Andy Cohen‘s legal team is demanding that former Real Housewives of New York City star Leah McSweeney retract her “categorically false” claims about the Bravo boss and his alleged cocaine usage as well as apologize directly to him.
McSweeney alleged in a bombshell lawsuit that Cohen snorts cocaine with other Housewives, who are then rewarded with “more favorable treatment and edits.” She further accused him of promoting “a workplace culture that thrives off drug and alcohol abuse, which leads to a failure to accommodate employees who are disabled and attempting to remain substance-free.”
But to Cohen, this lawsuit is a “shakedown” and McSweeney is trying “to force an unjustified settlement,” per Page Six.
In a legal letter sent to her team and obtained by Page Six, Cohen’s lawyers deny that he has ever used cocaine with “any cast member on any Real Housewives show or with any other Bravo employee.” His attorneys claim that McSweeney’s complaint is “littered with false, offensive, and defamatory statements” and demand that she and her lawyers “immediately retract and withdraw all allegations relating to Mr. Cohen’s purported ‘cocaine use.'”
The letter further states that McSweeney’s allegations were “obviously made up” by the reality star and/or her lawyers 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.”
They add that McSweeney’s allegations are “missing every detail, including the who, where, and when.” Ever since the lawsuit was filed, Housewives — including Luann de Lesseps, Cynthia Bailey, Kandi Burruss, Melissa Gorga, Lisa Vanderpump, Kyle Richards, Heather Dubrow and Marysol Patton, to name a few — have been coming out in droves to defend Cohen.
“We demand that you issue an immediate public retraction and apologize to Mr. Cohen,” the letter concludes. “Every day you fail to do so only increases the damages suffered by Mr. Cohen.”
McSweeney’s attorney responded to the letter via Page Six, saying it’s “hardly surprising” that it was sent since Cohen “is accustomed to using his power in the media to scare and intimidate people like Ms. McSweeney” to keep them from speaking 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,” they continued. “We do not intend to litigate this matter in the press, and if Mr. Cohen wants to address Ms. McSweeney’s claims, we suggest he do so in Court, not in a letter for the press.”