Bring a little optimism into your life with The Bright Side, a new daily podcast from Hello Sunshine, hosted by me, Danielle Robé. And me, Simone Voce.

Every weekday, we're bringing you conversations about culture, the latest trends, inspiration, and so much more.

I am so excited about this podcast, The Bright Side. You guys are giving people a chance to shine a light on their lives, shine a light on a little advice that they want to share.

Listen to The Bright Side on America's number one podcast network, iHeart. Open your free iHeart app and search The Bright Side. Imagine you're a fly on the wall at a dinner between the Mafia, the CIA, and the KGB. That's where my new podcast begins. This is Neil Strauss, host of To Live and Die in LA. I wanted to quickly tell you about an intense new series about a dangerous a spy, taught to seduce men for their secrets and sometimes, their lives. From Tenderfoot TV, this is To Die For. To Die For is available now. Listen for free on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

My whole life, I've been told this one story about my family, about how my great great grandmother was killed by the Mafia back in Sicily. I was never sure if it was true, so I decided to find out. Even though my uncle Jimmy told me I'd only be making the vendetta worse, I'm going to Sicily anyway. Come to Italy with me to solve this 100-year-old murder mystery. Listen to the Sicilian Inheritance on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

So I did an introduction explaining how I'm going to talk about the process of my insane divorce. And there are some people whose divorces I see, and I think, Oh, wow, this one is not garden variety. It is either going the distance or it has gone the distance. And some seem like they're really bad, but it's really for five minutes. It's like Demi Moore and Ashton Kutcher seem like it was going to be bad. It was really not a big deal. Sophie Turner and Joe Jonas. It seemed like it was going to be bad, but it seems like it won't... A year, two years, that's child's play. When you've had a decade-year-long divorce, that's serious shit. Kelly Clarkson has had a really long long divorce, but also this was her manager, and it's commingled. And like, word to the wise, please do not be working in a financial way with someone that you're married to. It's just not going to end well. It's just not a great idea. People do it, and it doesn't mean that every situation is bad, but it's just not a great idea. So I met my ex at a nightclub.

It was a place called Ten June, and it was the anniversary of this place opening. I was out with two friends of Nini Leaks' because I was doing an appearance for the brand Frangelico, of all things, who wanted to get into business with me and do some version of a cocktail because of my Skinny Girl cocktail success, which hadn't launched yet. It had just been so popular me talking about a skinny margarita because I invented the skinny margarita. And because I did that, I just was in that space. And they wanted to do a deal with me for that. And they threw a party for me at the Warren Tricomei salon at the Plaza. Nini Leaks stopped over. This is when she was Andy's favorite, and she stopped over to say hi because I invited her. She said, I have to go to something with Andy. I think he brought her to Anderson Cooper's house that night because Anderson loved Nini, too. She said, and her friends were there, and she left her friends at my party. I took her friends out to two different places. I first took her friends to a Gotham magazine party, unbeknownst to me, with only 250 people.

They were Beyoncé, who I think was on the cover, but it may not be true. And she performed. And they were freaking out thinking I was the coolest person that ever lived. Beyoncé performed for 250 people. It was nuts. And then we went to STK in the Meepacking district because 10 June wouldn't let us in. And then I texted the owner and said, Let us in. You got to let, whatever, you got to let us in. And so we went to 10 June, and it was, I guess, their anniversary, and there was a lot going on that night. And my ex was there with a girl who had dated Russell Simmons and was a Sports Illustrated model, and she, I think, was a fan of mine. And I ended up meeting him. And interesting that this I mean, it could be perceived as a red flag or as something admirable. But he lied and said that his car was down there, but he left his car and said that he'd take a ride from me and my driver. So that night, I had a driver for the night, and his car car was downtown near the club, but he pretended that it wasn't so he could ride with me uptown.

