Speaker 1: A lot going on. I posted something on Instagram which
Speaker 1: was effectively like a manifesto. If you remember in uh
Speaker 1: Jerry Maguire, he kind of just had like a mission statement,
Speaker 1: and some people in the comments after what I wrote
Speaker 1: said what happened, and truthfully, nothing happened. I just took
Speaker 1: stock in some of the things that I say here
Speaker 1: and on social media, some of the things that I do,
Speaker 1: and I wanted to kind of own my side in
Speaker 1: the street and be accountable. I wanted to be accountable
Speaker 1: because the reality reckoning has been something that I've brought
Speaker 1: up about the exploitation on reality TV, and it keeps
Speaker 1: going deeper as I have Rachel on and then I
Speaker 1: have Ninion and we talk about discrimination, and we talk
Speaker 1: about women, and we talk about Watch What Happens Live.
Speaker 1: And I'm a very analytical person, and it really has
Speaker 1: become very clear in being away from the Housewives for
Speaker 1: so long, what I really feel about it, and what
Speaker 1: I really do feel about it, is that it is
Speaker 1: an environment designed to pit women against each other, for
Speaker 1: women to rip each other apart. Watch What Happens Live
Speaker 1: is a show, but in the beginning it has been
Speaker 1: very successful at having women demoralize each other. And it's
Speaker 1: very crafty and creative because the way that the show
Speaker 1: is produced and executed, Andy is the host, and he
Speaker 1: will ask provocative questions, so he remains clean, but he
Speaker 1: will ask a provocative question like he recently asked who
Speaker 1: is the most overrated housewife? It literally is designed just
Speaker 1: to get someone to trash someone else, So it's always
Speaker 1: off of him. The stink is always off him, and
Speaker 1: callers will ask a question of a guest saying, so, Hi,
Speaker 1: what did you think of when Bethany did that thing?
Speaker 1: So that person will have to say something bad about
Speaker 1: Bethany or Nini or Ramona or anyone. And I really
Speaker 1: don't blame the person sitting in the chair. They are
Speaker 1: there because they want to promote whatever they're promoting and themselves,
Speaker 1: and it is a clickbait environment. So the show has
Speaker 1: been successful on the backs of like one hundred and
Speaker 1: fifty to one hundred and eighty women that leave that
Speaker 1: night and then have to live with tweets and articles
Speaker 1: and hate by bloggers because they will say something provocative
Speaker 1: and it's never the question that is questioned, it's always
Speaker 1: the answer that is questioned. The answer and the clickbait
Speaker 1: comment is always what gets the person into trouble and
Speaker 1: what has made many many housewives dislike each other without
Speaker 1: even having met each other, because it perpetuates women gossiping
Speaker 1: and talking badly about other women for a profit. So
Speaker 1: one example is that a woman on The New Housewives,
Speaker 1: which doesn't do well, it gets a couple hundred thousand
Speaker 1: or like three or four hundred thousand viewers a week
Speaker 1: and really needs the press. A woman on that show
Speaker 1: who's not relevant yet, well, who's new. So by definition,
Speaker 1: you're not that relevant and you're on a show that
Speaker 1: has ARCD and is on the back end. I mean
Speaker 1: basically watch what Happens live and The Housewives is like
Speaker 1: a nightclub at two o'clock in the morning. It basically
Speaker 1: has peaked, and it's like, you know, at two o'clock
Speaker 1: in the morning, it's when people's Misscara is running, their
Speaker 1: eyelashes are coming off of their face, and it gets
Speaker 1: a little sloppy. And so if you have someone who's
Speaker 1: on The New York Housewives now in a post successful era,
Speaker 1: they're gonna want to squeeze that sponge for any amount
Speaker 1: of liquid they can squeeze it for and you can
Speaker 1: never blame them. You cannot blame the talent because they
Speaker 1: need the relevance, the fame. It's why they went on
Speaker 1: the show. It's why I went on the show yesterday.
Speaker 1: I did this manifesto and sort of mission statement saying
Speaker 1: I own my part in the swamp. I was in
Speaker 1: the middle of the swamp. I capitalized on the swamp
Speaker 1: and not until I walked away from it for years now.
