Speaker 1: I come from New Jersey. I could be a Jersey house.
Speaker 2: I don't think anyone is ready for that.
Speaker 1: Andy Cohen is a media giant.
Speaker 3: He's the author of four New York Times bestselling books,
Speaker 3: serves as the executive producer of the Real Housewives franchise,
Speaker 3: and he's also the executive producer and host of the
Speaker 3: wildly popular Watch What Happens Live, both of which air
Speaker 3: on Bravo. Now. Andy is taking on what will likely
Speaker 3: be his most rewarding and challenging role, fatherhood. In his
Speaker 3: newest book, The Daddy Diaries, The Year I Grew Up,
Speaker 3: and he gives us a glimpse into parenting his two children,
Speaker 3: Benjamin and Lucy, all the while managing a fabulous professional
Speaker 3: and social life. I've been a guest on his program
Speaker 3: several times where he has asked me some tough questions.
Speaker 3: I'm here in newsstand studios in Rockefeller Center, and now
Speaker 3: it's my turn to put Andy on. Bless oh boy,
Speaker 3: welcome to my podcast.
Speaker 1: Andy. Hi, Martha, and I wouldn't know how to put
Speaker 1: you on last if I tried.
Speaker 2: I'm a feeling you could cobble that together. Martha.
Speaker 3: Well, and well, here I'll start this way. Andy walked
Speaker 3: into the zoo. It is nine thirty.
Speaker 2: In the morning.
Speaker 3: Eight You were late.
Speaker 2: I was late. We was forty five rock by. Oh
Speaker 2: my god, he little messed up.
Speaker 3: Okay, he was a little bit late, which you know
Speaker 3: in his professional life he's never late, that is true,
Speaker 3: never late.
Speaker 1: And he looks a little tired. And I said, are
Speaker 1: you okay? And he said, well, you know I have
Speaker 1: two kids.
Speaker 2: No, she said, I'm sorry to get you up so early.
Speaker 2: I said, are you kidding me? Ben came in my
Speaker 2: room this morning at about three fifteen. Oh no, he
Speaker 2: is sleep in my bed and then talk and talk
Speaker 2: and talk.
Speaker 1: Is he a talkers?
Speaker 3: Like?
Speaker 2: Yes? And I was like, We've got to go to bed.
Speaker 2: So he and I were up from about three fifteen
Speaker 2: until five, and then Lucy started, as they say, singing
Speaker 2: around six am.
Speaker 3: Do they have separate bedrooms?
Speaker 2: They do?
Speaker 1: Oh that's good.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, that's good.
Speaker 1: So she didn't hear him get into your bed?
Speaker 2: She didn't.
Speaker 1: You would have had a melee and here a bedroom
Speaker 1: if she had heard right, Well, was fatherhood always in
Speaker 1: the plans for you? Andy?
Speaker 4: I think somewhere in my mind it was. It was
Speaker 4: I thought wouldn't it be great? And I had a
Speaker 4: fantasy of it, but I never I was always so
Speaker 4: excited about my life and career that it was always
Speaker 4: not now, not now, not now. And as I approached fifty,
Speaker 4: you're fifty. I am fifty four more you are, Oh
Speaker 4: my gosh. Yeah, I had no idea. I thought you
Speaker 4: were like early forty. Oh that makes me wow, And
Speaker 4: then you would have more.
Speaker 2: Energy day fifty.
Speaker 3: I have a lot of energy about fifty four minutes
Speaker 3: old to have your first child.
Speaker 2: Oh, I had it at fifty. I had it at fifty.
Speaker 2: But you know, my mom texted me yesterday. I was
Speaker 2: up half the night with Ben the night before also,
Speaker 2: and she said, how are you?
Speaker 4: You must be exhausted. I said, mom, I'm a tank
Speaker 4: because I feel like one. I just kind of do
Speaker 4: what has to be done. It's always my kind.
Speaker 2: Of way that I get through things.
Speaker 4: And I had written two books that were diary books,
Speaker 4: one called the Andy Cohen Diaries and one called Superficial,
Speaker 4: and they were modeled after Warhol's.
Speaker 2: Diaries, which I was a big fan of.
Speaker 4: Yeah, and when I read Warhol's diaries, I was like, wow,
Speaker 4: he goes to every party. He can go anywhere, he hobnazi,
Speaker 4: drops names, he has opinions, and I thought that was
Speaker 4: so cool.
Speaker 2: So that's what I based my diary books on.
Speaker 4: And I thought, well, I'm going to a lot of
Speaker 4: parties and I host a talk show and this could
Speaker 4: be my own way in So after I wrote the
Speaker 4: last one, I have to say, when you write down
Speaker 4: what you do every day for three years for publication,
Speaker 4: by the way, you have to look at your life
Speaker 4: and say, how am I living my life?
Speaker 2: And is this the way I want to continue? And
Speaker 2: I really thought I could do this life forever, but
Speaker 2: there's got to be something more.
Speaker 4: And I'm about to turn fifty and I feel like
Speaker 4: career wise, I am everywhere I wanted to be. I
Speaker 4: finally have the resources where I can really afford to
Speaker 4: do this in the way that I think that I
Speaker 4: would want to for them and for me. And so
Speaker 4: those were the crossroads that made me say, you know what,
Speaker 4: I can do this now, And I'm so glad I did.
Speaker 4: I have a sense of grounding and purpose that I
Speaker 4: never had.
