‘RHONY’ Alum Leah Mcsweeney’s Lawsuit Against Andy Cohen — and His Response — Explained

In February 2024, former The Real Housewives of New York City star Leah McSweeney shook up the Bravosphere by suing her former boss and the network's golden boy, Andy Cohen. The lawsuit went public on Tuesday, Feb. 27, 2024 and included several shocking allegations against the Watch What Happens Live host. Many of the claims include drug use.

Leah's lawsuit was one of the suits at the center of a "reality" or "Real Housewives reckoning" first initiated by Andy's former friend, Bethenny Frankel.

After several months of keeping mum about the matter, Andy spoke out about the lawsuits, calling them "hurtful" in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter. One day after that interview was released, reports confirmed Leah's case against Andy had been dropped, calling her allegations against him “unsubstantiated." However, Leah's attorney said the fight against Bravo and Andy isn't over yet.

Here’s what to know about Leah’s lawsuit and allegations against the Housewives boss.

Leah starred on RHONY for two seasons between 2020 and 2021. During her time on the show, she candidly addressed her issues with alcohol abuse. In her lawsuit against Andy, Leah claimed Bravo “pressured her to drink” and refused to help her seek sobriety.

On Feb. 27, Page Six reported Leah is seeking “unspecified damages” against Andy, Bravo, RHONY’s production studio Shed Media, and producers John Paparazzo, Lisa Shannon, and Darren Ward. Leah shared in the legal documents that Andy and the networks disallowed her to care for her mental health and alcohol use disorder.

What’s more, she said Andy allegedly “engages in cocaine use with Housewives that he employs,” though none of them are named in the lawsuit. However, Leah said the Housewives cast members who have engaged in cocaine with Andy received “favorable treatment” from him, including receiving more flattering edits than their other co-stars. She claimed Andy’s behavior is a well-known secret amongst the Bravo team.

“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,” Leah’s lawyers stated in the documents. “Cohen’s preferred workplace environment, which is fueled with substances and illicit behavior, permeates every aspect of Defendant Bravo's productions.”

Leah’s lawsuit also made damaging allegations against Shed Media, which produces several Real Housewives shows in addition to RHONY. Leah said in her case that a Shed Media producer “routinely sends unsolicited pictures of [their] genitalia to lower-level production employees” as a form of sexual harassment.

The lawsuit says Bravo and Shed are allegedly well aware of the producer’s actions but have continued to “elevate” the unnamed producer “to positions of increased power.”

On Thursday, May 9, 2024, Deadline reported that all charges against Andy had been dropped. A source told the outlet that the decision was made after an "outside investigation" into Leah and former The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills star Brandi Glanville's claims of sexual harassment.

In February 2024, Brandi claimed Andy “exercised complete and total control over her career” by asking her to watch him and Below Deck star Kate Chastain have sex on video.

“The outside investigation into the recent allegations made by Brandi Glanville and Leah McSweeney against Andy Cohen has now been completed, and the claims were found to be unsubstantiated,” a spokeswoman for Bravo shared.

In May 2024, Despite Andy's team stating his legal matters are behind him, Brandi and Leah's attorneys say there's more to come in his real-life reality drama. According to Leah's lawyer, Gary Adelman, the statement was an inconvenient ploy to keep audiences focused on the NBCUniversal 2024 Up Fronts, which announces all of the programming within the NBC family, including Bravo.

“This is perfect timing,” Adelman said told Deadline in response to Andy's comment. “One line so they can repeat it to all the advertisers at the Up Fronts."

“How do you have an investigation without speaking with to anyone?" Adelman added. "Our opinion is that no one is going to believe this was a real investigation.”

Brandi's attorney, Bryan Freedman, also fought against the "investigation" statement, claiming neither his client nor Leah was consulted by Andy's team before the investigation.

“I am looking forward to reviewing the details of report from the ‘independent’ investigation,” Freedman said. "Since there was no finding of wrongdoing, there, of course, would be no need to hide or otherwise bury the findings.”

In May 2024, Andy filed to dismiss Leah's previous claims of sex/gender, religious, and disability discrimination in a "hostile work environment." People shared that Andy's motion called Leah's allegations "threadbare" and should be "dismissed as a matter of law."

