Former “The Real Housewives of New York City” star Leah McSweeney made waves when she filed a civil lawsuit against Bravo and Andy Cohen in March 2024. While Cohen, via a representative, has come out to say that the claims made against him are false, the legal troubles have sparked a response from many current and former “Real Housewives” stars, who are opening up about their experiences on the show. One of the latest to speak out is former RHOC star Meghan King.
King opened up about her “Housewives” contract while speaking with Us Weekly in March 2024.
“I just know that when I signed my contract to be on the ‘Real Housewives’, and I think it’s a pretty standard contract amongst all the franchises, it said very explicitly, ‘We can take whatever footage you give us and we can manipulate it, and we can splice it and do whatever the hell we want to do with it.’ And you have to sign your life away or you don’t sign it at all. And does that make it a fair contract? That’s a different conversation,” King told the outlet.
Meghan King Saw Andy Cohen Standing Up for a Housewives’ Sobriety
In her Us Weekly interview, King went on to argue that change in the reality TV world isn’t a bad idea, however, “It shouldn’t be about Andy Cohen. It shouldn’t be about Bravo. It shouldn’t be about the Real Housewives. It should just be about the ethics of reality TV and what does that do for our psyche long term or royalties or whatever.”
King also spoke about her personal experiences on RHOC and Bravo, and shared that producers never made her feel that she had to drink while filming a scene for the show. She said, “If I’m going to go to a happy hour with girlfriends to celebrate a birthday, I’m going to feel like I should have a drink. Is anybody telling me to, does anybody care if I do? Absolutely not. But that’s what I’m doing. That’s how I’m showing up. So I think that’s a personal willpower type of thing.”
King also described working with Cohen directly as a guest on WWHL, and told a story about one time she saw him advocate for her sober RHOC co-star Gina Kirschenheiter behind the scenes. After a mixup with the alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks on set, King said, “during [the] commercial, [Cohen] gets on the production assistants [saying,] ‘You cannot do this. This could compromise her sobriety. This is really important. It’s not funny that this happened.’ So what I saw is Andy defending standing up for a sober person on one of his shows. It’s [the] complete opposite of what I read.”
Meghan King Weighs in on Alexis Bellino & John Janssen’s Relationship
Despite having been off of RHOC since season 12 ended in 2017 (with a guest appearance in season 14), King stays up to date with some of her fellow Housewives. In a January 2024 interview with Page Six, King was asked to reveal her last text exchange with Alexis Bellino, who is coming back to RHOC as a friend of the Housewives, and dating Shannon Beador’s ex John Janssen.
“[Bellino] just said, ‘Thank you for your love and support,’ because I was texting her like, ‘Be careful –– it seems like he’s love-bombing,'” King told the outlet.
King continued to explain that she is worried about Bellino because of her own experiences. She mentioned that although Bellino may have good qualities, she can see some concerning signs in the way Janssen approaches a relationship, based on information shared by both of them.
Alexis Bellino is anticipating a proposal from John Janssen
