It made headlines last week when former Real Housewives of New York star Leah McSweeney filed suit against Andy Cohen and Bravo, accusing the Watch What Happens Live host of promoting a workplace that “thrives off drug and alcohol use,” and of using cocaine himself with favored cast members of the Real Housewives franchise.
Now Cohen is firing back in a letter sent from his lawyers to McSweeney’s, calling her claims “obviously made up.”
“While virtually every statement about Mr. Cohen contained in the complaint is false and will be proven so if this baseless lawsuit proceeds, we demand that you immediately retract and withdraw all allegations relating to Mr. Cohen’s purported ‘cocaine use,’ including but not limited to the allegation that Mr. Cohen engages in cocaine use with Housewives and other ‘Bravolebrities’ that he employs,” the letter reads.
Cohen, through his lawyers, is demanding an apology, calling McSweeney’s claims “obviously made up … to achieve maximum tabloid clickbait value in the hopes of weaponizing these false allegations—along with other lies that permeate the complaint—as leverage to force an unjustified settlement. It will not.”
McSweeney’s attorney, Sarah M. Matz, of Adelman Matz P.C., issued a quick response, first published by Page Six:
“That Andy Cohen had his counsel and PR agents write a threatening letter to give to the press is 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. 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.”
Cohen has been under fire in recent weeks. McSweeney’s suit came just days after RHOBH star Brandi Glanville accused him of sexual harassment in a separate legal letter, citing a a private 2022 video sent by Cohen to Glanville.
In Glanville’s case, Cohen quickly took to X to apologize for his comments in the video, which he said were meant in jest.
“The video shows Kate Chastain and I very clearly joking to Brandi,” he wrote. “It was absolutely meant in jest, and Brandi’s response clearly communicated she was in on the joke. That said, it was totally inappropriate and I apologize.”