Andy's legal team stated in the motion that he nor the other defendants never intended to "feature inebriated cast members," as Leah claimed in her filing. The team also claimed, if showing inebriated talent was their goal, they would be well within their First Amendment right.

The Bravo producer didn't stop there. Throughout the filing, his attorneys responded to Leah's allegations gender/sex-based harassment or discrimination by Andy, which she claimed he sent via text. The attorneys stated that, under Title VII and the New York City Human Rights Law (NYCHRL), Leah's claims were now "untimely" and had surpassed the statute of limitations. They said the only evidence Leah had was when Andy made a comment about her breast augmentation, but claimed that evidence was "insufficient."

Following Andy's lawsuit, Leah's attorney, Sarah Matz, released a statement on her behalf. The statement claimed Andy's filing for a dismissal doesn't mean he couldn't be held responsible for her allegations.

“We do not agree that the motion has merit — it mostly argues for dismissal on technical grounds essentially saying that Defendants were allowed to discriminate against Ms. McSweeney — not that they did not do it," Matz said. "To agree with the Defendants would be to essentially say that the creative industries are not subject to anti-discrimination and anti-retaliation laws and that networks could engage in discrimination and retaliation with impunity, which is not the law.”

Deadline reported that Andy's attorneys, Gibson Dunn, threatened to sue Leah if she didn’t “immediately retract and withdraw” the allegations. She has yet to do so, and the team hasn't made any claims against her. Amid Leah’s lawsuit against Andy, Bravo, Shed Media, and Warner Media, a rep for Andy briefly addressed the Housewives head honcho’s role. The statement from the rep showed Andy denying any of Leah’s allegations.

“The claims against Andy are completely false,” the rep told Page Six.

While Andy denied Leah's claims, he took some accountability in Brandi's plight. In a message on his X account, in February 2024, Andy said the video to Brandi was “in jest,” though he admitted it was “inappropriate.”

“It was absolutely meant in jest, and Brandi’s response clearly communicated she was in on the joke,” Andy wrote on Feb. 22. “That said, it was totally inappropriate, and I apologize.”

Despite Andy’s rep dismissing the claims, Leah’s lawsuit came after other former Bravo and Housewives stars accused Andy of similar inappropriate behavior. Former Real Housewives of Atlanta star NeNe Leakes also stated in her 2022 lawsuit that Andy, Bravo, and NBCUniversal for “fostering a hostile and racist work environment” and has called Andy “racist” on X. However, the case against Andy and the networks was dismissed “without prejudice” in August 2022.

Leah's shocking allegations against Andy have, unsurprisingly, caused an uproar around the Bravo universe. Amid the lawsuit, many Real Housewives stars, who have often been dubbed "Andy's Girls," came to his defense on social media.

According to Us Weekly, the executive has received support from Julia Lemigova, Margaret Josephs, Guerdy Abraira, Melissa Gorga, Kandi Burruss, Kiki Barth, LuAnn de Lesseps, and Ashley Darby, to name a few.

Vicki Gunvalson, who helped Andy launch the Real Housewives franchise by starring in Orange County in 2006, has also spoken out about Leah taking legal action against their former boss. While Vicki officially left RHOC as a full-time housewife in January 2020, she told Us Weekly she and Andy have a "big relationship." She also said that Leah's "dirty lawsuit" was "crazy."

“Why she is waiting now for everybody else and bringing our bosses down?" Vicki asked the outlet. "I don’t know because I wasn’t there.”

Us reported that Vicki later added she believed Leah's lawsuit had more to do with her "trying to get deep pockets” from it." Vicki's comments and other Housewives stars' support caused Leah to release a statement through her lawyer. On March 12, Adelman warned the allegations from Andy wouldn't stop with Leah.

"There are more lawsuits coming, and there are more people who are going to speak out,” he told Us Weekly. It doesn’t matter what people say or think—that Andy’s a good guy, that you should expect to drink, or that you should expect this behavior.”

"What’s going to matter is what the law thinks of it," Adelman continued. "And we believe the law thinks this is wrong.”

Andy Cohen has maintained business as usual at Bravo.