Leah McSweeney Accuses Andy Cohen Of Bullying Her Into Silence And Trying To Have Her “Blackballed” In Amended Lawsuit

Leah McSweeney isn’t going down without a fight. Four months after filing a lawsuit against Andy Cohen, the former Real Housewives of New York City star is claiming she was met with “retaliation.”

In the initial filing, McSweeney accused Cohen of supplying Bravolebrities with cocaine and fostering a “rotted workplace culture” that pressures employees to consume alcohol in an effort to drive ratings. McSweeney, who suffers from “alcohol use disorder” and other “mental health disorders,” also alleged that producers discriminated against her by “intentionally planning scenarios intended to exacerbate [her] disabilities” to “create morbidly salacious reality television.”

Cohen, who is an executive producer on the Real Housewives franchise, later demanded that McSweeney retract her “categorically false” claims in a legal letter sent to her team and obtained by Page Six in March. His lawyers claimed that McSweeney’s complaint was “littered with false, offensive, and defamatory statements.”

The Watch What Happens Live host was ultimately cleared of any wrongdoing following a third-party investigation.

However, McSweeney is once again hitting back against Cohen, now claiming that his letter was “baseless and was intended — once again — to scare [her] into silence,” according to the amended lawsuit obtained by People. The former reality star claims that, by making the letter public, Cohen “intended to smear” her name in the media to “dissuade” her from moving forward with the lawsuit and have her “blackballed” by the entertainment industry altogether.

McSweeney also released a statement to People, claiming that Cohen and his lawyers accused her of “lying” and filing the suit to “get headlines” before “wrongly [threatening]” her with legal action despite knowing she is “within [her] legal rights.”

She continued, “This is flat-out bully behavior and that’s par for the course. Threats like this are to intimidate and try to silence me and other people who want to speak out. I think it’s very clear to anyone paying attention that Mr. Cohen is the one who is obsessed with being in the headlines.”

Decider has reached out to Cohen’s reps for comment, but did not hear back by the time of publication.