Bravo TV officially confirmed Leah McSweeney’s full-time role on The Real Housewives of New York City over the weekend at BravoCon.
According to a report from People magazine, the 38-year-old founder and CEO of Married to the Mob was announced as a new cast member as she filmed an episode of Watch What Happens Live with host Andy Cohen and her new co-stars, Luann de Lesseps, Dorinda Medley, Tinsley Mortimer, and Ramona Singer.
During the show, Cohen asked McSweeney how she felt about her cast mates.
“They’re all unique individuals, but they’re all very bada**,” she replied.
Rumors of McSweeney’s addition to T he Real Housewives of New York City first began swirling in August, just after cast member Bethenny Frankel confirmed she would not be returning to the show for Season 12. At the time, People reported that McSweeney had been brought to the show’s cast to replace the longtime star.
“A few women had been previously testing for a spot, one of which is Leah McSweeney,” an insider explained to the magazine. “Reports that she’s a new Housewife are very premature — they’ve been known to downgrade people if they don’t gel with the group, like Barbara Kavovit last year.”
The insider went on to say that when it came to The Real Housewives of New York City ‘s Season 12, there was a possibility that the network could allow one of their former cast members to return to the show, especially because they had some extra spending money after Frankel’s exit.
Around the same time, de Lesseps appeared on Michelle Collins’ SiriusXM show, where she said that Bravo TV had seemingly added a cast member to the show.
As The Inquisitr previously reported, de Lesseps fueled rumors of Sweeney’s addition to The Real Housewives of New York City cast on Instagram at the end of last month when she shared a photo of herself and Sweeney together at the Hudson Yards in New York.
“Had the best time last night hanging with my friend [Leah McSweeney],” de Lesseps wrote in the caption of her October 31 photo.
Then, in a suspicious move, de Lesseps suddenly deleted the image of herself and McSweeney from her account.
Around the same time, de Lesseps posted an image of herself and two other women in masks, one of whom appeared to be McSweeney, and encouraged her fans and followers to “guess who” the two blondes she was standing with were.