Speaker 1: And you've done this singly, you have don't have did
Speaker 1: it alone?
Speaker 3: Yeah? You did alone? Why?
Speaker 1: Well?
Speaker 4: I wasn't in love, and I have to say I
Speaker 4: wasn't gonna wait anymore. I just thought I need to
Speaker 4: do this for myself. And there are pros and cons.
Speaker 3: Congratulations, no, thank you, but it's really I love that
Speaker 3: you've done it yourself without and to wait any longer
Speaker 3: and not do it, I think would have been really
Speaker 3: bad because I agree, you know, and the older you get,
Speaker 3: you can't murder.
Speaker 2: That is.
Speaker 4: And I have to say for women, I'm such an
Speaker 4: advocate of women. To me, women get such an unfair
Speaker 4: shake on so many levels, but the reproductive level. H
Speaker 4: the idea that women have to wait for a man
Speaker 4: or whatever. I'm just such a proponent of women freezing
Speaker 4: their eggs if they have the resources, save your money
Speaker 4: and do it so that you have the reproductive freedom
Speaker 4: to be able in your forties to say, oh I
Speaker 4: met a guy, or I haven't met a guy, but
Speaker 4: I want to do this. I just think it's such
Speaker 4: a you know, for any woman who's thinking I want
Speaker 4: to be a mom, but I'm scared that I'm not
Speaker 4: going to make.
Speaker 1: I wish I had a Lexis next to you, because
Speaker 1: my daughter, she froze her eggs. She was she was lucky.
Speaker 1: She did freeze a lot of eggs. Okay, and she
Speaker 1: and embryos and she at forty six, had her first child.
Speaker 2: Oh that's amazing. And did she do it alone or
Speaker 2: was she a le alone? Good for? Oh?
Speaker 3: Really a sperm donor right, who actually is fantastic and
Speaker 3: he's she knows the guy.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, yeah, she chose him.
Speaker 2: Oh she did.
Speaker 1: He comes from California once a month.
Speaker 3: Oh that's incredible, which is great, Yes, because even though
Speaker 3: she has no involvement with him romantically, the children have
Speaker 3: a daddy.
Speaker 4: But also incredible that she figured out an arrangement with
Speaker 4: him that works.
Speaker 1: I mean he had no he was not married, had
Speaker 1: no children.
Speaker 2: Wow.
Speaker 3: These are his only two kids, a boy and a girl,
Speaker 3: born within a year. So it reminds me so much
Speaker 3: of you because she's exhausted all the time.
Speaker 4: And I'm so glad I did it. And but this
Speaker 4: single parent, there's a weight. And I think they I
Speaker 4: needed a subtitle for this book, and it was going
Speaker 4: to be more Adventures from the Andy Cohen Diaries. But
Speaker 4: then once I finished, I was like, this was the
Speaker 4: year I grew up. I had a second I had
Speaker 4: a second lash and you're grown up.
Speaker 2: And I, and there was a wait about being a
Speaker 2: single dad.
Speaker 4: There was There was a period in August where I
Speaker 4: spent three weeks in the Hampton's on vacation. It's my
Speaker 4: summer vacation. Well, I mean, I learned there's no such
Speaker 4: thing anymore as a vacation the two kids.
Speaker 2: It's a trip. And it was a trip, and it
Speaker 2: was kind of a bad trip, to tell you. The
Speaker 2: truth was.
Speaker 4: It was just, you know, I had a threeen ager
Speaker 4: and a little baby, and it was like and I
Speaker 4: was alone and I that was when it got really real.
Speaker 1: I have to say, do friends enjoy having both the
Speaker 1: kids come with you to show everything?
Speaker 4: They they you know, I'm selective and where I bring
Speaker 4: both the kids at this point, and I think that
Speaker 4: will expand as they grow older. And I just took
Speaker 4: a trip away for a weekend with Ben, but I
Speaker 4: left Lucy at home because, you know, for a baby,
Speaker 4: to uproot them from their schedule, which is kind of
Speaker 4: the most important thing you You I.
Speaker 3: Just as a sais Ben's for and the baby says,
Speaker 3: and she is turning one right now, Oh only one?
Speaker 1: Oh she still really has a baby?
Speaker 2: Baby?
Speaker 3: Yes, exactly, And but you have the wherewithal to how
Speaker 3: your nannies.
Speaker 1: Yes, and so you have full time nats.
Speaker 4: I have to help, But I also feel it's so
Speaker 4: important for me just to be around a lot.
Speaker 2: I don't there's no one that lives in my house.
Speaker 2: Some meal well, I mean it depends on the day,
Speaker 2: it depends on the cook. Yeah.
Speaker 4: I mean I'm not a good cook, but I'm a
Speaker 4: great summer cook because I have a grill at my house.
Speaker 4: And am Agan said, now I can grill and I
Speaker 4: can have people over and make steaks or chicken or
Speaker 4: baby steak.
Speaker 2: No they can't. Well no, I mean Ben can.
Speaker 4: Ben loves stick. But anyway, I don't have any nanny's
Speaker 4: sleeping over. I want to be there alone at night
Speaker 4: with the kids.
Speaker 3: Really, nobody stays.
Speaker 2: Over, there's no living. I want to be there. If
Speaker 2: I'm out of town, you might change that, I don't know.
Speaker 2: I feel like the hardest time is when they're little.
Speaker 3: I'm sure you're thriving and happy that you are now
Speaker 3: daddy of two.
