Andy Cohen has been candid about his complicated relationships with the Real Housewives — especially after they exited their respective franchise — over the years.
Cohen became the Vice President of Original Programming at Bravo in 2004. Two years later, he served as an executive producer for Real Housewives of Orange County, which premiered in 2006. While Cohen’s role at the network has changed over the years, he continued to produce every Housewives franchise, including The Real Housewives of New York City, The Real Housewives of Atlanta, The Real Housewives of New Jersey, The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills and more.
While his relationships with the shows’ stars are always complex, once a Real Housewife confirms their exit, things can get even dicier for Cohen.
“I very much believe in boundaries. And sometimes I keep boundaries up with people who have no boundaries. These are people who invite cameras into their homes,” he told Paper magazine in 2019. “It’s a complicated relationship … I’m a boss, I’m a friend … I’m an adversary, I’m a button pusher. I’ve become legitimately friends with many of them. I care about them. So it’s nuanced. And sometimes it’s great and sometimes it’s not great. It’s an emotional relationship.”
Kelly Dodd
After making a series of controversial comments about COVID-19, Cohen confronted Dodd at the RHOC season 15 reunion. Following their heated exchange (and backlash from fans), her contract wasn’t renewed for season 16. While the first season in five years without Dodd was airing, she slammed the ratings.
“Wait, wasn’t I the ratings problem ? Wasn’t there a boycott ??” she tweeted in December 2021. “We got over a million viewers 14 out of 16 weeks last season despite HUGE competition from election coverage on the news !!! This year ? #RHOC16 under a million 3x in 4 weeks ! Hey @Andy How’s that reboot going ???”
Cohen replied: “Good morning! Reboot going great. Feels like a return to form for #RHOC. Look at the delayed numbers, not live. That’s what’s measured.”
Dodd went on to claim that Cohen had “come after [her] from the day one” during a July 2023 episode of her and husband Rick Leventhal’s podcast, “The Rick and Kelly Show.”
“It just seems like [Cohen] tries to shame me,” she said. “He likes to shade people he doesn’t like, OK? And that’s fine. I can handle it.”
Bethenny Frankel![Bethenny Frankel Andy Cohen Friendship With Former Housewives Who Is He Still on Good Terms With]()
Cohen has referred to Frankel’s second stint on RHONY (she appeared on seasons 1-3 and 7-11) as a gift for him and the fans. He also has reunited with the RHONY OG several times since her 2019 exit.
“This #RHONY Reunion was short on drama, but lots of laughs,” he captioned a photo with Frankel in The Hamptons in July 2020.
The Skinnygirl mogul has also credited Cohen for encouraging her to launch her podcast, which he appeared on in September 2020.
Things took a turn when she launched her new podcast “ReWives,” however. After Cohen accused Frankel of “trashing the Housewives publicly for the last three years,”, things got awkward on WWHL. While Cohen thought the interview went well, Frankel claimed she felt ambushed. Cohen and fellow guest Jeff Lewis later apologized.
During the WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes in summer 2023, Frankel became vocal about reality stars not earning fair residual pay — and didn’t mince her words. “Some people say to me, ‘Oh, wow, is Andy [Cohen] mad you’re doing this? Have you spoken to him?’” Frankel said during an August 2023 episode of her “Just B” podcast. “And I say, I have not, but I’m sure he is.”
She went on to clarify that herself expressing her concerns for reality TV stars is “not a target on Andy. This is not a target on Bravo. This is about a systemic issue in the entertainment industry.”
NeNe Leakes![NeNe Leakes Andy Cohen Friendship With Former Housewives Who Is He Still on Good Terms With]()
While Cohen has said nothing but nice things about the RHOA OG over the years, Leakes has slammed the host and the network multiple times. She turned on Cohen in September 2020 after he had her former bestie Wendy Williams on WWHL the same week she announced her departure from the series.