Speaker 1: I mean I've left twice, and I walked away from
Speaker 1: a new show on Bravo last months ago because I
Speaker 1: just didn't want to be in the environment which was tempting.
Speaker 1: So I walked away now three times because I realized
Speaker 1: that I was also gross, and I was gross for
Speaker 1: even contemplating going back being involved, because I just was
Speaker 1: making excuses for what this medium was, because I was
Speaker 1: still capitalizing on the medium, and even going on Watch
Speaker 1: What Happens Live to promote what I was doing or
Speaker 1: whatever I was promoting, was still being part of that machine.
Speaker 1: And so the last time I was there, yes, I
Speaker 1: went on the show and it was very obvious to
Speaker 1: the viewers that there was an ambush. And Jeff lewis
Speaker 1: who I really do like and who I had a
Speaker 1: nice conversation with about it afterwards, and who I don't
Speaker 1: blame because he too is talent on the show, trying
Speaker 1: to make a living, trying to promote what he's promoting,
Speaker 1: and part of this machine, and he was asked very
Speaker 1: provocative questions and really came for me, as Andy came
Speaker 1: for me related to Rewives, a show that is definitely
Speaker 1: not about bashing people. It's about breaking down episodes of
Speaker 1: a show that I was part of, of a franchise
Speaker 1: that I was part of, and relating it to modern
Speaker 1: day issues. Could be menopause, could be infidelity, could be divorce.
Speaker 1: And Andy came for me in the media, but as
Speaker 1: someone who thought they wore his friend on some level.
Speaker 1: Andy didn't come to me directly to tell me what
Speaker 1: he thought of the show that I was doing. He
Speaker 1: went out and talked about it in the media publicly,
Speaker 1: and I think it boomeranged on him because it was
Speaker 1: several weeks of bad pr for him in saying that
Speaker 1: he trashed it. And of course I'm entitled to talk
Speaker 1: about something that I was as much a part of
Speaker 1: as he was. He actually never got dirty in it.
Speaker 1: I actually got dirty in it. So it backfired on
Speaker 1: him because he became a housewife. He took the bait,
Speaker 1: and he kind of publicly said something, said several things
Speaker 1: negative against me, and then he tried to double down
Speaker 1: on his own show and do it again because it
Speaker 1: is his own show and he's protected there. It also
Speaker 1: backfired because the audience thought that he and Jeff had
Speaker 1: ambushed me. Andy Cohen has built a fortune and bought
Speaker 1: beach houses on the backs of like one hundred and
Speaker 1: eighty women. And what I said in my statement was
Speaker 1: that we get filthy while he remains clean and gets
Speaker 1: filthy rich, and that maybe I am biting the hand
Speaker 1: that feeds me, and maybe that hand deserves to be bitten.
Speaker 1: But most importantly that I have to think about the
Speaker 1: things that I say and the way that I say them,
Speaker 1: and I have to find the line between my opinion
Speaker 1: and the medium machine and what it feeds me, and
Speaker 1: that I need to err on the side of the
Speaker 1: human being. So if I'm talking about the Kardashians or
Speaker 1: Taylor Swift dating or the Royals, I have to err
Speaker 1: on the side of the human being, and I have
Speaker 1: to hold back a little. And maybe Neneleak's was right
Speaker 1: when she said what she said, and she said that
Speaker 1: she's keeping it seventy five percent because many of the
Speaker 1: opinions that I form are truly formed because of the
Speaker 1: media machine and what we are fed by the media machine.
Speaker 1: And when people say I want to hear your take
Speaker 1: on X, they're not thinking about how it's going to
Speaker 1: affect me. And my take on X maybe based on
Speaker 1: off of clips that I've seen on Instagram and TikTok
Speaker 1: and read in the paper, and they're designed to provoke,
Speaker 1: and so I've taken the bait. So I'm taking stock
Speaker 1: in my own life and the things that I say
Speaker 1: and the power that I have an influence. And I
Speaker 1: am changing because i want to be a good example
Speaker 1: for my daughter. And I'm not going to say whatever
Speaker 1: I think and feel anymore, not because I'm afraid, but
Speaker 1: because I'm responsible. And this reality reckoning and my part
Speaker 1: in reality TV, I'm taking it seriously. It keeps me
Speaker 1: up at night, and I've opened Pandora's box and I
Speaker 1: take responsibility for it and I own it, all of it.
