Entertainment
Leah McSweeney insists she has ‘good’ intentions with Andy Cohen, Bravo lawsuit: The truth is ‘on my side’
Leah McSweeney claimed she has the “truth” on her side after filing a lawsuit against Bravo and accusing Andy Cohen of doing cocaine with the network’s reality stars.
“This is the truth, you know, and I have it on my side, and my intentions are really good,” the “Real Housewives of New York City” alum said on American Addiction Centers’ “Addiction Talk” Wednesday.
McSweeney, 41, explained that she checks herself “all the time” in regard to her intentions and uses some of the tools she learned in recovery “about taking inventory.”
“I feel like as hard as it is to be going up against a very powerful entity and for people to maybe also just not agree with me or, you know, come at me and get blowback and all the things, I don’t care,” she continued.
The former reality star shared that she has been “doing great” despite the scandal while continuing to prioritize her “program,” “meetings” and “sober friends.”
“I’m in a really good place right now, and it’s taken a long time to get here, and it’s a journey; it’s not linear, but the thing I learned is to have a healthy fear of your addiction, and you can never feel like it’s that far away — because it’s not, and I learned that the hard way,” she said.
Reps for Cohen and Bravo didn’t immediately return Page Six’s requests for comment.
Elsewhere in the interview, McSweeney clarified that she was speaking out “more about the mindset” and the “attitude that the higher ups have.”
“I think with the talent –– in my experience –– it’s like treat people who are struggling with alcoholism and mental Health issues and addiction issues with human decency and compassion,” she added.
“I’m not saying you have to get them sober, because that’s not your job, and it’s also very hard to do that, but maybe like don’t completely exploit their vulnerability and their struggle that they’re dealing with.”
McSweeney suggested that in the future, they could “offer some help,” because what she “experienced” and “saw” was the “opposite of that.”
We broke the news last month that the Married to the Mob founder had filed a bombshell lawsuit that accused Cohen, 55, of doing cocaine with his favorite “Housewives” and alleged Bravo “thrives off drug and alcohol use.”
A rep for Cohen denied the accusations at the time, calling them “completely false.”
Since then, McSweeney has doubled down on her allegations and claimed the network’s reality 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.”
Several “Real Housewives” stars — including Kyle Richards, Margaret Josephs and Heather Dubrow — have come to Cohen’s defense and denied ever having such an encounter with him.
The “Watch What Happens Live” host’s lawyer has since fired back at McSweeney and slammed her claims as a “shakedown.”
“Mr. Cohen never used cocaine with any cast member on any ‘Real Housewives’ show or with any other Bravo employee,” attorney Orin Snyder wrote in the letter seen by Page Six earlier this month.
Snyder further claimed that McSweeney’s suit is “littered with false, offensive and defamatory statements.”
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“We demand that you issue an immediate public retraction and apologize to Mr. Cohen. Every day you fail to do so only increases the damages suffered by Mr. Cohen,” the letter continued.
The lawyer also alleged McSweeney had filed the paperwork “to create a media frenzy and pressure in an attempt to force a settlement.”
McSweeney’s lawyer, Sarah M. Matz, subsequently told Page Six that the “threatening letter” was “hardly surprising.”
“Mr. Cohen is accustomed to using his power in the media to scare and intimidate people like Ms. McSweeney so that they will not speak out,” Matz wrote.
“Mr. Cohen’s attempt to discredit and intimidate Ms. McSweeney to deter her from engaging in legally protected activity in Court is exactly the type of retaliation that this lawsuit was brought to address and only is further evidence for Ms. McSweeney.”
McSweeney has previously spoken out against the network in a bombshell Vanity Fair exposé published November 2023.
She even teased to Page Six at the time, “Andy Cohen, Bravo, and [production company] Shed all need to give their PR teams a bonus. They worked in overdrive to try to hide the truth.”
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