The legal battles at Bravo are getting heated. Yesterday, Page Six revealed that Andy Cohen is calling the lawsuit levied against him by former Real Housewives of New York and Real Housewives Ultimate Girls Trip star Leah McSweeney a “shakedown”.
It’s been a very active year on the legal front for Andy and Bravo, and up until recently, he’s remained fairly tight-lipped when lawsuits have been launched by the women (and a butler) that formerly appeared on any one of his number of reality shows. But this is the second response in as many weeks to lawsuits filed by Leah and former Real Housewives of Beverly Hills star Brandi Glanville.
Andy says Leah is trying to “force an unjustified settlement” with him, while her attorneys claim his response is a bullying tactic meant to force her into silence. Her lawsuit, much like Brandi’s, alleged cocaine use, amongst other non-traditional workplace practices, to put it mildly.
Apparently, Leah’s legal team received a letter from Andy’s team, slamming her allegations and calling them “categorically false”. The letter continued:
“Mr. Cohen never used cocaine with any cast member on any ‘Real Housewives’ show or with any other Bravo employee.”
It’s unclear what the response to this will be. Many fans have been losing faith in Andy as a leader and it’s causing a lot of uncertainty around his future with the franchise. Not helpful for him at all, of course, is the apology he offered up recently to Brandi over her claims that he invited her to watch him have sex with Below Deck star Kate Chastain over FaceTime, which I wrote about here. Though the allegations are different, it pads the case being made by many former stars of the Bravoverse that he is simply not fit for his role at the network.
“The allegations were obviously made up by you and/or your client to achieve maximum tabloid clickbait value in the hopes of weaponizing these false allegations—along with other lies that permeate the complaint—as leverage to force an unjustified settlement. It will not. Instead, this conduct only subjects you and your client to independent and substantial legal exposure.”
When Cassie launched her lawsuit against Diddy for his horrendous (and rumoured) crimes, which I wrote about here, we saw his lawyer employ the same tactics that Andy’s lawyers are using right now. This is such a typical response, especially in dynamics when the person suing is a woman and the person being sued is a man, or when there is a great power or wealth imbalance between the two parties. In her case, Cassie was accused of filing “offensive and outrageous claims” and that she was only “seeking a pay day” (which she got, in like, 24 hours or something, just saying).
In Leah’s case, though, before she even filed, she spoke candidly on social media and in the expose Vanity Fair did (surprise! I wrote about that, too) about seeing to it that this goes to court. She also reiterated her determination to have this play out in a court of law in a lengthy social media post she made recently.
Her message in the post is that there is a lot that will come out when people are under oath, if they follow the rules, anyway. That’s why she’s pushing for it to be formally litigated in a court setting. And I think that’s why Andy and his team are pushing back. In addition to that, she says she hopes her lawsuit “helps reality TV to align with its true purpose”. So she’s not slamming reality TV. She doesn’t seem bitter at all, either, other than the fact that the producers pushed her to abandon her sobriety, which is a very fair reason to be upset. And she’s got a decent net worth, too, through her clothing line.
It appears, to me anyway, that despite accusations flying left, right and centre that women like her, Bethenny Frankel and Brandi are all out to make Andy’s life a living hell and make a quick buck, Leah is genuinely trying to improve the circumstances of filming for people that choose to do it. And if you look at the person she’s shown herself to be on the show and after it, it’s certainly plausible that she means what she says her intentions are.
She was the only white woman in the entire Real Housewives of New York cast to be able to check her privilege, understand and empathize with Eboni K. Williams’ experience and the experience of so many other people of colour. She called out injustices when she saw them (and even when she didn’t). And her willingness and determination to go to court indicate to me that this is about a lot more than a pay day, as Andy’s lawyers are suggesting. And I’m hoping that whoever ends up in that courtroom not only tells the truth, but sees her truth, too.
