not changed.

“I need to say this, Teresa started off that show by paying for the furniture in her Jersey castle with wads of cash,” Frankel said. “So, I love the fact that Teresa is now with this long sort of massive Zootopia crown hairdo, with this lavish, elaborate party, that is a circus, that her dress is so ornate … it’s over the top. Like, good for her.

“She did not change. She knows where she came from. She is an Italian broad from Jersey … She got her hair done from her Jersey hairstylist and she’s the same Teresa that walked in with the cash to pay for the furniture, so yes, I am here for it, I want more.”

Frankel then joked that, “15m bobby pins is not nearly enough,” in reference to Giudice’s stylist Lucia Casazza’s admission to Andy Cohen that the hairstyle, which cost nearly $10,000 when adding up the extensions and styling, required more than 1,500 bobby pins to keep in place.

“As we know, my girl Teresa is the queen of Jersey, so we needed hair that was fit for a queen,” Casazza told Cohen on his Sirius XM radio show. “You go big or you go home. [Teresa] said: ‘My hair has to be over the top.’”

“They’re probably stuck in her Italian scalp,” Frankel jokingly continued of the bobby pins. “And I love it. She’s being who she is, she’s staying true to her Jersey roots.”

Frankel also praised other aspects of the over-the-top wedding, which took place at the Park Chateau Estate and Gardens in East Brunswick, New Jersey, and which the RHONY alum described as a “Bravo circus”. “I loved it, I loved everything about it,” she said.

During the podcast, Frankel also revealed that she’s met Giudice’s new husband, and that he seemed “really nice”.

In addition to New Jersey “royalty,” Giudice’s stylist told Cohen that the look took inspiration from Italian and Mediterranean brides with elaborate hairstyles, and that she and the bride also took Ruelas’s preference for Giudice’s hair to be out of her face into account on the wedding day.

As for the removal of the bobby pins, Casazza told the Watch What Happens Live host that it took her and additional glam squad members nearly two hours to remove the pins from Giudice’s hair after the reception.