Former “Real Housewives of New York City” star Leah McSweeney has filed a civil lawsuit against the show’s host and executive producer Andy Cohen. The lawsuit, filed Tuesday in the Southern District of New York, also names Bravo Media, NBCUniversal Media, Warner Bros. Discovery, production company Shed Media US and producers John Paparazzo, Lisa Shannon and Darren Ward.
In the 109-page complaint obtained by People, McSweeney claims the defendants pressured employees to consume alcohol and failed to take into consideration her disabilities, including “alcohol use disorder” and “mental health disorders.” She says she told the defendants that she had broken nine years of sobriety, but was sober when filming for season 12 of the show began in 2019. Elsewhere in the complaint, McSweeney alleges that Cohen “engages in cocaine use with Housewives and other 'Bravolebrities' that he employs,” and has a “proclivity for cocaine usage with his employees.” A representative for Cohen told Entertainment Weekly the claims against him are “completely false.”