Speaker 2: I am. It's amazing. I feel grounded.
Speaker 3: You have a lot of I mean, your responsibilities have
Speaker 3: multiplied drastically.
Speaker 2: They have.
Speaker 3: I mean, even though you are so busy. You have
Speaker 3: how many shows on air right now?
Speaker 4: I have ten housewatch shows, Pluts, Watch What Happens Live,
Speaker 4: which is the daily talk show Wow. So that's plus
Speaker 4: I have two serious radio channels, Radio Andy, which is
Speaker 4: a talk channel.
Speaker 1: Serious s I r I U, yes, exactly, They're not
Speaker 1: so serious.
Speaker 4: And I programmed those channels and I'm on the radio
Speaker 4: four days a week, so I've.
Speaker 2: Got a lot going on. But I love it. But
Speaker 2: you know, Martha, it's funny. I was such a fan of.
Speaker 4: Barbara Walters, and you look at the idea of going
Speaker 4: all in on a career, and obviously she had a daughter.
Speaker 4: There were many reports and she said they wound up
Speaker 4: not being that close in the later years or whatever.
Speaker 4: But I feel like, as much as we all have
Speaker 4: these careers that we love, you were just talking about
Speaker 4: your grandchildren when I came in.
Speaker 2: I mean, this is why we're ultimately here. It's easy.
Speaker 4: I could be the late night talk show host party guy,
Speaker 4: but then at some point it's going to get really old.
Speaker 3: And it's going to get hard to be home with
Speaker 3: the kids at the same time. Right now, you have
Speaker 3: a lot of responsibility, Yeah you do, and it's it's
Speaker 3: amazing that so many young men young women are doing
Speaker 3: this on their own in the fear of not having
Speaker 3: a family around them. I applaud you because I think
Speaker 3: it is so important single or married, single, divorced, whatever
Speaker 3: you are, to have a child is such a nurturing
Speaker 3: thing for an adult, you know, and a career person.
Speaker 1: It's so important. So, I mean, I had a child.
Speaker 3: When I was married, and it was a normal, kind
Speaker 3: of sort of abnormal childhood for her. But I never
Speaker 3: give that up for anything. So I'm so happy for you.
Speaker 2: Thank you.
Speaker 1: I'm so happy. I want to meet the kids one day.
Speaker 3: Okay, So what surprised you most about being a father?
Speaker 4: I think, actually how much I clicked into it, and
Speaker 4: how much, no matter who you are or how much
Speaker 4: you have going on, you just human instinct takes you there.
Speaker 2: I don't think any more about getting no sleep. I
Speaker 2: don't think.
Speaker 4: I mean, I think, you know, we just how my
Speaker 4: my instincts kicked in.
Speaker 2: And that I can do it, and that I'm not
Speaker 2: walking around.
Speaker 4: I thought that I would be walking around kind of miserable.
Speaker 2: But there's a joy in the exhaustion in a way.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you know, I get what you're saying.
Speaker 4: But also, I mean, I guess just those pure, random,
Speaker 4: very off the cuff moments where your kid turns to
Speaker 4: you and says something so incredible, you know, just you're
Speaker 4: my best friend or I love you.
Speaker 1: Did you have the same surrogate for both.
Speaker 4: The surrogate is carrier, Yes, so I have I have
Speaker 4: the same they are biologically brother and sister.
Speaker 2: I have different surrogates, but the same egg donor. Yes.
Speaker 3: So in the beginning stages of having the babies, you
Speaker 3: you relied on on health because you had to go
Speaker 3: to work. Yes, so you had You had had to live.
Speaker 2: In baby nurse for both when they were babies, Yes,
Speaker 2: live in Yes. Who.
Speaker 4: I then shared with Anderson Cooper when he had his
Speaker 4: son Wyat, and.
Speaker 3: I remember that was big news too.
Speaker 2: Yes. And then when when what?
Speaker 4: And then he had Sebastian his second, and Teresa, our
Speaker 4: baby nurse went to Sebastian. And then when I had Lucy,
Speaker 4: she came back to She's gone back and forth.
Speaker 2: Between me and Anderson, Uh, several times. That's great.
Speaker 4: She's incredible, and she sleep trained them both and really
Speaker 4: helped us out as parents. And I think we really
Speaker 4: kind of spoiled her. Where, you know, I think she realized, wow,
Speaker 4: it was a baby nurse. It's kind of fun working
Speaker 4: for gay guys.
Speaker 2: You know. They give me rosea at dinner time, right,
Speaker 2: you know.
Speaker 3: So we have big hopes. All of us have big
Speaker 3: host for our kids. What are your hopes for your
Speaker 3: two lovely children.
Speaker 4: My hopes are just that they they are exactly themselves.
Speaker 2: My hope are that.
Speaker 4: My hope for her is that she has every bit
Speaker 4: of confidence that I have and that he has. I
Speaker 4: think sometimes women struggle with self confidence.
Speaker 1: Ben has a lot of confidence.
Speaker 2: Ben has a lot of confidence.
Speaker 1: Is he already an athlete or.
Speaker 4: He loves soccer? He loves sports great. Absolutely. I just
Speaker 4: want them to be as happy as I have been
Speaker 4: all my life. Really, if they're happy, then then that's
Speaker 4: all I really care about.
Speaker 3: You mentioned Anderson Cooper, So you're good friends. So the
Speaker 3: kids play with each.