Then he asked the driver to take him back downtown to get his car so then he could go home. It could either be endearing that he wanted to hang out with me or a lie, and that he wanted to really hang out with me because his friend knew who I was, et cetera. He had already dated someone that his parents didn't approve of, but that was on another reality show. I don't want to get into too much specific gossip about someone else, but I didn't know this till later that he had dated someone else on a reality show. There weren't as many reality shows then as there are now. So this is probably like 15 years ago, and he had already dated someone from another reality show. That later presented as some version of a red flag to me. But anyway, He was always available to do whatever. And I thought that was positive because I was just coming up and I was just starting to have a career, and he was always available. And I thought, with what I want to do and how far I want to go and traveling and working. And I didn't have a kid then, so I was willing to go anywhere and do anything and go to anything.

He was always available. And he was also really super charming, which this life coach that I believes that charming is usually only used for men, not women, and that it's not... In small, tiny doses, it's a positive, but that in large doses, if it defines someone's personality, if charming is the first word to describe someone, it's toxic. It's a toxic trait because he says that charming owns someone. You don't have charm. Charm has you. So for men, because women aren't usually described as charming, and that charming is something that works for you. When you say something and people like it and they're like, they want more of it, and you give them more of it, and it ends up feeding you because it's addictive, because it just works. Hey, how are you? How's your golf game? A lot of just being Being charming becomes an addiction. And being charming is really attractive to women, if you're attracted to men, to women. But it's something that you're attracted to initially, and then eventually it becomes nauseating. And you guys know what I mean. When there's somebody who's the one that's just got that light and always charming everybody.

I dated someone else in my life who was super charming and could really intoxicate anyone, but it becomes insufferable after a while. Anyway, there was a lot of charm there, and I really was attracted to that because I thought it was really... Because it was charming. Because it's charming, and it's something that we perceive as positive, but it ends up being something that is a toxic treat. Bring a little optimism into your life with The Bright Side, a new daily podcast from Hello Sunshine, hosted by me, Danielle Robé. And me, Simone voice.

Every weekday, we're bringing you conversations about culture, the latest trends, inspiration, and so much more.

Thank you for taking the light, and you're going to shine it all over the world, and it makes me really happy.

I never imagined that I would get the chance to carry this honor and help you a part of this legacy.

Listen to The Bright Side on America's number one podcast network, iHeart. Open your free iHeart app and search The Bright Side. This is Neil Strauss, host of the Tenderfoot TV True Crime podcast, To Live and Die in LA. I'm here to tell you about the new podcast I've been undercover investigating for the last year and a half. It's called To Die For. Here's a clip.

All these girls were sent out into the world, and they were told, Try When you meet important men, try to attach yourself to important men.

The voice you're hearing is a Russian model agent telling me about spies sent out to seduce men with political power.

The war in Ukraine is also being fought by all these girls that are all over important cities.

For the first time, a military-trained seduction spy reveals how the Russian government turns sex and love into a deadly weapon. If you want to kill your target, it's easy.

You just seduce him, take him somewhere, start having sex, and then he's very vulnerable, so you can kill him easily.

To Die For is available now. Listen for free on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

I never thought I'd take my three young kids to Sicily to solve a century-old mystery, but that's what I'm doing in my new podcast, The Sicilian Inheritance. Join us as we travel thousands of miles on the beautiful and crazy island of Sicily as I trace my roots back through a mystery for the ages and untangle clues within my family's origin story, which is morphed like a game of telephone through the generations. Was our family matriarch killed in a land deal gone wrong? Or was it by the Sicilian Mafia? A lovers quarrel? Or was she, as my father believed, a witch? Listen to the Sicilian Inheritance on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Anyway, we just hung out and dated. There wasn't really an attraction for me. It was more of like something in my mind, which I've done before, where I convince myself or I tell myself, or I use a logic to say to myself that I should be into this. I married that years ago, someone that I cared about and that was a friend, but I convinced myself that I should be into it versus just your body from a visceral perspective, knowing that it's into it. I don't think I had very high self-worth at the time. Maybe it was just living in my little small, shitty apartment and didn't know what was going to happen with me and didn't really have money or had just started to make money, but didn't like the way it felt to be alone. Let the universe tell me that I was in my late 30s and that you're supposed to be having kids by then or you're supposed to know what road you're on. I didn't really have family, so I had no safety net, so I had no security with money and no idea. I think I just wanted to wanted and thought that there was...

