Three days after his death, Bethenny Frankel attended her on-off boyfriend Dennis Shields‘ funeral. On Monday, the Real Housewives of New York City star was spotted arriving at the service on Long Island, New York. Get push notifications with news, features and more. Shields was found dead of a suspected overdose in his Trump Tower apartment on Friday. He was 51. Bethenny Frankel arrives to the funeral for Dennis Shields Credit: Mega Agency Frankel, 47, first met the New York City-based banker almost 30 years ago when he dated (and later married) one of her high school friends, Jill. Though she didn’t stay in touch with her classmate, Frankel and Shields shared other mutual pals and began dating in 2016, several months after he separated from his wife. Jill addressed Shields’ death in an exclusive statement to PEOPLE on Friday. “We are all heartbroken. Dennis was, and will always be, the love of my life. His spirit lives on in our children. Please respect our family’s privacy at this time,” she said. Celebrity Sightings in New York City - June 14, 2016 Dennis Shields and Bethenny Frankel | Credit: Alessio Botticelli/GC Frankel had always been candid about the complexities of their relationship, admitting that it wasn’t easy to define. “I’ve been with someone on and off for years,” she said during an interview in May. “It’s like a partnership where if we’re not being teammates and it’s not working and one man is down, then the other man is down. We’re trying to really kind of be good partners and be good teammates and I think relationships oddly are — and this sounds cold — but a little bit like business. If both people aren’t happy about it but slightly uncomfortable and giving up something or giving in [to] something, it doesn’t work. So both partners have to say, ‘All right, I’m in it for this.’ ” Last week, a source told PEOPLE that the coupling was “unconventional and not always exclusive.” “Bethenny loved him a great deal, but it was an unusual relationship,” said the source. “They would be together and then not. Sometimes these traditional relationships aren’t the best thing for everybody.” The source added that Shields was a “steadying rock” for Frankel. “He was very mild-mannered and she is like a force of nature,” the source said. “But she needed that in him.” RELATED VIDEO: Bethenny Frankel Says She ‘Never Knows Exactly’ Where Relationship Stands with Dennis Shields A source previously told PEOPLE that Shields was an important part of Frankel’s daughter Bryn’s life, too. (She shares the 8-year-old with ex-husband Jason Hoppy.) “Bethenny and her daughter Bryn love Dennis and his family,” the source said. “They have been a support system during her negative divorce and a positive influence in Bryn’s life.”<doc-sep>A source close to Frankel told E! News she is distraught over his death. "This is really bad. It's dreadful. She's known him for over 20 years," the source explained Friday. "She's heartbroken." Not too long ago, Shields was singing Frankel's praises publicly. "She's great. She's a great mother," Shields said in a recent episode of the business podcast Listen Up Show With Mitchell Chadrow. "She is terrific in every way. But we do break up a lot." Shields' estranged wife, Jill Schwartzberg Shields, also issued a statement to E! News late last week. "Dennis' family is devastated by this terrible news. He was a loving father and friend," Schwartzberg Shields said. "We ask that the media respect our privacy during this time of loss." She later paid tribute to the man she called "the love of my life" on Instagram. "I will miss you every day. Forever your legacy will live on in our children and our future grandchildren. Your intelligence, humor and of course your good looks will forever be engrained in our family! Even though we did not live together, you still remained my best friend and my husband. Not many people were able to grasp our situation, but it worked for us. We spoke every day. I will miss that! I love you my dear husband. I am hoping up in heaven you are running around playing basketball and tennis without any back pain," she said Saturday. "See you again in forty years." Carole Radziwill, Frankel's frenemy and departing Real Housewives of New York City co-star, was among the first to express her condolences. "I just heard the sad news about Dennis. He was a good man," she tweeted Friday. "My condolences to all his family and friends. So tragic."