Drama is ongoing off-cameras. Andy Cohen just responded to Leah McSweeney’s lawsuit against him. The Real Housewives of New York alum filed a lawsuit against Cohen, Bravo, NBCUniversal, production company Shed Media and various producers, on February 27, 2024. The lawsuit claims that they breached her rights under employment law by failing to allow her to get proper care for her alcohol addiction, even though executives were aware of the problem.
In 2004, Andy Cohen became the Vice President of Original Programming of Bravo. He later became the Executive Vice President of Development and Talent at Bravo, which he continued to work as until 2013 when he stepped down to focus his efforts on Bravo’s Real Housewives franchise. In 2009, Cohen also premiered his late-night talk show, Watch What Happens Live With Andy Cohen.
In the bombshell lawsuit, McSweeney claims that “Cohen tends to provide the Housewives with whom he uses cocaine with more favorable treatment and [makes them appear more agreeably in] edits [of their shows].” Though the lawsuit doesn’t name the Housewives in question, the lawsuit futher claims that “Cohen intentionally uses cocaine with his employees to further promote a workplace culture that thrives off drug and alcohol use, which leads to a failure to accommodate employees who are disabled and trying to stay substance free.”
McSweeney has been open about her struggles with alcohol addiction and alleged that Cohen and producers were coercing the cast to take alcohol. The lawsuit states that the“defendants with the knowledge that Ms. McSweeney struggled with alcohol use disorder, colluded with her colleagues to pressure Ms. McSweeney to drink, retaliated against her when she wanted to stay sober, and intentionally failed to provide reasonable accommodations that would aid her efforts to stay sober and able to perform.”
On the night that the lawsuit, Andy Cohen finally responded. A representative for Cohen told Deadline, “the claims against Andy are completely false!”
Leah McSweeney took to Instagram to comment on the situation. “Your favorite Bravo shows are run by people who create a dangerous work environment, encourage substance abuse to artificially create drama and cynically prey on the vulnerabilities of their employees,” she wrote. “I may be a pariah to them after this, but I do hope my lawsuit helps reality TV to align with its true purpose: to authentically depict the complexities of life while offering genuine support to those who share their stories.