Speaker 2: Other, they do. We just ban and I just left.
Speaker 4: We got an invitation for Wyatt's first birthday party this
Speaker 4: morning at about eight am. Ben texted it and then
Speaker 4: Bean and I left Anderson and RSVP a little voice message,
Speaker 4: which was very sweet.
Speaker 1: So the housewives, let's get into a little bit of
Speaker 1: what you do when you're not at home.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 3: Children.
Speaker 1: The Housewives franchise started when.
Speaker 2: Started in two thousand and six, I think with the
Speaker 2: Real Housewives of Orange County Desperate Housewives at the time
Speaker 2: was a huge show on ABC. People don't sometimes make
Speaker 2: the connection that that's where the title came from. We
Speaker 2: had this group of women and we said, well, these
Speaker 2: are the quote real housewives, and it was a play
Speaker 2: on the term real because the term housewives is kind
Speaker 2: of antiquated, and also there was not much real about
Speaker 2: them physically. They had augmentations.
Speaker 4: In every direction. And so that was the beginning. Never
Speaker 4: in a million years would I have imagined that we
Speaker 4: would be now ten franchises there are, we've Bravo has
Speaker 4: licensed the format around the world.
Speaker 2: I just went to Australia to do press for Watch
Speaker 2: What Happens Live. They're just huge over there. Wow.
Speaker 4: It's really something that I wouldn't have believed. But I
Speaker 4: grew up I was a huge fan of all my children,
Speaker 4: really big fan, and so when we started the Housewives,
Speaker 4: I thought, well, if this could be kind of a
Speaker 4: reality soap opera, then wouldn't that be something? And I
Speaker 4: think that's the backbone of why this is still going.
Speaker 1: Because it is definitely a giant soap.
Speaker 2: It is people come and go.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and they and people pay attention.
Speaker 3: They person I would not make a good housewife, would I?
Speaker 4: You know? Unclear if you let yourself go in the process.
Speaker 4: You certainly are outspoken, you lead a quite aspirational life,
Speaker 4: You're not shy with your opinions, and you're very beautiful.
Speaker 1: I'm a very good housewife.
Speaker 2: You're a very good housewife. You're someone who we all
Speaker 2: are interested in. So I would say, now, the only
Speaker 2: thing that I think you would.
Speaker 4: Not be good at, which is the crux, is you
Speaker 4: would want control of the edit artha.
Speaker 2: And we wouldn't give it to you. We would want
Speaker 2: to show you know. We would say, well, you signed it,
Speaker 2: and we're going to show what we're going to show.
Speaker 1: So you have final edit on everybody.
Speaker 2: Course we do.
Speaker 4: And so that's, by the way, why I would never
Speaker 4: do a reality show, and that my reality show are
Speaker 4: these diary books. Frankly, because I let you in. I'm
Speaker 4: in control of the edit, and I let you in
Speaker 4: as much as I should want to.
Speaker 3: Andy Cohen, And before I signed my documentary.
Speaker 4: No, I very excited about my documentary as I edit
Speaker 4: as you should have.
Speaker 2: That is the right thing, because you're smart.
Speaker 3: You did that, you know why, because I didn't want
Speaker 3: it to be a puff piece.
Speaker 2: You're right.
Speaker 3: I didn't want to. I didn't want to control how
Speaker 3: I looked, how I talked. Anything that's good.
Speaker 4: That is so smart, Okay, that is so smart that
Speaker 4: you improve, there's there's you know, I have a book
Speaker 4: in print also called Andy Cohen Books, and I published
Speaker 4: six books, and I've been trying to get you to
Speaker 4: do your book with me. Well, it would we would
Speaker 4: have to break the bank, I mean clearly, but but maybe.
Speaker 1: Maybe we'll make a deal on them.
Speaker 2: FU This would be great. But I said to Mariah Carey,
Speaker 2: who we did a book with, incredible book, and I said,
Speaker 2: there are so many bulls if I can say that
Speaker 2: on your podcast, Yes, like celebrity memoirs and stuff written.
Speaker 3: By other people, written by other people.
Speaker 2: Mariah's was so honest and it was really revealing and
Speaker 2: it was vulnerable, and so yeah, I think you need
Speaker 2: to name names and you need to be able to
Speaker 2: have people say, look, I didn't have a good experience
Speaker 2: with her. What you know, whatever it is right?
Speaker 3: Yeah, Now the housewives. Do any of them give you
Speaker 3: any insight into parenting? You know, what are you friends
Speaker 3: with these houses?
Speaker 4: I say, you know, I would say that the ones
Speaker 4: who've been on the longest I have the longest relationships with.
Speaker 4: It was very moving to me when I announced.
Speaker 2: I was trying to think, how am I going to
Speaker 2: announce that I'm having kids?
Speaker 4: What am I gonna say? And I wanted to wait
Speaker 4: until it was close to the delivery to Ben's delivery
Speaker 4: day because I didn't want the surrogate. I didn't want
Speaker 4: people kind of following her around, and I was just
Speaker 4: very I was very hung up on it going well.
Speaker 4: But I also wanted to share the news because it
Speaker 4: was important to me and it's an exciting thing.
Speaker 2: And so I invited five.
Speaker 4: Housewives on Watch What Happens Live who were the housewives
Speaker 4: that had been on their shows the longest, And we
Speaker 4: were live that night and it was our last show
Speaker 4: before Christmas, and at the end of the show, I said,
Speaker 4: I have something I want to say, and they all
Speaker 4: thought that I was announcing that I was quitting the
Speaker 4: show or something like that, and they all got very serious,
Speaker 4: and I said.
