Bethenny FrankelBethenny Frankel, who appeared on the cover of last week's PEOPLE with her newborn daughter, Bryn, dropped a bombshell inside the magazine's pages, claiming, "I never had a true childhood."

However, Frankel's mother, Bernadette Birk, has fired back against her daughter's assertions, telling Star, "I love my daughter, but what she's saying is killing me."

Although Birk, a professor of interior design, admits she has only spoken to her daughter twice in the past decade, she maintains that Frankel was "the most important person in my world."