Why Bethenny Frankel Believes Fans Are Turning on Blake Lively Amid It Ends with Us Drama

The former star of The Real Housewives of New York City took to Instagram to explained why she believes fans and media are turning on Lively amid her ongoing It Ends With Us drama.

What started as speculation about why she and costar/director Justin Baldoni appeared to be at odds during the press tour for the movie -- about domestic violence -- Lively has since been criticized by those on social media for, as they see it, focusing more on fashionable red carpet moments, promoting her Betty Buzz cocktail mixers and Blake Brown haircare line, and appearing rude or flippant in both new and throwback interviews with press.

Frankel began her video by prefacing that she doesn't personally know Lively, but has had Baldoni on her podcast and worked with Lively's publicist early on in her career for a "brief period of time."

"Celebrities have now reached a fever pitch of trying to triple- and quadruple-dip in monetizing businesses other than their core business,” the 53-year-old then told her followers. "It's become a common practice to try to really bum-rush and smash and grab as much as you possibly can at the same time."

"So if she's dressed and in hair and makeup doing press tour for a movie, leaving her family and kids and so is he [Ryan Reynolds], she is going to maximize it," Frankel said, before comparing Lively to Jennifer Lopez's situation earlier this year where she was "marketing two movies, her drink, her relationship [with Ben Affleck], her album and a tour."

"Her audience got waterboarded and didn’t want it," she added.

Frankel went on to point out the "sensitive subject" matter of the film -- before adding, "promoting a cocktail brand, a haircare product and to be talking so much in a light hearted way about a topic for most people, for women in particular ... you are all a very savvy audience and it's just not sitting well."

"You can't fit 25 pounds of s--t in a five-pound bag. It will explode, and then you'll have s--t all over you," she concluded.

Frankel's caption paired with the video explained why she believed she should comment on the current controversy making headlines around the world:

"As someone who grew up in a domestic violence home and who has experience in the monetization of media, I think this is the perfect storm, a cautionary tale and a convergence of mishandled circumstances and over communication without sensitivity to the subject matter. I also believe the higher the pedestal we place people on, the harder they fall. I don't believe in pile on cancelation. I believe in learning from our own and other people's blind spots and mistakes," Frankel wrote.

Speculation of a feud between Lively and Baldoni is what kicked this situation off.

It seemingly began after Baldoni did not appear in any photos with Lively and fellow cast members at the film's New York premiere on Tuesday. Then, actress Jenny Slate, who plays Allyssa, gave a bizarre answer when asked about working with Baldoni during an interview with Deadline on the red carpet, with her response further igniting rumors that something happened with Lively and Baldoni.

It lead to sleuths on TikTok discovering that Lively, Hoover, and the other cast members don't follow Baldoni on Instagram, but he follows them. Fans also pointed out that Baldoni has been absent from group promotional events with Lively and the rest of the cast, and has been doing press solo.

Others also suggested Lively and Baldoni appeared to be promoting the film very differently, with Lively leaning into fashionable red carpet moments and participating in prank videos ... while Baldoni has been focusing more on how the movie depicts domestic violence, bringing more awareness to the issue.

Another possible reason for the feud: Lively's husband, Ryan Reynolds, rewrote a scene in the film.

Later came allegations from TMZ that Lively felt "fat shamed" by Baldoni and was allegedly uncomfortable when "the two engaged in a kissing scene and Blake felt he lingered longer than he should have with the kiss."

She's since been slammed for her behavior in a number of interviews, both new and from years ago, adding to the pile-on.

So far, neither Baldoni nor Lively have commented on the situation.