Speaker 2: I'm going to become a father.
Speaker 4: And the outpouring that I got from all of the housewives.
Speaker 4: It created an entirely new relationship between me and these
Speaker 4: women who I had known on one level for so long,
Speaker 4: and they all have been so sweet, and they're all
Speaker 4: great moms, you know, and their kids are often the
Speaker 4: moral compass of their shows. The kids are often the
Speaker 4: one saying, mom, you can't do that, or you can't
Speaker 4: say that, or you need to apologize or whatever. So
Speaker 4: it's opened up a really wonderful dialogue. So I just
Speaker 4: shot the Jersey Reunion last week and during breaks, I
Speaker 4: was talking to the women about, well, what did you
Speaker 4: do about sleep training?
Speaker 2: And what did you do about this? And these were
Speaker 2: things that I had never It was a window of
Speaker 2: conversation that had not.
Speaker 1: I know, did you know about sleeping?
Speaker 4: No, of course I didn't, but it's fun to be
Speaker 4: able to talk to them about this.
Speaker 1: So, in the midst of doing all these shows that
Speaker 1: you executive produced, these are big jobs, how do you
Speaker 1: find time to write?
Speaker 3: Well, diary is the best way that well.
Speaker 4: This this format is really first of all, I think
Speaker 4: for anyone who's trying to write anything, the hardest thing
Speaker 4: is knowing your voice and being able to sit down
Speaker 4: and just start. I know, My Voice is my fifth book,
Speaker 4: and I love to write, and I feel like when
Speaker 4: I start writing it name the book. The books are
Speaker 4: most talkative stories from the front lines of pop culture.
Speaker 2: That was my memoir. Then I wrote the Andy Cohen Diaries.
Speaker 4: Then I wrote Superficial more Adventures from the Andy Cohen Diaries.
Speaker 4: Then I wrote Glitter every Day, three hundred and sixty
Speaker 4: five quotes from women I love. And now we have
Speaker 4: the Daddy Diaries the year I grew up. And so
Speaker 4: this just felt like a continuation of this dialogue that
Speaker 4: I already have, and I didn't know whether I was
Speaker 4: going to do it or you dictate every day.
Speaker 2: I don't dictate. I write, and I either write. Sometimes
Speaker 2: on the.
Speaker 4: Way home from Watch What Happens Live, I get my
Speaker 4: phone out and I just start writing, and then I'll
Speaker 4: email it to myself and I put it in the
Speaker 4: document and I expand on it.
Speaker 2: A lot of times. After a day, I'll write a
Speaker 2: note did Martha's podcast? I was late. I was scared
Speaker 2: she was going to be mad.
Speaker 3: You know, whatever it is, Because some of these entries,
Speaker 3: like Tuesday, March first, twenty twenty two, it's long, it's
Speaker 3: almost more than a page.
Speaker 2: If a lot happened, then it gets you know, and
Speaker 2: it depends on the day.
Speaker 1: Not a day is missed.
Speaker 2: Not a day is missed. They're all very Some are
Speaker 2: about parenting, some are really name droppies. Some are very
Speaker 2: New York stories. So yes, it's uh, that's why at Cooper.
Speaker 1: And and then.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean they really look like us. I have
Speaker 2: a devilish grin and why it's like, what have you
Speaker 2: gotten me into? You know?
Speaker 4: I write about Anderson a lot of I write about
Speaker 4: my friendship with John Mayer a lot.
Speaker 2: It's interesting looking back on a year. You see really
Speaker 2: who you hung out with every single day.
Speaker 4: So it's a lot of fun. But I love writing.
Speaker 4: I feel very accomplished when I write, don't.
Speaker 3: You You know if I read it out loud after
Speaker 3: I write it, I read it out loud, just hear how.
Speaker 1: It sounds right.
Speaker 3: And if it can be read out loud carefully, rightly,
Speaker 3: then I feel like I've really written something that's interesting.
Speaker 2: Your book's well, you can.
Speaker 4: Write this was, you know, this was, and the good
Speaker 4: news about this one. Also, it's a format I started.
Speaker 4: I start this the day after I blasted the Blasio
Speaker 4: on New Year's Eve. I started it on January first,
Speaker 4: twenty twenty two, and I write that morning. I just wrote, wrote, wrote,
Speaker 4: And so it begins then and it ends with New
Speaker 4: Year's Eve of this year.
Speaker 1: Who publishes Andy Cohen's Andy.
Speaker 2: Cohen Books, a division of Holt McMillan.
Speaker 1: Yes, what a great idea to have your own imprint.
Speaker 2: It's so great. Is so you have had your own imprint? No?
Speaker 1: No, no, even though I'm on my hundredth book.
Speaker 2: Incredible.
Speaker 3: Yeah. No, We've always worked with clerks and pottery and
Speaker 3: we were happy with that.
Speaker 2: Isn't really fun? Isn't it fun? The book business?
Speaker 3: This book is book?
Speaker 2: Love it?
Speaker 3: Yeah, I do too, And I'm so glad that you're
Speaker 3: you're so active in it.
Speaker 1: So first one, second.
Speaker 2: Book, second book was Andy Cohen Diaries, okay, okay, And
Speaker 2: and that was just and.