Speaker 1: And when I think about an environment like watch What
Speaker 1: Happens Live and a housewife being asked a question designed
Speaker 1: to come for me that was previously discussed in a
Speaker 1: dressing room A bout me. I don't blame I don't
Speaker 1: hate the player, I hate the game instead. Andy Cohen
Speaker 1: is a person who is basically just a crossing guard,
Speaker 1: directing different people to say bad things about each other
Speaker 1: and to say things that will be clickbait fodder to
Speaker 1: live in the media for the next couple of weeks,
Speaker 1: because otherwise, why would someone who has the benefit of
Speaker 1: having a talk show ask Oprah Winfrey, one of the
Speaker 1: most accomplished, intelligent women to ever walk this earth, who
Speaker 1: could have won the election to be President of the
Speaker 1: United States. And his big question that he decides to
Speaker 1: ask her is if she's dipped in the Lady pond
Speaker 1: or Anderson Cooper his friend who's been to Afghanistan and
Speaker 1: reported and spent weeks on end in places like Ukraine
Speaker 1: and been all over the world risking his life, and
Speaker 1: Andy decides to ask him about a dick pic because
Speaker 1: Andy is only built to utilize other people to get
Speaker 1: pressed for himself, and it's worked because it's like that
Speaker 1: guy on sixth Avenue that moves all of those cups
Speaker 1: around in circles and you're not really knowing where anything's going,
Speaker 1: you don't really realize where it's coming from. You don't
Speaker 1: really realize that when he asks Rayleioda rest in Peace,
Speaker 1: a question about who is the worst kisser in Rayoda
Speaker 1: says Sigourney or something about breath or cocaine or something
Speaker 1: that Andy laughs, and the stink isn't on him. The
Speaker 1: stink was on Raioda and embarrassing him and getting him
Speaker 1: to say something that he normally wouldn't have said, and
Speaker 1: embarrassing Sigourney Weaver, who had nothing to do with it
Speaker 1: and didn't sign up for any of this and isn't
Speaker 1: being paid by Bravo or this machine. But the show
Speaker 1: and the environment is designed for women to bash and
Speaker 1: trash each other. And I no longer care if you
Speaker 1: think I'm a hypocrite for saying it, because, in the
Speaker 1: same way that Kim Kardashian started her career in a
Speaker 1: sex tape sixteen years ago, I started on The Housewives
Speaker 1: probably sixteen years ago, and yes I went back, that
Speaker 1: was probably almost ten years ago. I'm allowed to grow
Speaker 1: and evolve as a woman, as a mother, as a parent,
Speaker 1: as a philanthropist. I'm allowed to see the air of
Speaker 1: my ways on my own, not because anyone told me,
Speaker 1: not because I got canceled. I make more money now
Speaker 1: than I did when I was on The Housewives. I
Speaker 1: make a lot of money by saying what I think.
Speaker 1: I feel a personal human responsibility to walk the walk
Speaker 1: and talk the talk, and I had the courage to
Speaker 1: stand up and start the reality reckoning. So it's going
Speaker 1: to become very clear in the coming weeks and months
Speaker 1: what's really happening and what really goes on behind the scenes.
Speaker 1: And the reason that Andy Cohen can't himself comment and
Speaker 1: can't himself say that he thinks I'm irrelevant or name
Speaker 1: me when he says a hypocritical housewife, which I am
Speaker 1: not a housewife, a term that is from the fifties
Speaker 1: and also sets women back one hundred years and demoralizes them.
Speaker 1: I am not a housewife. As a grown woman who
Speaker 1: has my own career, my own career, my own money,
Speaker 1: my own philanthropic effort, I'm allowed to say whatever I want,
Speaker 1: and I can say Andy Cohen's name as many times
Speaker 1: as I want. But Andy Cohen, because the network that
Speaker 1: employs him is under tremendous legal siege for more than
Speaker 1: one hundred people that have been treated unfairly and poorly.