At that age, you had to know what road you were on. And by the way, I made the same mistake in my early 20s. At so many stages as women, we think we're supposed to be finished with the journey and know what stage we're supposed to be at. It doesn't matter whether you're 65. I mean, there are people, there's somebody, I don't want to call her out, but somebody from the housewives universe that's in her almost 70 years old and just met someone and is in a great relationship. We put these timelines and these clocks on ourselves, and they make us make bad decisions. Anyway, I wasn't really that into him. I convinced myself to be that into him. When I would hit a low during that general period, it would be like a security blanket, and I would like, logically say, This is something I should do. It's exactly what I did in my 20s. Ellen DeGeneres is the one who says, You will keep making the same mistake until you actually learn the lesson. Anyway, I had a situation with a celebrity, where a celebrity that is a big, big name, I'd say A-list, if not A minus list, that was interested in me, and I was intrigued, and I felt I'm not worthy.

I went out with this person, technically, I guess, twice or hung out with them three times. No, more. Or three or four. But I ended up being... I didn't sleep with them or anything, but I ended up being disenchanted with them. And this was another really big, charming person. And it was a vulnerable weekend when I hung out with this person and ended up laying them out, basically. I'm the type of person. It doesn't matter who it is. If someone I feel disrespects me in any way, even if it's nuanced or if it's If it's the way someone speaks to me or the way someone thinks they're entitled or the way someone treats me in a way I shouldn't be treated, I'll call them out. It could be anyone. It could be Brad Pitt, it could be Ryan Goss. It wouldn't matter. So this person I did call out, and it ended up putting me at a low. And also if you're a person who either drinks or smokes pot or whatever you do or you're tired, when you're feeling lonely and you're feeling vulnerable because you're not feeling wanted or self-worth issues, You might go run towards another security blanket.

And because of this situation with this person, even though I had already blown out my ex and blown out Charming Mr. A, my ex, I was feeling a little bit low. And then I called my ex, and that's when we got together. So it was on a low, vulnerable point. And then it was off to the races. And there were moments of it being good, but they were very fleeting. It was in the very, very beginning on a free trip that I was offered when I took him, when it was a beautiful hotel, and there was like, butler service and drinks all day. And that's the type of place you could definitely want to be intimate with someone, and everything seems great because it's not reality. That's why the show The Bachelor can be problematic to me because it's definitely not reality. Who's not going to want to have sex with someone when you're in the most gorgeous place and it's sunny out and drinks are flowing and your room is amazing and you have housekeeping service and a butler and all that stuff. So you got to not judge a relationship during the high crazy fantasy times.

So we got into a relationship, and this person said to me that they really were concerned about my age and that they really wanted to have kids and that I would have to think about getting pregnant within a reasonable period of time. And this was within the first couple of months of relationship. Now, I did not think of this as a red flag. I don't know why I didn't. I think other people would think of it, but I guess some people think that I think I was 36 or maybe 37. You are your biological clock is ticking. But I wasn't 42. And I was also about to launch a liquor brand, but I led with my heart and not my logic and my mind and not my gut and my stomach. And I just was not being I'm driven. Often, I'm a person who gets in a car that says one destination. And because it's feeling good in the moment, I ignore the destination. And I'm in the car and I'm like, What the fuck? And why am I in this car? So I was in this car And I'm not blaming anyone else, my body, my own choice.