Speaker 4: That was a similar format, And that was the first
Speaker 4: one that I wrote.
Speaker 3: And did that take a year?
Speaker 2: Or that was a year?
Speaker 4: And then immediately when I finished, I said, you know what,
Speaker 4: I love this and I know this is going to
Speaker 4: be a big best seller, and I'm going to start
Speaker 4: writing the second one immediately. And I thought, how interesting
Speaker 4: will the second one be because it will also cover
Speaker 4: my book tour for the first one and going on
Speaker 4: shows and tell you and so so much happened on
Speaker 4: that book tour, and it just became and I wrote
Speaker 4: for a year and a half and then we published
Speaker 4: the third, which was a big hit called Superficial, And
Speaker 4: so I liked this format. I started writing one during
Speaker 4: the process of having been and I actually there was
Speaker 4: stuff in there. I said, I can't publish this. I
Speaker 4: don't want Ben to read this. There was just I
Speaker 4: was being very cheeky, and I thought, this is not
Speaker 4: if I was Ben, I don't think.
Speaker 2: I would want to read this. So I left it.
Speaker 1: Oh, I see, yeah, you want your kids to be
Speaker 1: proud of what.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I do. And there are things in this book
Speaker 2: that I wonder about.
Speaker 1: I think that's a very good thing.
Speaker 2: Yes, I do.
Speaker 4: Too, I do too, But there are things that look,
Speaker 4: I tell a lot of stories about Ben having tantrums
Speaker 4: or whatever negotiations were in that I hope he takes
Speaker 4: the right way.
Speaker 1: So how many what I watch What Happens Lives?
Speaker 2: Do you do? A week? Five? Five five A week?
Speaker 2: We've been on This is our fourteenth year in July,
Speaker 2: it'll be our fourteenth.
Speaker 1: And you watch it where what do you mean watch it? Well,
Speaker 1: not you, we watch it.
Speaker 2: When we watch it on Bramo on Peacock.
Speaker 3: So, if you had to be on any one of
Speaker 3: your shows as a as a performer, which one.
Speaker 2: Did any of the Housewives? Well, the house sides of
Speaker 2: New York? So I didn't have to move? Oh okay, yeah,
Speaker 2: I love New York. Yes.
Speaker 3: And who's the most outrageous of this? Yeah?
Speaker 2: Wow, that's a hard one.
Speaker 1: The most outrage.
Speaker 2: There have been.
Speaker 4: I mean there's probably maybe Sonia Morgan who was on
Speaker 4: the house side of New York.
Speaker 2: Do you know her?
Speaker 5: No, I'm sure you would member you would remember, yes,
Speaker 5: but really outrageous.
Speaker 2: Yes, she's wild.
Speaker 1: What about Bethany My Apprentice?
Speaker 2: Your Apprentice?
Speaker 5: Yes, well she's not wild, but she's a piece of work. Okay, right,
Speaker 5: that's a good way to describe her. She was like
Speaker 5: that on the Apprentice.
Speaker 2: Yes.
Speaker 3: So as a host of Real Housewives reunion shows, because
Speaker 3: you do that, you ask a lot of uncomfortable and
Speaker 3: unflattering questions I do of the cast. How does this
Speaker 3: affect your relationship with them?
Speaker 2: Well? Sometimes they're mad at me sometimes. After the last
Speaker 2: Beverly Hills reunion, I remember Lisa Renna saying to me,
Speaker 2: you know, you were really bad to me. You were
Speaker 2: mean to me, And I did you ask her? Well?
Speaker 4: I said to her, you know, it's funny that you
Speaker 4: say that. I don't think I was hard enough on you.
Speaker 4: I actually left feeling like I was soft. So this
Speaker 4: is your impression.
Speaker 3: Because because once hired, these women are they're submitting to
Speaker 3: the process, so to speak.
Speaker 1: You hope they are.
Speaker 2: Yeah, well they are.
Speaker 3: They have to be.
Speaker 2: They have to be or else it doesn't work. It's
Speaker 2: a quick run.
Speaker 1: It's again exhausting, mediating drama.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it does like that, sometimes it really does. I
Speaker 2: told you I.
Speaker 1: Should say how how dare they act like this?
Speaker 2: Sometimes? But I'm also a producer of the show and
Speaker 2: I want the best TV process, So sometimes I am
Speaker 2: personally I have personal feelings about it. But sometimes, you know,
Speaker 2: after that Jersey reunion last week.
Speaker 4: I went and met my best friend for a very
Speaker 4: late dinner at Cafe Clooney.
Speaker 2: It was like nine thirty and I was just I
Speaker 2: drank too large tequilas it did, and I went and
Speaker 2: I went to bed and I woke up at about
Speaker 2: four in the morning processing everything that had happened at
Speaker 2: that reunion because.
Speaker 4: It was very There were very upsetting moments. There were
Speaker 4: moments of deep anger.
Speaker 2: Emotion, whatever, and I really had to sit there and
Speaker 2: kind of process it for an hour in my bed.
Speaker 2: I was like, I need to has.
Speaker 3: It ever happened that you've had one of these reunions
Speaker 3: and then they can't work with each other again?
Speaker 2: Yes? What has has?
Speaker 3: Oh?
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's very that's sorry. Yeah. Yeah, we're going to
Speaker 2: crossroads in Jersey right now, you are. We're gonna have
Speaker 2: to figure that out come.
Speaker 1: From New Jersey. I could be a Jersey house.