Speaker 1: So Andy Cohen is not allowed to say anything about me,
Speaker 1: because I'm sure that his mommy and daddy have told
Speaker 1: him from NBC that he's not allowed to speak about me.
Speaker 1: But anytime that Andy Cohen wants to come and talk
Speaker 1: to me, he's welcome to come and talk on my podcast,
Speaker 1: because we've talked on many of his vehicles, and I've
Speaker 1: been used for ratings and for numbers and for clickbait
Speaker 1: ad nauseum. So he's welcome to come do it here
Speaker 1: because just in the way that he thought that he
Speaker 1: was the only person allowed to talk about and exploit
Speaker 1: the housewives, he's not the only person that has a
Speaker 1: platform for people to speak on. So he's welcome here
Speaker 1: anytime to debate me on any aspect of the reality reckoning.
Speaker 1: And deep down inside he knows that what I'm saying
Speaker 1: is correct. And I thought I didn't like many of
Speaker 1: these women. I used to blog about episodes that are
Speaker 1: edited and produced where women are drinking and exhausted and
Speaker 1: it's stressful and you've said something you regret and you're
Speaker 1: in your head and you're on a trip and they
Speaker 1: make you film every minute of the day on a trip,
Speaker 1: and then you're exhausted, but you have to do it
Speaker 1: the next day. And you often feel like if you're
Speaker 1: not in a scene, they're going to be talking about you.
Speaker 1: So you then you're drinking because you just want to relax,
Speaker 1: and you say things that you shouldn't be saying aka
Speaker 1: Kelly Dodd in Ireland, and you're being pushed alcohol, whether
Speaker 1: it's not by the whether it's by the producers or
Speaker 1: by the other castmates. Alcohol seems like a really good
Speaker 1: idea and it's a recipe for disaster, And then you
Speaker 1: put yourself on the front lines and you say things
Speaker 1: that make people despise you because people think that's who
Speaker 1: you really are. And I used to blog about people
Speaker 1: on other shows like at Jersey and think certain things
Speaker 1: about them. But if everything I'm Housewives is not a
Speaker 1: reflection of who I am by any stretch of the imagination,
Speaker 1: why would it be a reflection of who they are?
Speaker 1: And then we're crossing over in the franchise and doing
Speaker 1: talk shows and saying things about each other based on
Speaker 1: things that have been said about us. I blog about Teresa,
Speaker 1: Teresa instantly hates me. Teresa's on a talk show, Andy
Speaker 1: asks her a question, she says something bad about me.
Speaker 1: She doesn't even know me. I then say something bad
Speaker 1: about her. I don't know her, I don't really know.
Speaker 1: I have never spent time with Nannie until she sat
Speaker 1: down for several hours at my house and I enjoyed
Speaker 1: her the way that I would enjoy meeting someone at
Speaker 1: a business conference or at a cocktail party, and we
Speaker 1: would start texting and being friends. I used to love
Speaker 1: Lisa Rina. We were friends. I liked her, I respected her.
Speaker 1: I thought she was so down to earth and real.
Speaker 1: When I stopped liking her is when I saw what
Speaker 1: the machine of the Housewives did to her. I was
Speaker 1: good friends with Kyle for years. Yes, we went in,
Speaker 1: we went out, But I felt differently about her after
Speaker 1: seeing the machine, seeing the social media, seeing how different
Speaker 1: people react to fame, seeing her differently, seeing how she
Speaker 1: was portrayed on the show, seeing how she handled the fame.
Speaker 1: That's not necessarily Kyle, that's Kyle inside the machine, or
Speaker 1: as they call it on The Bachelor and Bachelorette, the bubble.
Speaker 1: So I have a different relationship with Kyle now because
Speaker 1: on watch What Happens Live Kyle's asked by of course,
Speaker 1: not Andy, someone else who you know doesn't want Andy
Speaker 1: to get dirty. They'll do the dirty work. They're gonna
Speaker 1: get the clickbait too. And she's asked, why did you
Speaker 1: unfollow Bethanana Instagram? It's a provocative question. Why not ask
Speaker 1: Kyle about her travels, her marriage, her kids, anything interesting?