But I did get pregnant not too far into this relationship. And Before that, when we were dating, but it was getting serious, money was a conversation in my mind because then I didn't have that much, but I had more than this person, and I just didn't want there to be a disparity. And even to this day, I don't want to be with someone who has less money than I do because it becomes a problem. I don't care what people say. I don't care what self-help people want to do on talk shows and talk about you have a common bank account, and you pay for the dry cleaning together, and you do all this shit. I don't care if it sets women back. I really don't give a shit. I'm just telling you, when a woman makes a lot more money than a man, it's going to lead to problems in 95% of the cases. And it may not be right away. Oh, yay. The man staying home, take care of the kids. That's wonderful. That's so admirable. Somehow, somewhere down the line, it's going to feel a certain way to that man. I don't care if it's unpopular.

I don't care if it's 2024. I have enough institutional knowledge to know that. I wanted to understand how the finances were going to actually work. What if I want a certain... I hadn't my company yet. That ended up happening during this marriage, which was a little bit unlucky because it ended up being the reason when we get to it, that you'll understand, holy fucking shitballs. It's the worst divorce in history short of physical abuse. I remember we were at the Waverly restaurant, which is a hip restaurant in New York, and we talked about it because I was thinking, what if I want an apartment or to buy something and how does that work? I'm buying something, but it's the first money I've ever made and how does it all work? And what we came to was that I would not mind buying the apartment or the place, but that he would pay for decor or I'd pay for, I guess, a hotel room, but that he'd pay for incidentals or we ended up having an apartment and I paid for, let's call it, 65 to 75 % of the rent I paid for. I'm proud of myself that that didn't bother me.

It did end up bothering me, but I'm proud of myself that I even... I don't know what the fuck and why I would suggest that, and why I would think that was okay, because I wasn't even that in love with this person to begin with. I was convincing myself. And once I got pregnant, I was on the road. And once you're doing a television show, you feel responsible and you feel like a loser. And that's why if you're ever in a situation where you want to break up with someone or you want to not get engaged or all these things, or you have a wedding plan, trust me, in the moment it seems like it's a big deal, it's not that big of a deal to everyone else. It just feels like it is. I've been through this before. It's something you've got to cup bait. If you know something's not right, you get the fuck out. It doesn't matter what your parents think, doesn't matter how much money spent, doesn't matter what television show you're on. It doesn't fucking matter. If you don't know that it's right, get the fuck out or sit still.

But if you don't know that it's right, it's wrong. Just letting you know that. That's just a point-blank fact. If you do not know that it's right, it's wrong, particularly when you're about to get married. Bring a little optimism into your life with The Bright Side, a new daily podcast Hello Sunshine, hosted by me, Danielle Robé. And me, Simone Voce.

Every weekday, we're bringing you conversations about culture, the latest trends, inspiration, and so much more.

Thank you for taking the light, and you're going to shine it all over the world, and it makes me really happy.

I never I would imagine that I would get the chance to carry this honor and help be a part of this legacy.

Listen to The Bright Side on America's number one podcast network, iHeart. Open your free iHeart app and search The Bright Side. This is Neil Strauss, host of the Tenderfoot TV True Crime podcast, To Live and Die in LA. I'm here to tell you about the new podcast I've been undercover investigating for the last year and a half. It's called To Die For. Here's a clip.

All these girls were sent out into the world, and they were told, Try to meet important men. Try to attach yourself to important men.

The voice you're hearing is a Russian model agent telling me about spies sent out to seduce men with political power.

The war in Ukraine is also being fought by all these girls that are all over important cities.

For the first time, a military-trained seduction spy reveals how the Russian government turned sex and love into a deadly weapon. If you want to kill your target, it's easy.

You just seduce him, take him somewhere, start having sex, and then he's very vulnerable, so you can kill him easily.