Speaker 4: I don't think anyone is ready for that. I would
Speaker 4: start you maybe in I mean, you don't live in Beverly.
Speaker 2: I think we would have to. Let me put it
Speaker 2: this way, we would have to cast around you. You
Speaker 2: would have to do bad.
Speaker 3: And the Housewives of Bedford. You haven't even come up there.
Speaker 1: You don't know you live there.
Speaker 2: Listen, you and Ricky Lawrence. I mean, hold on, now,
Speaker 2: we've got two anchors of the show. Let's build around this.
Speaker 2: Hold on, is Chappaqua nearby? Could we have Hillary there?
Speaker 3: Hillary there?
Speaker 1: Down?
Speaker 2: The road we have free.
Speaker 1: And oh and you know who else is there? Lake Lively?
Speaker 2: There you go.
Speaker 3: None of us would dare do this because you're are
Speaker 3: way too tough for us.
Speaker 1: We couldn't do this. Life is Life is too.
Speaker 2: Life is too good. Life is too good?
Speaker 1: Yes, Which Bravo show is your favorite?
Speaker 2: Now?
Speaker 1: Which is there? Do you have a favorite favor?
Speaker 4: No?
Speaker 2: I really don't.
Speaker 4: I there's something that I get from all of these
Speaker 4: housewives shows. Again, my love of soap opera is really
Speaker 4: if I wasn't such a fan of these shows, I
Speaker 4: wouldn't still be so happy. I think it would have
Speaker 4: weighted me under and it would be kind of a misery.
Speaker 2: Last night I watched an episode of the Housewives.
Speaker 4: Of Orange County, and you know, I watched the episodes
Speaker 4: and I give notes on them. And I've always been
Speaker 4: a producer and I worked at CBS News for ten
Speaker 4: years from the nineties. You know, Martha, you and I
Speaker 4: first met when I was a producer at the Early Show.
Speaker 2: On CBS and it was such a big deal. Oh
Speaker 2: my god, remember when they poached you from the Today
Speaker 2: Show for a minute for a few years and you
Speaker 2: came in. It was a very big deal.
Speaker 1: The General Motors, and then I did the knife thing.
Speaker 3: Studio they did the knife thing, and they made such
Speaker 3: a big thing of the knife.
Speaker 2: Because was that around the time that you were in trouble.
Speaker 4: And Jane Clayson, who was the anchor of that show
Speaker 4: for about a second, asked you something about it, and
Speaker 4: you picked up the knife.
Speaker 3: No, I was chopping something, and I chopped it, and
Speaker 3: they picked up on that and made believe I was
Speaker 3: chopping somebody.
Speaker 2: Yes, exactly. No. I didn't want to answer.
Speaker 4: Do you feel like it was such a hard time
Speaker 4: for you? I would imagine it was horrible When you
Speaker 4: look back on that, do you wish that you had
Speaker 4: publicly come out and handled yourself any differently?
Speaker 2: I would have not been so guarded about it.
Speaker 3: My lawyers they terrify you. They tell you, don't say this,
Speaker 3: don't talk to this per and don't do this. It's
Speaker 3: all wrong. I think the approach is very wrong.
Speaker 4: So when you go back and you look and you're
Speaker 4: chopping with Jane Clayson, and she asked you some question
Speaker 4: about that, like do you have regrets about.
Speaker 3: I have no regrets. I have The whole thing is
Speaker 3: like a nightmare. That is interesting and do you think.
Speaker 2: It gave you character? Do you think it? Oh?
Speaker 3: Of course it strengthened me tremendously. So do you watch
Speaker 3: any other reality TV?
Speaker 4: I watch The Traders, which was a great show on Peacock.
Speaker 1: Not much about White Lotus.
Speaker 2: Well that's not reality.
Speaker 1: Oh yes it is.
Speaker 3: It's so reality.
Speaker 4: Well it's it's real, right exactly. White Lotus reminds me
Speaker 4: of a Bravo show.
Speaker 2: It does, It really does.
Speaker 3: When I first started watching it, I thought, is this
Speaker 3: and Carr?
Speaker 2: And then have you ever seen Below Deck?
Speaker 3: No?
Speaker 2: I didn't want to.
Speaker 4: Below Deck is a perfect reality show that I actually
Speaker 4: think you would love.
Speaker 2: Do you know the premise?
Speaker 1: No, it's on a boat, a yacht, Yeah, on a charter.
Speaker 2: Yacht, and the crew remains the same.
Speaker 4: But every episode they people come and they pay to
Speaker 4: charter the boat, and they pay good and they pay
Speaker 4: like seventy five grand for two days on this boat
Speaker 4: or two and.
Speaker 2: A half days. Every episode is one charter, but the
Speaker 2: crew stays the same.
Speaker 1: Show.
Speaker 4: You get the drama of the chef who's trying to
Speaker 4: meet their needs, and the crew is all with each
Speaker 4: other and everything.
Speaker 2: It's really it's actually a great reality.
Speaker 3: Show having spent some time on such Yes, you have,
Speaker 3: but but I love I love shows like that are campy, yes,
Speaker 3: and like your your show's so campy, very and I
Speaker 3: love campy stuff.
Speaker 2: Do you watch any reality shows? I don't think so, right, Yeah,
Speaker 2: I don't.
Speaker 3: I don't.
Speaker 1: I don't think I have time.
