‘RHONY’ Star Leah McSweeney Discusses Bethenny Frankel’s Role In Her Casting, Talks ‘Sisterhood’ With Co-Stars

Leah McSweeney joined The Real Housewives of New York City cast for Season 12 in August of last year. In the months since, it has been reported that Bethenny Frankel, who quit the series that same month to focus on her upcoming projects with MGM Television and Mark Burnett, was the one who recommended McSweeney to her producers.

But did Frankel really give McSweeney’s name to the show’s executives?

During an interview with Us Weekly magazine earlier this month, McSweeney looked back on the moment she was hired as a full-time cast member of the Bravo reality series. She addressed Frankel’s role in her casting and revealed her thoughts on the sisterhood that exists between her and her co-stars.

“It was someone from the production company and I was just very happy but also very terrified at the same time,” McSweeney said of her early moments on the show, via a clip shared on YouTube.

While McSweeney admitted to being a fan of the entire Real Housewives franchise, she said she never watched the New York-based series fanatically. Instead, she simply tuned in to some of the series’ 11th season episodes last year after learning she could be joining the cast.

McSweeney then said that while she has not met Frankel in person, she does believe that it was she who gave her name to production. She admitted, however, that she and Frankel follow one another on Instagram.

Because Frankel quit her role on the show as she joined, McSweeney was never able to film with her, which was a major disappointment. That said, she hit it off with a lot of her other co-stars and feels that they are like family at this point in her life.

“It’s like a sisterhood, it really is. I didn’t feel any malice or anything. They want to see me win. They want to see me fit in with the group. They want to see it work out,” she explained.

As The Inquisitr previously reported, news of Frankel’s potential involvement with McSweeney’s casting was first shared by People magazine earlier this year, months before The Real Housewives of New York City‘s Season 12 premiere. At the time, one source claimed the two women met through mutual friends before Frankel introduced her to the show. A second insider claimed Frankel saw “a lot of potential” in McSweeney.

Frankel also suggested she recommended McSweeney to the show herself with a telling tweet on February 5.

“I’ve payed [sic] it forward & put others into the mix for you. Just wait,” she teased.