“She does Andy Cohen’s show and here she sits speaking negatively of my exit and bringing my family into the equation. Now that’s what you’re not gonna do. What you’re not going to do is speaking negative of my family. My family never signed up to be a part of anything doing television. They don’t have to be colorful. I am the person that has to be colorful or need to be colorful, OK?” Leakes said in a YouTube video titled “Stop using me for click bait!”
More than one year after the exit drama, Leakes expressed a desire to return to RHOA. Cohen subsequently referred to their relationship as “complicated” during his SiriusXM show.
“What I don’t want to do is get into a public thing with her. I think she would probably prefer that I keep her name out of my mouth and that is what I’m going to honor,” he said on Andy Cohen Live in November 2021.
In 2022, Leakes filed (and later dropped) a racial discrimination lawsuit against Cohen, NBCUniversal, Bravo and production companies True Entertainment and Truly Original.
“What a sad end to a relationship with someone I adored and put on a pedestal for years,” he wrote his May 2023 book, Daddy Diaries.
Leakes subsequently chatted about Cohen with fellow Real Housewife Bethenny Frankel during a September 2023 appearance on her “Just B With Bethenny Frankel” podcast.
"I don't feel like we were good friends," Leakes said. "[We were] probably a little more than [colleagues] because I could call him on his cell. I have gone out with him, out on the town, and I’ve gone drinking with him and I’ve partied with him. ... [But] I did not know where it stood. … I don’t think he ever liked me.”
Vicki Gunvalson![Vicki Gunvalson Andy Cohen Friendship With Former Housewives Who Is He Still on Good Terms With]()
After the OG of the OC wasn’t offered a full-time role for season 15 of RHOC, she accused Cohen of not having her back at the season 14 reunion. He mended the rift between them by sending Gunvalson followers ahead of the October 2020 premiere.
“Thank you @bravoandy for the incredible flower arrangement,” she wrote via Instagram at the time. “After 14 incredible (& some not so incredible) years on @bravotv, it’s nice to be acknowledged on the launch of RHOC tonight. #thankyou #gonebutnotforgotten.”
Gunvalson included a photo of Cohen’s card, which read, “There wouldn’t be an OC without Vicki G. Love, Andy.”
Gunvalson later had Cohen’s back after RHONY alum Leah McSweeney filed a civil lawsuit against Cohen and Bravo in February 2024, claiming she was pressured into drinking while filming despite being sober.
“He has always been professional with me, we have a very big relationship,” Gunvalson exclusively told Us Weekly of Cohen in March 2024. She went on to call the lawsuit “dirty” and said she thinks McSweeney is “trying to get deep pockets” from it
Carole Radzwill![Carole Radzwill Andy Cohen Friendship With Former Housewives Who Is He Still on Good Terms With]()
Cohen’s relationship with Radzwill has been different from the start as the pair used to run in the same social circle before she joined the cast of RHONY season 5.
“I used to always be invited to his Christmas party for 10 years because we had the same group of friends. And then when I starred in Housewives, I got disinvited,” Radzwill told Us in 2018.
The former journalist made headlines that year when she told Cohen he “was so full of s—t” at the season 10 reunion, which ended up being her last.
“I think she’s angry toward the show and me and she felt like I was up Bethenny’s ass,” Cohen said in 2020 of their heated moment. “I don’t think she said we were overly close. We were in each other’s circle for years. We didn’t talk on the phone. We didn’t email but I think we had genuine [care] for each other.”
Radzwill and Cohen’s feud was reignited following the release of Not All Diamonds and Rosé in October 2021. In the book, which the host’s imprint published, they recalled their falling out over how she handled her exit from RHONY.
“Carole’s post basically implied that she was leaving a really toxic situation [and] It really rubbed me the wrong way because I really felt like I had changed her life,” Cohen said. “She is not the person I used to know.”
Radzwill slammed the quotes via Twitter: “Just another man telling a woman she ought to be more grateful. Housewives changed Andy Cohen’s life, not mine. And Bravo built a 100million dollar franchise on the backs of women. Let’s not get it twisted. 💯💪🏼.”
In Daddy Diaries, Cohen noted his first interaction with Radziwill in years was a “business-like exchange” to explain a Housewives hacking issue in 2022.