Speaker 1: But no, The questions are always designed for a woman
Speaker 1: to trash another woman, a poll designed for one person
Speaker 1: to win and one person to lose, and the words
Speaker 1: in nine leaks I said what I said, I'm doubling down.
Speaker 1: I'm tripling down. I'm out here now naked. And while
Speaker 1: Andy is playing checkers every night, having women trash each
Speaker 1: other on his show, I'm here playing complicated chess. So
Speaker 1: I'm right here anytime. In addition, there are many Watch
Speaker 1: What Happens Live clips and moments that have been rinsed
Speaker 1: from the internet. I don't see any of the bad
Speaker 1: things I've done rinsed from the internet. So Brinn came
Speaker 1: with me to watch What Happens Live. They're not allowed
Speaker 1: out in the audience. She stayed in the dressing room.
Speaker 1: She got dressed up, and that was the night that
Speaker 1: Jeff Lewis and myself were on I really like I
Speaker 1: like Jeff Lewis. I have a good history with him.
Speaker 1: I've always enjoyed him, and I think he crosses the
Speaker 1: line but rides it, and I just I just intrinsically,
Speaker 1: instinctively like him. Now. I know he's close to Andy
Speaker 1: for years, and I don't know how much of that
Speaker 1: as show friends and show business, but we had a
Speaker 1: really nice conversation before the show started, and he kind
Speaker 1: of came in and was firing at me once the
Speaker 1: show started, and it did feel like a firing squad.
Speaker 1: Andy too was firing off at me, And what I
Speaker 1: found interesting about it was that Andy texts me all
Speaker 1: the time and had so many opportun unities to tell
Speaker 1: me what he had felt about Rewives, but he really
Speaker 1: did save it for the headlines for his show, and
Speaker 1: I thought our relationship transcended that. In fact, I have
Speaker 1: so many very private texts between Andy and myself that
Speaker 1: I will never divulge because I have a code about
Speaker 1: sharing information or secrets or texts, and I am a vault.
Speaker 1: Anything I've said about Andy is an observation and a feeling.
Speaker 1: It's not proprietary secrets between us, whether it's about money
Speaker 1: or other housewives. I don't fight dirty, I fight clean,
Speaker 1: like it's all above board. So I felt that Andy
Speaker 1: really was saving what he felt about rewives for ratings,
Speaker 1: and that bothered me because it felt like an ambush.
Speaker 1: He was saying things to me on his show that
Speaker 1: he hadn't said to me anywhere by text. The only
Speaker 1: thing he ever said to me by text was I'm
Speaker 1: glad to see you embracing the housewives when I told
Speaker 1: him I was doing rewives. Then on his radio show,
Speaker 1: in many interviews, and then on his Watch Happens Live show,
Speaker 1: Andy took the bait like a housewife and created the
Speaker 1: bait to take a shot at this beat, and he
Speaker 1: did miss. And the audience, for the most part, a
Speaker 1: couple of haters, but for the most part, the audience
Speaker 1: really felt that it was an ambush. I am so
Speaker 1: used to being in that firing squad on that show,
Speaker 1: because that show is a mudpit where you go to
Speaker 1: that show with the intentions of promoting something and being
Speaker 1: filthy for the next two weeks with provocative clickbait questions
Speaker 1: and polls designed to have you get into trouble by
Speaker 1: saying something you're going to regret. It is by design,
Speaker 1: the producers, the callers, the guests. Everybody's peppered, and Andy
Speaker 1: remains clean. So on that day, I remember Theresa had
Speaker 1: just gotten fired upon and made to look unintelligent, and
Speaker 1: she was in the dressing room and we had a chat.
Speaker 1: And then after I returned from my segment, I came
Speaker 1: back in and Brim was like, Mama, I didn't like
Speaker 1: that he was mean to you, Like she really didn't
Speaker 1: like it. She felt that everybody was ganging up on
Speaker 1: me and bully me. To be perfectly honest, I didn't
Speaker 1: really entirely notice, like I'm so used to it, but
Speaker 1: it felt that way when I was on the show.
