‘Real Housewives’ star makes damning accusation against Andy Cohen, proceeds to sue him for his retaliatory ‘attack’

There’s a legal battle bubbling in the very center of the reality TV kingdom. Leah McSweeney is suing the big boss of the Real Housewives franchise — Andy Cohen himself.

The former cast member McSweeney is alleging some very serious accusations. Page Six reports that in 2024, McSweeney filed explosive claims in a suit alleging Cohen snorted cocaine with other cast members — and that producers of the show even encouraged her to break her sobriety. But now, she’s come back with even more explosive claims.

The former cast member of The Real Housewives of New York City claims that Cohen took the alleged Justin Baldoni route and fired off a media blitz that was a coordinated attack against her. According to McSweeney, Cohen “requested or induced” current and former cast members to publicly attack McSweeney’s character — and ensure her reputation as a liar is fully entrenched in the zeitgeist.

The filing claims that the cast members were willing to take part in this supposed charade in order to advance their own careers. The filing gives specific examples, like Lisa Vanderpump appearing on The Talk and declaring she’s on Cohen’s side. The granular example was bringing forward the platform argument — which suggests McSweeney should just be grateful that she was given the opportunity to appear on screens all over America. And that all that was thanks to Andy Cohen.

There were other examples where some former cast members claimed that McSweeney was simply trying to assassinate Cohen’s character. Taken by themselves, this honestly just sounds like typical Real Housewives drama. Honestly, even when they’re not on the clock — the drama still follows them. However, the filing does acknowledge this and says that all this bad-mouthing is a result of the aforementioned “requesting” or “inducing.”

The filing is meant to bolster McSweeney’s original lawsuit by framing all this media blitz as retaliation. So the new filing is not merely to add more complaints, but rather to accentuate the allegations of Cohen trying to punish McSweeney in some way. It’s worth mentioning that Bravo did stand up for Cohen and previously attempt to get the original motion dismissed. The motion was allowed to proceed after a ruling in January, and according to the new filings, that’s when the “retaliation” began.

McSweeney’s counsel wants to not only prove the retaliation claims but also double down on the claims of cocaine use. The filing states that two unnamed castmates told McSweeney that Cohen does actually use cocaine. NeNe Leakes has also called Cohen a “coke-head,” and the counsel is bringing that up to create historical precedent.

Bravo and Andy Cohen have not given any public comments about this new filing. This new filing is trying to join the dots and give the court and perhaps the public too a glimpse at the inner workings of reality TV as it exists today. If true, these allegations seem to suggest that the producers of these shows push their cast members beyond their limit and if they don’t follow orders, they will be dumped. And worse off, if they complain — to quote Baldoni’s PR — “they will be buried.”