Outside her work in television, Frankel is the founder of the Skinnygirl lifestyle brand and the author of four self-help books. Her B Strong program entered into disaster relief efforts in 2017.\n', '

Frankel is the only child of Robert J. Frankel, a horse trainer, and Bernadette Birk, an interior designer. Her father was Jewish and her mother was a Roman Catholic of Welsh descent, who converted to Judaism when the couple married. Her father left her mother when Frankel was four years old. When she was five, her mother married another horse trainer, John Parisella. Frankel describes her childhood as difficult. Her biological father stopped supporting the family and her mother, Frankel says, "was always drinking" and often argued violently with her stepfather.\n', '

Frankel said she moved many times and attended multiple schools before going to boarding school. Frankel graduated in 1988 from the Pine Crest School in Fort Lauderdale, Florida where she lived on campus. She attended the Natural Gourmet Institute in New York City, and Boston University.\n', '

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