Speaker 1: I felt ambush. But I'm very good under pressure. I'm
Speaker 1: good when under fire. I had one reunion where everybody
Speaker 1: knew that everybody was coming in with their own gun.
Speaker 1: And on that reunion I helped Luwan get paid for
Speaker 1: the reunion without attending, and she would have been the
Speaker 1: only ally I would have had. And yet because she
Speaker 1: was in a bit of trouble personally and emotionally, I
Speaker 1: helped her get exempt from the reunion and still get
Speaker 1: paid and get her rehab helped paid for her, and
Speaker 1: I took it on. I'm I was raised at the
Speaker 1: racetrack and an abusive environment. It hurt me for my
Speaker 1: daughter to just be hurt. She felt hurt. She was like,
Speaker 1: I thought that was your friend, Mama, And you know,
Speaker 1: it's like, there are no friends. This is show business,
Speaker 1: not show friends. And many people have asked me if
Speaker 1: that was really the nail and the coffin that allowed
Speaker 1: me to say how I really feel about Andy. Sometimes
Speaker 1: you're not even really sure how you feel about something
Speaker 1: or someone because you're just so used to that dynamic.
Speaker 1: And when that dynamic either pays you or you're scared
Speaker 1: to shut a door because you may want to enter
Speaker 1: back into it because it's a vehicle for media, or
Speaker 1: you get to go back on that show and promote something,
Speaker 1: or one day you'll get paid millions of dollars and
Speaker 1: you'll have to go on one of those Ultimate Girls
Speaker 1: trips because you have no other source of income and
Speaker 1: you're desperate, you've lost everything. Like these weird rainy day
Speaker 1: thoughts happen in your mind. You just don't see that
Speaker 1: there's any reason to burn a bridge or close a door.
Speaker 1: Why would you, And that's what a lot of people
Speaker 1: are thinking, because people in the entertainment industry and society
Speaker 1: at large, and in corporations and in pretty much every
Speaker 1: business are afraid because they just don't want to get cancer,
Speaker 1: even if it's within their own smaller circle. And I've
Speaker 1: always been one to be unafraid. And for a while,
Speaker 1: I've felt that this was a cesspool. I just felt
Speaker 1: hypocritical because I was saying it about something I was
Speaker 1: part of, and I just kept dipping my toe in
Speaker 1: until the water was a little warmer. And then one
Speaker 1: day I was like, I'm all the way in the
Speaker 1: pool and there's really no turning back. I don't think
Speaker 1: Andy's inviting me over for a Tupperware party anytime soon.
Speaker 1: And I think I didn't realize how I really felt.
Speaker 1: And I didn't realize until hearing from all of the
Speaker 1: horror stories of people from reality television and Bravo specifically,
Speaker 1: that I got more courage and hearing the people that
Speaker 1: have called the lawyers and told their stories about racism
Speaker 1: and discrimination and things that like I didn't really think
Speaker 1: about and really believe. I kind of rolled my eyes,
Speaker 1: thinking these people are just disgruntled and I saw Niini
Speaker 1: not as the character with the sound bites, but I
Speaker 1: saw Nini as a I saw Jill as a person
Speaker 1: and as a woman, and I saw Rachel as a
Speaker 1: person and a woman. And a lot of these people,
Speaker 1: even Kelly Dodd who said negative things about me, Tamor
Speaker 1: who said negative things about me, they're women, their mothers,
Speaker 1: and they're part of this machine. And I can't blame
Speaker 1: them for their participation. I genuinely can't. And they all
Speaker 1: know that what I'm saying is true, even the ones
Speaker 1: protecting the round making a lot of money right now,
Speaker 1: pretending that there they have blindfolds on it that they
Speaker 1: can't see around them. They know I'm right. I know
Speaker 1: I'm right. I am completely certain that every child who
Speaker 1: was exploited on Bravo television has to live that for
Speaker 1: the rest of their lives. I'm right. So it's easy
Speaker 1: to be vocal when you know you're right. So that's
Speaker 1: where I stand, because sometimes being right doesn't mean you
Speaker 1: have the courage to do it. And once I rip
Speaker 1: the band aid off, I'm out here naked. So I'm naked,
Speaker 1: but I'm right.