<doc-sep>Click to email this to a friend (Opens in new window) Bethenny Frankel addressed the death of her on-and-off boyfriend, Dennis Shields, on Monday morning. After attending his funeral on Long Island, the reality star posted a picture of Shields lying in bed with her dog Cookie, who passed away earlier this year, on her Instagram. “Rest In Peace my sweet babies who gave me endless unconditional love,” she wrote. She added the hashtag “#nowandforever.” Shields, 51, was found dead in his Trump Tower apartment Friday morning of a suspected OxyContin overdose. Though Frankel recently admitted that she “loves” the millionaire investment banker in an episode of “The Real Housewives of New York,” she also said she “could never marry him.” Shields, however, gushed about Frankel as recently as last week. “She’s great. She’s a great mother. She’s a great person. She’s really, really smart. She is terrific in every way,” he said on a business podcast. Jill Zarin, Frankel’s former “Housewives” co-star, expressed her condolences. “I know what it is like to lose someone so soon. It’s unbearable,” Zarin told us Friday. “There is nothing worse than sudden death. You can’t prepare. There is no time to say goodbye.”<doc-sep>This is so heartbreaking. Bethenny Frankel arrived to the funeral of on again, off again boyfriend, Dennis Shields, and looked horribly sad. Bethenny Frankel was pictured arriving at the funeral of her late ex Dennis Shields, and she looked heartbroken and sad. The Real Housewives Of New York star wore a black dress and was shielded by a man holding an umbrella as she walked into the funeral home in Long Island on Monday morning, in photos obtained by TMZ. The site reported that she was “inconsolable” as she said her final goodbyes to Shields, who died on Friday of an overdose. “This is really bad. It’s dreadful. She’s known him for over 20 years,” an insider told E! “She’s heartbroken.” Click here for photos of Bethenny arriving to the funeral. Shields was found dead at the age of 51 in his Trump Tower apartment after an alleged oxycodone overdose. Law enforcement officials say that he took an unknown number of oxycodone pills, which we prescribed to him, on Thursday night. He woke up on Friday morning feeling ill and asked his housekeeper to go to the pharmacy and purchase Narcan, which counteracts the effect of opiods, but when she returned he was already gone. UPDATE: The Chief Medical Examiner confirmed to HollywoodLife that an autopsy was not performed on Dennis because of a religious objection, which is “upheld by law in such instances where no criminality is suspected.” His cause of death is officially listed as “undetermined.” Just days before his tragic death, Bethenny was heard on RHONY telling her friend Dorinda Medley that she could never live with Shields. “She [basically] said, ‘I love him, but I could never marry him,” a friend told Page Six. People were quick to throw blame on Bethenny, saying that her words are what caused Shields to overdose, but a source told HollywoodLife.com that those claims were “ludicrous.” “The press reports that the recent episode of Real Housewives might have tipped Dennis over the edge are ludicrous, and extremely hurtful to Bethenny,” our insider said. “The show isn’t filmed in real time, so it’s not like her conversation about Dennis not being ‘Mr. Right’ would have come as a great shock to him. He knew exactly where he stood with Bethenny, and what the status of their relationship was, weeks ago.” Our thoughts and prayers are with Bethenny, and Dennis’s family during this difficult time.<doc-sep>
Dennis Shields was found dead in his Trump Tower apartment on Friday Bethenny Frankel is speaking out about the shocking death of her on-off boyfriend Dennis Shields. The Real Housewives of New York City star posted an Instagram of Shields cuddling with her beloved dog Cookie, who died in October at the age of 17. “Rest In Peace my sweet babies who gave me endless unconditional love. #nowandforever,” she captioned the intimate photo. The Bravo star was photographed looking emotional at Shields’ funeral on Long Island, New York, on Monday. EXCLUSIVE: Bethenny Frankel photographed leaving her Ex-boyfriend Denis Shields funeral service at Wodbury long island this morning Credit: Splash News Shields was found dead in his Trump Tower apartment on Friday. He was 51. The NYPD is investigating his death as a possible overdose. “We are all heartbroken. Dennis was, and will always be, the love of my life,” his wife Jill Shields said in a statement to PEOPLE. “His spirit lives on in our children. Please respect our family’s privacy at this time.” According to the New York Post, the banker asked his assistant to give him Narcan, an emergency medication intended to reverse the effects of a narcotic overdose, but he lost consciousness before the medication could take effect. Celebrity Sightings in New York City - June 14, 2016 Credit: Alessio Botticelli/GC Frankel and Shields began dating in 2016 — three years after the Skinnygirl founder filed for divorce from ex-husband Jason Hoppy, with whom she shares 8-year-old daughter Bryn. Dennis-Shields1 Dennis Shields and Bethenny Frankel | Credit: Bravo “Bethenny and her daughter Bryn love Dennis and his family and they have been a support system during her negative divorce and a positive influence in Bryn’s life,” a source previously told PEOPLE.