Speaker 3: But you know, succession to me is a reality show, right,
Speaker 3: because what are we watching right now on TV? We're
Speaker 3: watching the whole Fox Network unraveling.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's true.
Speaker 3: So you were a producer on Top Chef in addition
Speaker 3: to everything else, and that's citing for show in my genre.
Speaker 3: You know.
Speaker 4: I would argue that Top Chef when when we developed
Speaker 4: and brought Top Chef on to Bravo, I would argue
Speaker 4: that Top Chef changed the Food Network forever because the
Speaker 4: Food Network looked one way. It was very static. It
Speaker 4: was a kitchen with a couple of cameras. I mean,
Speaker 4: it really made food television very sexige.
Speaker 2: And beautiful looking, really elevated.
Speaker 3: Competitive and competitive brought that up. You brought that whole
Speaker 3: competitive nature to the world of food. And I've been
Speaker 3: on I've been on a lot of those competition shows
Speaker 3: on a food network. I never was on Top Chef.
Speaker 3: Have you never been on to never been fun to be?
Speaker 3: And but that very interesting. I just thought I might
Speaker 3: have been on one episode.
Speaker 2: I think we Chef.
Speaker 4: Actually during my time there, I was on EP for
Speaker 4: like seven or eight seasons.
Speaker 1: No, I was. Was Padmo was on? Yeah, okay, I was.
Speaker 2: It was.
Speaker 1: So your direct involvement is still as active.
Speaker 3: As always in in what in your in your Bravo shows.
Speaker 4: No, I'm only involved in the Housewives. I used to
Speaker 4: be in charge of production and development.
Speaker 2: I left.
Speaker 4: I left production when watch what Happens when I've got
Speaker 4: picked up five days a week. I then stayed and
Speaker 4: was developing shows below deck, being one.
Speaker 2: And then I it was too much and I left.
Speaker 4: And now I am just an EP of the Housewives
Speaker 4: and every show she mentioned.
Speaker 3: Only, oh, I have to ask about about Lisa vander Pump. Yes, okay,
Speaker 3: so she's one of your real housewives and she's still on.
Speaker 2: She's not. She is now branched off and she does
Speaker 2: this show called vander Pump Rules.
Speaker 3: Yeah, but she has her restaurant right near me in
Speaker 3: Las Vegas. And Lisa's on the right hand side of
Speaker 3: the Arc de Trio and I'm on the left side
Speaker 3: our photographs, these giant photographs I've seen.
Speaker 1: So, how do I compare to Lisa vander Pop?
Speaker 2: Well, I mean you are too.
Speaker 4: You know what, Lisa vander Pop has a great love
Speaker 4: of entertaining and beauty in the same way that you do.
Speaker 2: I actually think you would like Have you ever met her?
Speaker 3: No, I have to you.
Speaker 2: You actually would like.
Speaker 1: To invite her to my restaurant. And I hope she
Speaker 1: invites me to her.
Speaker 2: Should you should?
Speaker 4: You know she's I think you would hit it off.
Speaker 4: Oh good, yeah, I really do.
Speaker 3: I'm actually do that because she's she's she's so vivacious.
Speaker 3: Yes she is, and so and such a good restaurant
Speaker 3: turn out, she really is. People are flocking to her
Speaker 3: restaurant as they are to mine. I'm so excited about
Speaker 3: having a restaurant.
Speaker 2: Have you ever had a Is this your first restaurant?
Speaker 3: My first?
Speaker 2: Isn't that incredible? Yeah? What's it called?
Speaker 1: It's called the Bedford by Martha's Perfect.
Speaker 2: I just saw a picture of you with a martini.
Speaker 2: Is it at the Paris?
Speaker 1: Well, the restaurant is in the Paris?
Speaker 2: Okay, right, yeah, exactly right. I just saw that.
Speaker 4: Well, that's where Bravo Khan is, Yes, when as that
Speaker 4: that is in November?
Speaker 3: Well, you better book my restaurant. Well it's getting filled off.
Speaker 2: You know what, we will because I'm doing watch what
Speaker 2: up inside?
Speaker 3: You can do a buy out.
Speaker 1: You can do a buyout.
Speaker 4: Maybe I'll have a little after party of the Bedford.
Speaker 4: Maybe you'll get me a little rate.
Speaker 3: Ask for the brown room. Okay, I want the whole restaurant.
Speaker 3: But that's two hundred seats. You have two hundred?
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, okay, bravo.
Speaker 3: Con okay, okay, well all right, I have to call
Speaker 3: the restaurant right away and book you in November.
Speaker 1: Well, this has been so much fun talking to any.
Speaker 3: Author of his newest book, The Daddy Diaries by Andy Cohne,
Speaker 3: subtitled The Year.
Speaker 2: I Grew Up. Indeed, so all of you.
Speaker 1: People out there who are contemplating parenthood.
Speaker 2: Well, it's the perfect mother's it is it is.
Speaker 1: Yes, it is our father's day, Father's Day. So many
Speaker 1: of my friends are having babies.
Speaker 3: Yes, and uh and this is an also I mean
Speaker 3: for adoption or for given away anyway that you're becoming
Speaker 3: a parent. Published by Andy Cohen Books, a division of
Speaker 3: Right McMillan's Thank You so much for coming by and
Speaker 3: taking time out of your very very busy day. It's
Speaker 3: always fun to you and UH and best of luck
Speaker 3: with the children and bring them to the farm.
Speaker 1: Okay.