Bethenny Frankel Reacts to RHONY Costars' 'Unpleasant' Premiere Comments

The Season 12 premiere of "Real Housewives of New York" addressed Bethenny Frankel's exit right off the bat -- and she's not exactly thrilled with what her costars had to say.

The opener began with all her former costars reacting to news she had quit the show. Ramona Singer said her exit was "an eff you" and "stupid" -- before saying they'll be "better without her" -- while Luann de Lesseps said it'd be "really hard to say I'll miss her that much," adding, "the show must go on without you."

"The beginning of the show was the proverbial middle finger to me," Frankel said in a new interview with EXTRA, reacting to their comments. "The women have definitely had some unpleasant things to say about me… I wish them well."

Frankel also suggested the ratings for the show were down, though a Bravo rep told PEOPLE they were "very similar" to the average Season 11 episode.

"The ratings overall in television have never been higher and perhaps the ratings on 'Real Housewives' aren't doing well because it's sort of not maybe the content that is inspiring people to do what they need to do right now," she added. "Or maybe they want to watch the news or something uplifting or some way to pay it forward."

Frankel herself is paying it forward through her BStrong initiative, which has been working overtime to provide aid to coronavirus relief efforts.

"We will have distributed over $16 million worth of aid this week and that will grow exponentially," she told EXTRA. "We distributed a million biohazard hazmat suits to the governor of New York, 200,000 masks to the mayor of New York… Matthew McConaughey and Camila McConaughey have committed to several hundred thousand dollars of aid in Louisiana and Texas, Billy Joel [gave] half a million dollars of aid to New York… so we're getting a lot of good donations."

For more information on her efforts, click here. RHONY airs Thursdays on Bravo.