A New York City housewife speaks about a new lawsuit against Andy Cohen and Bravo in which she alleges all of these things (and more) created a “rotted workplace culture.”
Leah McSweeney, a former cast member of “The Real Housewives of New York City,” is the latest Bravo reality star to voice complaints about the network.
“I thought it was going to be fun,” Leah McSweeney, a former star of Bravo’s “The Real Housewives of New York City,” said about joining the show’s cast in 2019.
She was speaking on a video call on Wednesday, for which her lawyer and her publicist were present. The day before, Ms. McSweeney had filed a lawsuit against parties including the Bravo cable channel; its parent company, NBCUniversal; and Andy Cohen, the executive producer of the “Real Housewives” franchise, alleging the creation of a “rotted workplace culture” that “discriminated against, tormented, demoralized, demeaned, harassed and retaliated against Ms. McSweeney because she is a woman with disabilities, such as alcohol use disorder and various mental health disorders, all in the name of selling drama.”
According to the complaint, which was reviewed by The New York Times, Ms. McSweeney, 41, joined the “Housewives of New York City” cast around the time she had relapsed after nine years of sobriety.
She became sober just before she started filming the show and has alleged that producers developed “artificially close relationships” with her through which they “cultivated a treasure trove of Ms. McSweeney’s dark secrets with intent to place her in situations known to exacerbate her alcohol use disorder and mental health disabilities because they thought that intentionally making these conditions worse would create good television.”
The complaint goes on to allege that producers frequently undermined Ms. McSweeney’s sobriety not only by encouraging her outright to drink but by “engaging in guerrilla-type psychological warfare intended to pressurize Ms. McSweeney into a psychological break and cause Ms. McSweeney to relapse.”
It also claims that Mr. Cohen frequently uses cocaine with other “Housewives” stars and that he rewards those cast members with “favorable treatment.”
Mr. Cohen denied the allegations through a representative. Past “Housewives of New York” stars including Luann de Lesseps, who has also been sober while appearing on the show, have spoken out in defense of him.
A representative for NBCUniversal said the company was conducting an investigation into the allegations.
A representative for Bravo said in a statement that the network had long been committed to maintaining safe and respectful work environments. The statement reads: “For the last several years we have been working with our third-party production companies to enhance our protocols including stricter guidelines on alcohol consumption, direction on when to intervene to maintain the safety of cast and crew, increased psychological support, enhanced workplace trainings, more serious consequences for physical violence on set, and a requirement to provide cast and crew with a direct line to NBCUniversal to raise concerns. A number of claims that were made by Leah McSweeney were previously investigated and unsubstantiated.”
Ms. McSweeney said on the video call that she had decided to participate in “Housewives of New York City” because she thought it would be a great opportunity. But once she joined the cast, she said, echoing her complaint, “Every single thing that was said to me was coded language for, ‘You better drink.’”
“I knew that there was going to be drama and fighting, of course,” she said. “You know people are going to love you sometimes, they’re going to hate you sometimes — you know you’re going to be somewhat objectified and you’re there to entertain, et cetera. I just didn’t know that the corporate and the producers and the network also kind of looked at the women in the same way as the audience does. I thought we would be a little bit more humanized by them.”
Ms. McSweeney, after appearing in the 12th and 13th seasons of “Housewives of New York City,” did not return for the show’s 14th season. But after filming “Housewives,” she joined the cast of a spinoff, “The Real Housewives Ultimate Girls Trip,” for its third season, which aired last year. She was sober while filming the show, episodes of which showed cast members encouraging her to drink.
“I was really hoping for the best,” she said of her decision to join the “Ultimate Girls Trip” cast. “I had had multiple discussions with multiple network executives who knew how I felt, and they said that this was going to be fun.”
Ms. McSweeney’s lawsuit came weeks after Caroline Manzo, a former star of “The Real Housewives of New Jersey,” filed a suit against Bravo and other parties in January alleging that she had been sexually harassed and assaulted by a fellow cast member while filming an installment of “Ultimate Girls Trip.” Bravo has not commented on that lawsuit.
Last summer, Bethenny Frankel, another former “Housewives of New York” cast member, called for reality stars to unionize in order to improve their working conditions. In August, two entertainment lawyers, Bryan Freeman and Mark Geragos, wrote a legal letter addressed to Kimberley Harris, the general counsel at NBCUniversal, accusing Bravo of “grotesque and depraved mistreatment” on behalf of “several current and former cast members and crew members on some of NBC’s most lucrative reality shows.”