To Die For is available now. Listen for free on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

I never thought I'd take my three young kids to Sicily to solve a century-old mystery, but that's what I'm doing in my new podcast, The Sicilian Inheritance. Join us as we travel thousands of miles on the beautiful and crazy island of Sicily as I trace my roots back through a mystery for the ages and untangle clues within my family's origin story, which has morphed like a game of telephone through the generations. Was our family matriarch killed in a land deal gone wrong? Or was it by the Sicilian Mafia? A lovers' quarrel? Or was she, as my father believed, a witch? Listen to the Sicilian Inheritance on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

I literally wrote a book called I Suck at Relationships, so you don't have to because I've fucked every single thing up. But I am telling you with no stuttering, I know exactly what I'm talking about, and this is all true. I am an expert on this. Call my divorce lawyer, Roni Schindell, Heidi, or Alan Maievsky. Ask them if Bethany is an expert on divorce. Ask them if they've ever had a client that has been better at this than I was. Because I won everything I won by being the most organized, detailed, notebooks, everything. So I know what the fuck I'm talking about. Not about everything. I know everything I'm talking about, about this with great certainty. I do not know how to put eyelashes on. I do not know how to do my own hair without it frizzing 20 minutes later when it looks like it's pinned straight the minute I do it. I do not know how to download an app. I don't know how to get past a paywall on my phone and read an article. I don't know how to do a lot of things. What I know is divorce, like the back of my hand.

Every single solitary aspect of it, do I know it? And I know relationships. I'm just an idiot. But I know what you should do. And what you should do is run like a thief in the night if you're not certain. I was pregnant. I was not happy in my relationship. I kept going because I was doing a television show, and I was very stupid. And because in my life, what I've done is something that you've probably is say, this is what I did in my first marriage. Oh, the worst thing that ever happens, they'd be a good father. Oh, you're marrying someone or being with someone because of how much they love you, not how much you love them. Shake your head up like a snowball and get the hell out of your own way and listen to what I'm talking to you about. Okay. So now I'm pregnant. I get engaged. It feels wrong. It all feels wrong. And the way that we argue feels wrong, and the way that I'm spoken to feels wrong. And certain things feel wrong. It feels wrong that we were sitting at the Waverly talking about how the finances went.

He said to me, he referenced nick Lachet and Jessica Simpson's divorce and said to me that nick should have taken everything from Jessica. Because I remember they were in a relationship and they did a TV show and she was the more famous one, the more rich one, and he did it with her. This was a time when my ex was being on my television show agreeing to be on it and said to me he should take whatever he can get from her. I don't know why he said this to me. I don't know why he thought I wouldn't read through this. I think he was just being honest about what he thought he thought nick Lachee deserved a lot. There's Something wrong thing about that that was such a fire engine red flag to me going, Wait, what the fuck? But nevertheless, I ended up getting engaged and I ended up doing a prenup really fast that my lawyer said, I should not allow you to sign. But I said, I'm marrying a regular guy, a small A small town guy from a small town family, a regular guy. He does not want my money.

Famous last words. My lawyers were like, I didn't want to even get a prenup. My agent at the time, and my lawyers were like, or whoever I had, was like, You need No, my agent was like, You need a prenup. You need a prenup. Don't be an idiot. I was so naive. I was a late bloomer. I hadn't made a goddamn dollar. I was in my late 30s, and I was like, Wait, what? No. I was so trusting. I'm still so trusting in many ways. But I did not even think I needed a prenup. I did not want one. It made me uncomfortable. It made me so uncomfortable. And then talking to the lawyer made me feel uncomfortable, too. Standing my ground made me feel uncomfortable. It made me feel... And then it's when you're not pulling up your big girl panties in a business meeting and being like, Absolutely not. As a grown-ass woman now, I don't go, Goo, go, go, I'm doing a business deal with you, but I'm scared. I don't know. I trust you, lollypop. What the fuck? You're trying to be successful. You're talking to a lawyer. Tough shit. Big girl panties are hard to pull on.

Business is tough. But if you're going to get legally married, you're going to be in a contract with someone, you're going to get a prenup, and you're going to pay attention, and you're going to get the best deal you can, and you're going to listen to your lawyer, and you're going to get a good lawyer. Because every day when the lawyers are talking to the lawyers, he would call me and say, Wow, he doesn't trust me, and, Wow, we're doing a prenup, and, Wow, and all this stuff. I would get sucked in because that's what lawyers are supposed to do. I see it on business deals now that I know years later, what's supposed to happen is the person you're doing the deal with in the business deal is supposed to call you up and say, Wow, your lawyer is really a fucking piece of shit. And this is what they wanted me to sign. And then you go go go go go like a big female baby. And then you call your lawyer like, No, I don't want to do this. He said that you... And they're like, This is the process, Bethany. Trust the process.

