Bravo’s Andy Cohen is the latest celebrity to walk back comments about the Princess of Wales made before her cancer diagnosis became public on March 22. Cohen—host of Watch What Happens Live—fueled conspiracy theories about her long absence from the public eye in the aftermath of abdominal surgery on January 16, particularly after Kate was seen out with husband Prince William on March 16 at a Windsor Farm Shop. “That ain’t Kate…” Cohen wrote shortly after a video of William and Kate out together was posted.
Later that week, Cohen doubled down on his theory that the woman in the video wasn’t Kate, saying on his “Daddy Diaries” podcast “Those weren’t photos from the farm stand,” he said. “The captions on those photos said ‘Kate pictured last August.’ Blah, blah. It’s a lie.”
Cohen, like The Late Show host Stephen Colbert, also added fuel to the William and Rose Hanbury affair rumors. He apologized on SiriusXM’s Radio Andy, telling listeners “I just want to say, I am heartbroken by the news about Princess Kate,” adding “I think someone on Sky News called me a ‘numpty’ during that whole conversation, and they were right.” He then admitted, per Deadline, “I wish I had kept my mouth shut,” before concluding “We are all praying for Princess Kate and King Charles.”
Former Real Housewives of New York City star Leah McSweeney said on her Instagram Story on March 22—the day Kate released her announcement—that “Andy Cohen gets a kick out of being cruel to women and Kate Middleton is no exception. I hope that after she was forced to publicly talk about her cancer diagnosis, he will muster up the decency to apologize to her.” She added “People with power need to lead by example.”
In her video message released on March 22, Kate—who is currently away from the public eye with William and their kids Prince George, Princess Charlotte, and Prince Louis at their country home, Anmer Hall, in Norfolk—asked for “time, space, and privacy” while she completes her treatment.