‘Cry me a river’ : Bethenny Frankel faces backlash after criticising Meghan Markle on Twitter

Reality TV star once dated Meghan’s ex-husband Trevor Engelson

Real Housewives star Bethenny Frankel faced a social media backlash after slamming Meghan Markle hours before her tell-all Oprah interview.

Frankel took to Twitter to bash the Duchess of Sussex and tell her 1.5 million followers that she has no sympathy for Ms Markle’s complaints.

“Cry me a river ... the plight of being a game show host, fairly unknown actress, to suffering in a palace, w tiaras & 7 figure weddings for TWO WHOLE YEARS to being a household name w @Oprah on speed dial, fetching 7 m for interviews, hundreds of millions in media deals,” wrote Frankel over a collage of headlines about Meghan.

“I 100 give Harry a break.  This isn’t the way to generate less press & cannot be filed under the guise of wanting privacy to prevent a repeat of previous events,” she added.

“If you hate me for saying it here don’t listen to my podcast #justbwithbethenny it’s littered with my opinion.”

In a bizarre coincidence, the reality TV star once dated Meghan’s ex-husband, Trevor Engelson, after they divorced, before going into business with the California film producer.

Meghan and Mr Engelson began dating in 2004, and were married from 2011 until 2013.

Frankel told her followers that she had also lived in the public eye, but had invited the scrutiny that she faced.

“I chose reality tv, to work towards making $, to be scrutinized & criticized. I took the trappings & the beatings along with it. It’s a rose w petals & thorns. People beg to enter the often toxic institution I signed up for. That WAS the life I chose. You can’t play stupid & smart,” she added.

Social media users were quick to leap to Meghan’s defence and attacked Frankel for her views.

“Not a white housewife comparing her struggle to Meghan’s. A woman of color joining the Royal Family. It’s the delusion for me. Everyone is working overtime trying to silence her. Let us hear what she has to say!” tweeted @chrishell7.

“Bethenny, with all due respect, we literally watched you become successful and rich on TV. Yet you always seemed to have something to cry about every episode. Maybe this is the wrong angle for you to take,” wrote @scottduncan88.

And @BariAWilliams added: “‘Fairly unknown actress?’ Were you not a ‘fairly unknown chef’ when you got on RHONY while single? You finessed that exposure to get your brands off the ground, got a spin off, hosted a talk show, and now you are criticizing a Black woman for just speaking? Interesting.”

“The irony about this tweet and its complete lack of empathy coupled with it drowning in hypocrisy is that you could be describing yourself,” tweeted @mmmcintyre.