Real House strife behind the scenes
A bombshell new lawsuit paints a damning picture of the behindthe-scene culture at reality TV giant Bravo as a dysfunctional club that “thrives off ” hard drugs, encourages alcohol abuse and turns a blind eye to sexually predatory behavior.
Court documents filed on Tuesday by one of its former stars, Leah McSweeney, even claim that it’s an open secret that the network’s figurehead, Andy Cohen, snorts cocaine with a coterie of his favorite “Real Housewives” stars, and doles out special professional favors to his employeescum-personal-party-pals.
Meanwhile, the papers claim that the network is aware that a different senior producer “routinely sends unsolicited pictures of [their] genitalia to lowerlevel… production employees,” but the papers claim that higherups have done nothing to stop it.
The shock claims are part of a lawsuit in which McSweeney, 41, claims that the network preyed on her alcohol problem, either by intentionally exacerbating it or by preventing her from seeking help with it, in a cynical attempt to turn her suffering into ratings.
‘Confused, irrational’
The former “Real Housewives of New York City” star claims in a hard-hitting lawsuit filed on Tuesday that the show won its best audience figures ever with an infamous episode known as “Scary Island,” in which one of its stars appeared to be confused, irrational and losing touch with reality.
McSweeney’s lawyers claim in the court papers that — knowing she was battling alcohol addiction when she joined the show and had a history of serious mental health problems — they saw her vulnerable condition as an opportunity to hit the ratings jackpot again by messing with her head until she went off the rails in a similar way.
In fact, the papers depict producers all but desperate to cause her to relapse in alcohol abuse, trying over and over to drive her to drink — from coaxing to coercion to refusing her time in her schedule to go to AA to retaliating against her for refusing to drink.
And then, the papers claim, when she “refused” to drink, they simply tried other ways to mentally destabilize her in hopes of getting the on-camera meltdown they so badly wanted.
McSweeney — who has been open about her mental health issues and even hosts a podcast in which she interviews top medical experts about addiction and other matters — claims in the court papers that their alleged exploitation landed her in a psychiatric hospital.
The news comes amid a flurry of legal activity concerning Bravo, drugs, alcohol, and sexual harassment.
Just days ago, fellow “Real Housewives” star Brandi Glanville claimed in a legal letter that an “obviously inebriated” Coher hen sexually harassed by telling her that he wanted to “sleep with another Bravo star” while “thinking” of Glanto ville, and invited her watch the act over FaceTime.
Cohen has claimed that the remark was meant “in jest” but conceded that it was “inappropriate.” And a few weeks earlier, Caroline Manzo, another “Real Housewives” star, also sued Bravo claiming that the network and its producers “regularly ply the ‘Real Housewives’ cast with alcohol, cause them to become severely intoxicated, and then direct, encourage and/or allow them to sexually harass other cast members because that is good for ratings.” McSweeney — who is being represented by Adelman Matz, the law firm that won a $4 million defamation case for Cardi B last year against YouTuber LataKebe sha — claims that the network breached her rights under employment law by failing to allow her to seek proper care for her alcohol addiction, even though executives were aware of the problem. She’s seeking unspecified damages. The Married To The Mob designer, 41, starred on two seasons of flagship Bravo show “The Real Housewives of New York City” from 2020 until 2021 and one season of spinoff “Real Housewives: Ultimate Girls Trip” in 2023. The Manhattan federal court suit claims that producers pressured her to drink in all three.
Remaining sober
McSweeney claims in the papers that even before she started shooting her first season with the Bravo show — Season 12, which also starred Luann de Lesseps, Sonja Morgan and Ramona Singer, among others — she told the producers that she’d been sober for 30 days and that she was working to maintain her sobriety.
