Bethenny Frankel is the first to admit that she’s done well for herself on reality TV.

The former star of “The Real Housewives of New York City,” who once struggled to pay the rent on her small Manhattan apartment, used her spot on the Bravo reality series to tirelessly promote a cocktail business she sold for a reported $100 million. She left the show, starred in a spinoff, then returned to the mother ship a few years later, to the delight of fans. Now a reality TV producer in her own right, Frankel has arguably gotten more out of a role on a basic cable reality TV show than anyone not named Kardashian or Jenner.

Yet Frankel has also become one of the most scathing critics of Bravo, “The Real Housewives” franchise and its executive producer, Andy Cohen. This summer, shortly after members of the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists went on strike, she began posting on social media about the need for reality TV performers to form a union and push for improved pay and working conditions.

Those initial salvos have blossomed into a movement that Frankel, ever the enthusiastic marketer, has anointed “the reality reckoning.” She has teamed with powerful attorneys Mark Geragos and Bryan Freedman to launch an investigation into reality TV working conditions and has gotten support from SAG-AFTRA for her efforts.

Though she is not the only reality TV star to call for reform in the industry, Frankel is the best known. And, for better or for worse, she’s also the best at getting attention. But her visibility has also invited criticism from some Bravo fans, who think her campaign is driven by resentment rather than altruism, and from activists and organizers who see her, a wealthy white woman, as an ineffective emissary for a worthwhile cause.

Since leaving “RHONY” for the second time in 2019, Frankel has continued to develop projects for Bravo, including a series about women in suburban Connecticut that is no longer moving forward. In a recent phone call, she noted that she is acutely aware of the perception that she’s now biting the hand that fed her — and that she stayed silent while the arrangement worked in her favor.

Frankel said she was sometimes troubled by — and even voiced concerns about — the situations she faced during her time on “RHONY.” But she didn’t understand how widespread the problems were within the reality TV industry — or that change was possible — until recently.

“I just didn’t realize it because I was in it,” she said.

Frankel said has no desire to become a union leader, a la Fran Drescher, the SAG-AFTRA president. “That’s why I don’t run for office,” Frankel says. “I don’t want to be part of any bureaucracy. That’s not my personality.” Instead, she adds, her focus right now is on “spreading a message about systemic change” and acting as a conduit for people who believe they were wronged by reality TV.

“My goal is to effect change. It’s already happened,” she said, citing ongoing conversations with SAG-AFTRA about reality TV labor conditions and NBCUniversal’s recent push to strengthen workplace guidelines on its unscripted shows. A Vanity Fair expose that Frankel participated in recently cast producers of “The Real Housewives” in an unfavorable light. (A representative for Bravo declined to comment on Frankel’s claims about Cohen or the network.)

This interview with Frankel has been edited for clarity and length.

Q: I think you’d be the first to say that you’ve benefited from being on reality TV and working with Bravo in the past. So what made you start to question it?

A: When I started on reality TV, I just wanted to be successful.

I was grateful to what I call “the realm.” While I did play a part in negative speech toward other women on television and other things that we all do to win at the game, I did think about when something was wrong.

Every time a line was crossed, I always knew something was wrong. Just like everybody knows what’s wrong, but they have no power because you’re in the machine. I left the machine because it was toxic and gross. But I was still gross because, yes, I was still talking to somebody about doing a show (at Bravo). Because I could operate and manipulate the machine because I had so much power. That may not be popular, and no one wants to hear that. And people want to rewrite history and say in the comments, “When you are no longer profiting off of Bravo, you want to take the whole thing down.” I left multiple times and walked away from shows because I have money and I don’t mind rocking the boat.

I didn’t plan to do any of this. I only mentioned it because of the actors’ strike. It was like, “Wait — what the hell? They have a strike? Why would (reality stars) not want a union?” I’m still on billboards in Australia and deals are still being made every day from something I signed when I didn’t know that there would ever be a streamer. We’re still exploited — with memes and GIFs and YouTube and all the videos. So why wouldn’t we have a union?

Q: Has this changed your view of any fellow reality TV personalities?

A: I started seeing people differently. I saw people who have made mistakes but also been exploited, like (former New Jersey housewife) Danielle Staub (who was called a “prostitution whore” by co-star Teresa Giudice). (Former Beverly Hills star) Brandi (Glanvillle) is a woman who came in having been cheated on (by Eddie Cibrian, her ex-husband at that point). Those are the punching bags. The Danielles, the Brandis — they are the ones getting beaten up. They want the money, they need the fame. So they’ll do anything. Those are the easiest ones to control. Andy Cohen is provoking women to trash each other on “Watch What Happens Live” ... He gets richer while these women kill each other.

Q: How would you describe Cohen’s role in all of this?

A: It’s fascinating that no one at Bravo has ever reached out to say, “What can we do? We want to make a change.” They are just running scared, and they’re trying to plug up holes in a boat that’s taking on water. This is basically the entire culture at this place, across all the shows. Individual women have individual special relationships (with Cohen). Andy himself said (in a New York magazine story) he’s the father and the boss to these individual women ... He makes everybody feel really special. And he doesn’t cross those relationships over.

Q: What do you see as the most pressing issues that need to be addressed by the industry?

A: There needs to be health insurance. There needs to be proper human resources, and the investigations need to be independent, not internal. Children need to be compensated. There need to be workplace guidelines for people.

There has to be a line. It has to be exploration, not exploitation of people’s lives.

Q: A lot of people are sympathetic to the idea of a union and reform of reality TV but are skeptical about your role in all of this. What do you say to that?

A: I didn’t ask for this. You can be skeptical, but it wouldn’t be here if it weren’t for me. Sorry I invented the wheel, but it’s rolling your car. I apologize. That’s what your car is driving on.

Q: Where do things stand in terms of a possible union and your conversations with SAG-AFTRA?

A: They actively call us all the time to say, “What can we do? How can we help?” I’m shocked. They want these people to sit down with them — the big guns, the Hulus and the Netflixes and the Amazons. It’s like the five families, effectively. But I’m not going to be running a union. I’ve been giving people the help they need. So many people want to talk because their story has just been soundbites for the press. They just want someone to once and for all hear their story.