What Parenting Advice Did Bethenny Frankel Give Fredrik Eklund - and Did He Follow It?
Every new parent looks to friends and family to help guide them through the challenges of raising children, but being a celebrity comes with its own set of difficulties. Fredrik Eklund of Bravo’s Million Dollar Listing turned to his good friend (and mom of Bryn, 8) Bethenny Frankel for advice when he first found out he was having twins, Milla and Fredrik Jr., with husband Derek Kaplan back in 2017.
“She’s so funny, because I told her about the twins, and she was just like ‘Wow, get ready, Freddy. You have no idea. You think you know, but you have no idea,” the power real estate broker told PEOPLE at the launch of his Douglas Elliman Miami real estate team on Thursday at the Soho House.
But Frankel also gave Eklund specific advice relating to fame, which he decided not to follow. “She said ‘Keep that energy close to you’, because, I think, I overshare the kids – like I put them on Instagram and on the show,” he said. “It’s just who I am, but she said ‘Don’t do it’.”
With discussions about children on social media at an all-time high (even among celebrities!), Eklund said it was something he considered carefully at the time. “We talked a lot about it, Derek and I. Because you can’t really ask (the babies),” he said. “I’ve just been on TV for so many years now.”
Eklund’s business partner, John Gomes (pictured below at the event, with colleague Eklund and Julia Spillman) is also the father of twins a month apart from Eklund’s, and shared that his celebrity parenting inspiration is pals John Legend and Chrissy Teigen, who he says prioritize children Luna and Miles above all else. “It’s so inspiring to see people who have such busy lives=to not let any of that noise affect your relationship with your child,” he said. “You make that child your front and center and your number one priority. I thought if they can do that with all the stuff they have going on, then I can do that!”
As the Bravo family rapidly expands with the addition of Andy Cohen’s son, Benjamin, Eklund is still waiting to join the list of friends who have paid the baby a visit. But the real estate mogul has spoken to him, and bestowed an adorable nickname on the infant. “I’ve been texting him about it, because, I know how overwhelming it is,” he explained. “Not only is your phone blowing up, and you get baby clothes and flowers and everybody you ever met trying to get in contact with you, but then you also have a newborn, or in my case two, so I texted him and he texted back and I said ‘Now you have your own Mousy’ because he calls me Mousy and I call him Mousy, so that’s great.”
