Sober Housewives Are a “Bummer” for Bravo, According to Former Producer

An Emmy-winning producer has seemingly come forward to support Leah McSweeney’s claims that the network more or less manipulated her to abandon her sobriety in their drive to create more fun and engaging content.

Not only did the beloved producer – we’re talking about Patrick McDonald here – call them out, but he also revealed that filming such storylines always left him queasy, especially since he knows what it’s like to struggle with addiction.

Bravo Producer Patrick McDonald Says “Addiction and Substance Abuse” Storylines Made Him Uneasy

It can’t have been easy for a recovering meth addict to be on a show that heavily explores the addiction issues faced by their stars. By the way, McDonald has quit his job as a Bravo producer and is now carving a new path as an OnlyFans content creator.

“The addiction and substance abuse storylines always made me a little uneasy,” he told Bethenny Frankel on the Friday episode of her podcast, ‘Just B.’ “Anytime we were talking about someone’s alcoholism or drug addiction — any of that — it’s so, so fragile. It’s not something to be taken light, and yet it gets amplified by these shows.”

During his time on the podcast, he alleged that the network would always reward drunkenness and punish “boring sobriety.” He said, “I can’t imagine trying to… stay or get sober while being on one of these shows… It’s a bummer to production when someone gets sober.”

The former ‘Real Housewives of New York City’ star Frankel and McDonald opined that stars struggling with addiction were generally more favored by the network, as long as they were creating boozy drama. They also shared their thoughts on how Scheana Shay of ‘Vanderpump Rules’ was demoted to friend of because her storyline wasn’t dark enough.

This more or less echoes RHONY’s Leah McSweeney’s claims that the network “harassed” and “coerced” her in an attempt to get her to fall back into her addictive habits once again.

Bravo, of course, continues to deny these claims.

Vanity Fair recently published a reported piece about how the network’s crew rushed to film “drunk and incapacitated women in humiliating situations,” rather than try to offer the help they need to recover.

Be sure to catch up on everything happening with Real Housewives of New York City right now. Come back here often for all Bravo spoilers, news, and updates.