Credit: Janet Mayer/startraksphoto.com, Charles Sykes/Bravo
Ramona Singer is being accused of using a racial slur and making other derogatory comments in a just-released exposé.
Days after the bombshell article was teased, the Real Housewives of New York City alum, 66, came under fire as another Real Housewives star came forward, claiming she was forced to film after peeing on herself, and Leah McSweeney, 41, confirmed she filed a discrimination complaint against Bravo with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) after filming the third season of Real Housewives: Ultimate Girls Trip.
In the October 30 exposé from Vanity Fair, titled, “Inside the ‘Real Housewives’ Reckoning That’s Rocking Bravo,” it was noted that Leah’s complaint was filed on March 10 and accused the network of violating the Americans with Disabilities Act.
As RHONY fans will recall, Leah’s alcohol and addiction issues were captured amid season 12, and the following year, she was seen reeling after missing her grandmother’s death during a cast trip to the Hamptons.
Although a production source insisted Leah was offered help at the time for “whatever day or time [she] need[ed] to be with [her] grandmother,” Leah felt otherwise.
“It hurt so bad that I was not able to grieve,” Leah explained. “That I had people not showing me any kind of compassion or humanity regarding it.”
Following the death, Leah spent eight days at a psychiatric hospital. After that, she was allegedly told by Shed’s senior vice president of programming and development, Lisa Shannon, that viewers “kind of didn’t like” her because “there was such a stark difference between [her] when [she was] drinking versus this season.”
Despite her issues with Bravo, which led to Leah quitting the show over the phone, Leah agreed to a $250,000 payday to appear on RHUGT, where her co-stars encouraged her to drink.
“I wish you were still drinking. That’s all,” Marysol Patton, 56, admitted to texting her prior to the trip.
In addition, Heather Gay, 49, also expressed that she wanted to “get Leah drunk,” and Gizelle Bryant, 53, asked, “Like, if you drank this week, would that be a big deal?”
In response to Leah’s discrimination claims, Christie Del Rey-Cone, an attorney for Bravo, Shed Media, and its parent company, Warner Bros. Discovery, told Vanity Fair, “Production spent endless amounts of time accommodating her.”
“[Leah] spent much of RHONY season 12 discussing (and sometimes even mocking) the alleged [disabilities] that are now the subject of” her complaint, Christie continued, also stating that Leah was offered support on a number of occasions.
Another Housewives star came forward and claimed she was forced to continue filming after she drank too much amid the cast’s trip to Mexico, where they were “fully stocked,” and woke up in her own pee.
While the unnamed cast member said she was too sick, RHONY producers allegedly disregarded her illness.
“People on set kept telling her she was fine, it was just the Mexican water screwing up her stomach,” the article shared. “The same thing had happened to them in Cartagena, Colombia, the year before.”
After being forced to resume filming, the woman allegedly threw up amid a van ride with the cast and ultimately received a shot from a doctor.
In response, a Bravo spokesperson told The Messenger, “Bravo requires its third-party producers to follow its policies and guidelines to maintain a safe and respectful workplace for all cast and crew on our shows. When a complaint is brought to our attention, we work with our third-party production companies to ensure all necessary steps are taken to address the concern, including a prompt and thorough investigation and remedial action where warranted.”
“We are always improving upon our policies and procedures and recently sent updates to our production companies, including stricter guidelines on alcohol consumption and direction on when to intervene to maintain the safety of cast and crew, increased psychological support, enhanced workplace trainings, more serious consequences for physical violence on set, and a requirement to provide cast and crew with a direct line to NBCUniversal to raise concerns,” they continued. “Additionally, we have put in place protocols to increase our oversight to ensure that our standards are being met.”
As for Ramona’s alleged racist behavior, the magazine said she used the n-word during a conversation with a Black crew member amid filming on RHONY season 13. However, after a complaint was filed within Shed Media, Warner Bros. Discovery, Bravo, and NBCUniversal, Ramona denied making the comment, and an investigation into the incident was “inconclusive.”
Prior to the start of filming on season 13, which ended with a complete reboot of the cast, Ramona and her co-stars, including the series’ first-ever Black star, Eboni K. Williams, 40, participated in a “virtual education session” with an NBCUniversal communications executive, a Bravo publicist, and two representatives from a racial justice organization. And during the session, Eboni claimed Ramona didn’t understand why she shouldn’t say that Black fathers are typically absent from their children’s lives.
“’What if they don’t have a father? Why can’t I say that?’” Ramona asked, per Eboni. “’Most of them don’t.’”
Even after a publicist for Bravo pointed out that her Black father was present in her life, Ramona argued that she had read a study that proved her statement.
Ramona was also accused of saying the show “shouldn’t have black people” and that it would “ruin our show.” But in response, Ramona explained, “The training included ‘open dialogue.’ In that spirit, I asked a question about a statistic I had read about single-parent households, where children with single-parent households were statistically less likely to succeed than two-parent households.”
“In fact, I supported adding diverse cast members well before before [sic] Eboni was added,” Ramona added in an email.
After Ramona’s comments put her on producers’ “hot sheet,” a post-filming document, producer Andy Cohen, 55, responded.
“These are incredible reads and will be amazing episodes. The fact that this particular journey through white fragility ends with Ramona DM’ing Bryan Cranston is next level,” he said in his own email.
Another racially insensitive comment from Ramona reportedly came as she spoke to a Black female production staffer, telling her, “’There’s so many of you guys here now, please don’t change your hair as I’m not gonna be able to remember anybody’s names.’”
But according to Ramona, the statement was indicative of her “inability to remember names.”
“As an example, just last week I saw a photo with me and Travis Kelce from 2016 on Watch What Happens Live and I thought he was Jax Taylor,” she said.
The exposé also noted that two sources said Ramona exclaimed, “There’s so many black chicks!” And while she denied it, footage showed her using the phrase “black chicks.”
Source: NewsFinale