The pair’s relationship didn’t improve after the formal interaction. In June 2024, Cohen claimed during an episode of his SiriusXM show that Radziwill was behind a shady anonymous quote from his New York magazine profile.
“I know exactly [who it is]. It’s Carole Radziwill, no question,” he said. “It’s the one mean quote in there and it’s the only anonymous quote.”
Cohen added that there are “18 reasons” why he is certain Radziwill made the anonymous remark.
“It’s not even a question that it’s Carole,” he said. “But it was so weird. I was, like, Carole has said a lot of unkind things about me that she has tweeted and been quoted about. So, I was like, why are you going off the record here?”
The anonymous quote in question, which was attributed to a “former New York Housewife,” began, “The show went from silly humor about middle-aged women getting drunk and being delusional about their status and having funny, petty arguments, to Housewives investigating and doing opposition research and making up false story lines and leaking stories on each other and trying to get one another fired.”
The anonymous Bravo alum also referenced the 2019 video from Cohen’s baby shower where RHOBH alum Lisa Rinna instructed the Housewives to dance like their “f—king lives depend on it” on tables at the party.
“I just thought it was such a cringe moment,” the RHONY star said. “Because that’s the dynamic. Everyone just dances for Andy Cohen.”
Lisa Vanderpump
While Cohen expressed his disappointment when Vanderpump skipped the season 9 RHOBH reunion in 2019, he has expressed his gratitude for her nine years on the series. The twosome are seemingly on good terms as Cohen paid tribute to her late dog Giggy in December 2020. However, several months earlier, Vanderpump did agree with a social media user who alleged the host “always” tries to get his WWHL guests to “throw shade” at her.
"Well thank you kind sir and I agree,” she replied to the July 2020 tweet.
Following her RHOBH exit, Cohen and Vanderpump continued to work together on Vanderpump Rules.
Brandi Glanville
It wasn’t always love between Cohen and Glanville at RHOBH reunions, but as of 2020, they are in a good place with the producer appearing on her “Unfiltered” podcast. Things got slightly awkward during the episode as Glanville enlisted her teenage son to beg Cohen to give his mom a spot back on RHOBH, but he handled it like the pro he is by keeping his answers vague.
Glanville told Us at BravoCon in October 2022 that she texts Cohen “every day.”
Dorinda Medley
While there were reports that Medley was fired over her remark about using a turkey baster to get pregnant at the RHONY season 12 reunion in 2020, Cohen said that wasn’t the case.
“While I didn’t like that comment, that’s not true,” he said on Radio Andy at the time, making it clear that the door was open for Medley to return in the future. “Sometimes taking a pause is a good thing and I am really hopeful that this is indeed a pause and that she would rejoin the show at some point. … I think a pause is a good thing and she will come back renewed and refreshed.”
Medley returned to WWHL in August 2021 to promote her book and hosted season 2 of Peacock’s The Ultimate Girls Trip at her Berkshires home.
In May 2023, news broke that Medley — who has continued a positive relationship with Cohen — will be part of The Real Housewives Ultimate Girls Trip: RHONY Legacy.
Danielle Staub
Staub, who originally appeared on the first two seasons of RHONJ, declared that she was done with Bravo in January 2020 after returning for two seasons in a “friend” role. She later slammed Cohen, but he never publicly responded.
“Andy kept me In the dark long enough! He has taken whats mine and given it to others! Now that you are a parent I’d hoped you would see some of the pain you caused my family, even when I left the show to protect my young children, you mocked me repeatedly defaming me and yet I still continued to give you over a decade to do right by me and mine!” she wrote in August 2020 via Instagram. “I’ve even gone as far as to ask you to be kinder and more gentle with me but it fell on deaf ears. No more waiting or asking, I have no hate no more respect I don’t honor you and I won’t defend you. But I will advise: ‘Be careful whose toes you step on today because they may be attached to the ass you have to kiss tomorrow.'”
Cohen revealed in Daddy Diaries that he ignored an email from Staub after she tried to reach out after trashing him on a podcast.