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Bethenny Frankel is looking back on a difficult day.
“The Real Housewives of New York” star took to Instagram to remember her late boyfriend Dennis Shields on Aug. 10, the first anniversary of his death.
“One year ago today, I woke up to a beautiful sunny day with [our dogs, Biggie and Smallz] by the pool, and my world crumbled and turned upside down in an instant,” Bethenny wrote alongside a photo of Dennis tending to the two pups.
“A man Dennis, who I loved and respected, who was in my life for 30 years, unexpectedly passed away,” she continued.
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According to Bethenny, Dennis was a devoted dog dad to Biggy and Smallz, whom he named.
“Dennis insisted we adopt biggy AND smallz for my daughter Peanut,” the Skinnygirl mogul explained. “He simply couldn’t imagine separating them. We racked our brains staying up late coming up with the perfect name for two dogs from the same litter with very different body types. Thing 1 & Thing 2 was an option but Peanut found it degrading. Lenny & Squiggy was a good one but I knew it would only appeal to the over 40 set. Then at 5am, Dennis was waiting for me to wake up and in his stronger than Tequila New Yawk accent said ‘BIGGY AND SMALLZ’ and two stars were born.”
Bethenny said Dennis adored the dogs, and “the feelings were mutual.”
“They were particularly fond of his salty bald head,” she wrote. “At times, it seemed like he and they spoke the same language and they were the only ones who understood him. He was a loving, sweet, gentle, brilliant, complicated, hilarious, creative and supportive man. He is missed terribly by so many but lives on in his friends and family and furry loved ones.”
“I am a different person and in a different emotional place than I was a year ago, and the wounds have begun to heal but the scar will remain on my heart forever,” she added.
WATCH: Bethenny Frankel’s On & Off Boyfriend Dennis Shields’ Cause Of Death Ruled ‘Undetermined’
Dennis was found dead at age 51 in his Trump Tower apartment in New York City last August of a suspected overdose.
Three days after his passing, Bethenny broke her silence with a sweet photo of him and her dog Cookie, who died in 2017.
“Rest In Peace my sweet babies who gave me endless unconditional love. #nowandforever,” she captioned the photo.
At last month’s “RHONY” Season 11 reunion, Bethenny said she was “doing well” in the near-year since Dennis’ passing, but that her grief still “comes in waves.”
“There are delayed reactions. I really have moved away from it,” she said. “We had broken up many times. He was always in my life.”