It is actually for real. Its entirely designed to ruin the character and show him to be a weak pathetic man who can't stand up to his boss bitch wife who always hated him anyway.

Ironically, within a year they brought back the series with a near identical copycat character (didn't even bother to make it a chick or black) who is so similar people in universe just assume its Frank too. So they couldn't even commit to the bit, they just wanted the controversy and headlines of it.