But instead of helping her stay on the wagon — or providing “reasonable accommodation” for her addiction disability, as the law says — she claims, producers “not only supplied Ms. McSweeney with unlimited, free-of charge alcoholic beverages throughout Ms. McSweeney’s employment as a cast member on ‘RHONY’ Season 12, but also encouraged her to consume those alcoholic beverages.” The suit adds, “This environment caused Ms. McSweeney to relapse into alcohol addiction shortly after joining RHONY season 12.”
The papers say McSweeney “grew mentally and physically ill, which manifested into extreme depressive symptoms” while filming a cast trip — much like the “Scary Island” cast trip, in which former star Kelly Bensimon appeared to become mentally unsettled.
Her attorneys claim that an episode from that trip, which Bravo named “Hurricane Leah,” became the highest-rated episode of the season “all due to [the defendants’] exacerbation of Ms. McSweeney’s clear disabilities.”
McSweeney’s lawyers claim that some of her fellow cast members even “expressed concerns regarding Ms. McSweeney’s erratic behavior.” But that one of the producers “called Ms. McSweeney and told her that, despite relapsing into alcohol use disorder, Ms. McSweeney should continue to consume alcohol so long as she ‘remain[ed] lucid’ while filming.’”
The mom-of-one says that after Season 12, she regained her sobriety and signed up for another season “because she felt she could make her experience better.”
But when she met the producers at a restaurant to discuss Season 13, they noticed she wasn’t drinking at lunch and — despite having watched her unravel on Season 12 and openly discuss her alcohol issues — tried to brush off her obvious dependency issues saying: “Well you don’t have a problem . . . do you?”
And she says that once shooting began, Cohen and the producers “put Ms. McSweeney in situations where she felt pressured to relapse into alcohol use disorder.”
The papers also say that she felt the producers were giving her frequent hints — including praising the performance cast members who drank and “glorifying their alcohol use” — that it made better TV when she was drinking and made her worry she’d lose her job because of her abstinence.
The suit says she “feared that her sobriety would cause a trickledown effect, where if she continued not to drink… Cohen, [the producers] and the audience would think she was boring [and] Cohen would no longer want her on the show.”
And McSweeney claims that
when she “refused to relapse into addiction,” the producers “attempted to exacerbate Ms. McSweeney’s mental health disabilities in hopes that Ms. McSweeney’s worsened mental health would cause her to display the erratic behavior they wanted.”
While making a case that the network thrives on a culture that “thrives off drug and alcohol use,” McSweeney’s lawsuit claims that Cohen, 55 — who is an executive producer of “RHONY” and “RHUGT” and hosts Bravo’s late night show, “Watch What Happens Live” — “engages in cocaine use with Housewives that he employs” and that “Cohen’s proclivity for cocaine usage with his employees is well-known throughout the Real Housewives franchise.”
“In fact,” claim the papers filed in the Southern District of New York, “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].”
McSweeney’s powerhouse lawyers allege in the documents 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.”
Meanwhile, the papers claim that a producer employed by Shed Media, which makes “RHONY” and “RHUGT” as well as a number of other “Real Housewives” shows, “routinely sends unsolicited pictures of [their] genitalia to lowerlevel . . . production employees.”
‘Increased power’
It also alleges that Bravo and Shed “continue to elevate [the producer] to positions of increased power.”
Those claims are part of McSweeney’s suit because her lawyers claim in the court documents that “by failing to take appropriate remedial action [Bravo and Shed] tacitly send the message to [the producer] and all other employees that they can engage in unlawful employment practices with impunity.”
McSweeney, who appeared on “RHONY” from 2020 until 2021 and then “RHUGT” in 2023, is suing Cohen, Bravo, Shed Media — a production company that makes both shows — and Warner Media, which owns Shed.
In 2017, Cohen’s former pal and CNN New Year’s Eve co-host Kathy Griffin claimed that Cohen offered her cocaine before she appeared on “What’s What Happens Live” on two separate occasions. Cohen said at the time: “I am completely stunned by this story. It is 100% false and totally made up.”
Reps for those named in McSweeney’s suit didn’t immediately get back to The Post.