That's the part of it. But no, you're not listening because you're an idiot. And I know Kelly Clarkson went through this, and I know probably Ariana Grande went through this, and I know Halle Berry went through it. I know all of the women that I've read about having these shitty divorces that are paying, they went through it because they did the Goohoo Ga Ga program that gets you fucking nowhere. And they didn't pull on their big girl panties. And if your big girl panties want to get married, which is not a romantic act. Being in a relationship and being in a commitment is a romantic act. Signing a contract and being in a contract with another human being, I don't care if you want to have kids. I don't give a shit. That That is a business deal. So you can hear it or not, but you're a dummy if you're not hearing it, because I went through torture to tell you this. And get Laura fucking Wasser, the most powerful attorney on, or get any attorney on and let them tell you different, because they won't. It's a contract. You're getting into a legal agreement.

Be Goldi Han and Kurt Russell and stay together the rest of your life. And then now they're effectively legally married because of common law marriage after, I think, 10 years or 14 years. But it's called the tough program. If you're big girl enough to go get married, you're big girl enough to listen to your lawyer and not succumb to the bullshit. That's the hard true facts. So once I heard that my ex thought that my ex had been in a relationship with a reality star, had lied about coming in the car uptown with me saying that they didn't have a car because they wanted to be in my car with my driver, had said that nick Lachet should have taken everything from Jessica Simpson. Well, guess the fuck what? I should have I signed a prenup, but I was gogo-gaga stupid, and I didn't know anything, and I didn't want to, and I signed a shitty one. While we're at it, the shitty one that I signed said that I would give a percentage of my business, which to this person, and it didn't define what my business was worth then. The percentage of what it ended up being when I landed on the cover of Forbes and I ended up selling it, they wanted a percentage of that big number.

I ended up having to spend years and a couple of $100,000 with a forensic accountant to determine what my business really was worth on that day. So a sign of value there. Otherwise, you're going to spend all this money doing all these other things. But wait, there's so much more. I don't want to go too fast because we're going to make this a lot of chapters. But I could talk about this for 10 years straight because I know so much about it. I ended up signing a shitty prenup, but better than not having a prenup despite it being a shitty prenup. Sometimes a prenup will get thrown out and sometimes we'll dispute it anyway. But you got to have a prenup and you have to be a big girl. You have to really, really listen to the red flags. Bring a little optimism into your life with The Bright Side, a new daily podcast from Hello Sunshine, hosted by me, Danielle Robay.

And me, Simone Voce. Every weekday, we're bringing you conversations about culture, the latest trends, inspiration, and so much more.

I am so excited about this podcast, The Bright Side. You guys are giving people a chance to shine a light on their lives, shine a light on a little advice that they want to share.

Listen to The Bright Side on America's number one podcast network, iHeart. Open your free iHeart app and search The Bright Side. Imagine you're a fly on the wall at a dinner between the Mafia, the CIA, and the KGB. That's where my new podcast begins. This is Neil Strauss, host of To Live and Die in LA. I wanted to quickly tell you about an intense new series about a dangerous spy, taught to seduce men for their secrets and sometimes, their lives. From Tenderfoot TV, this is To Die For. To Die For is available now. Listen for free on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

My whole life, I've been told this one story about my family, about how my great, great grandmother was killed by the Mafia back in Sicily. I was never sure if it was true, so I decided to find out. Even though my uncle Jimmy told me I'd only be making the vendetta worse, I'm going to Sicily anyway. Come to Italy with me to solve this 100-year-old murder mystery. Listen to the Sicilian Inheritance on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.