Celebs Who Can't Stand Andy Cohen

Considering his status at the center of a drama-filled reality TV empire, it's a wonder that Andy Cohen doesn't have more enemies than he does. Cohen is best known as an executive producer and the overall kingpin of the Real Housewives franchises, seen as the man who pulls the behind-the-scenes strings and controls the cast's fates. Cohen has also served as host of Bravo's Watch What Happens Live late-night talk show since its premiere in 2009, on which he welcomes Bravo personalities and celebs alike to spill secrets and talk smack.

While the stars who don't get along with Cohen — at least the ones that fans know about — don't comprise a particularly long list, they certainly still exist. Buzz has circulated around the Internet for years that Cohen and the Real Housewives franchises he spearheaded are "sexist," and that Cohen has a "women problem" – claims that his Hollywood rivals have also held against him. Real Housewives fans also believe that Cohen, who served as executive VP of development and talent until 2013, still has a hand in the franchises' firings, which has also fueled complaints against him. 

Cohen clearly knows the kinds of feuds and storylines that make for engaging TV and generate headlines, even if those dramas involve him personally. And as fans have seen, he's willing to play along. Read on for the celebs Andy Cohen has tussled with over the years. 

NeNe Leakes, the shady titan of The Real Housewives of Atlanta cast, has been in Andy Cohen's orbit since the show's premiere in 2008. Throughout the series' lifetime, while many cast members have butt heads with Leakes and Cohen alike, the pair's relationship has been historically contentious. 

In May 2015, Cohen and Leakes sparred on an episode of Watch What Happens Live after Cohen addressed the social media controversy surrounding a donation Leakes promised, but never made, to Detroit's public schools. The day after, Cohen revealed on an Ask Andy segment (via Reality Tea) that he and Leakes "had a little fight the next day," and that her friends claimed he "was really shady to her on the show." He added, "I said, 'Well that's funny because everyone on Twitter says that you were nasty to me on the show.' So we went back and forth about that."

Fast forward to December 2019, and Leakes was up in arms again against Cohen after he poked fun at Leakes for repeating one of her looks on RHOA. Clapping back in an Instagram post, Leakes wrote, "It's enough that we #RHOA ladies come for each other and now we have to worry about executives coming for us." The drama continued in February 2020 when Radar Online reported that Leakes was potentially seeking legal action against Bravo for mistreating her, with a source claiming that her bad relationship with Cohen was partially to blame.  

Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt star Tituss Burgess is yet another celebrity whose drama with Andy Cohen began on an episode of Cohen's Watch What Happens Live. In Burgess' case, the actor appeared on a 2019 episode of the Bravo talk show, on which Cohen asked Burgess about acting alongside Eddie Murphy in the film Dolemite Is My Name, and referenced Murphy's homophobic past, calling him "very problematic for the gays at one point, when I was coming up." Burgess wasn't having it, seemingly whispering while Cohen spoke to the audience and when asked, told the host in an uncomfortable moment, "Go ahead, girl, do your show." Afterward, Burgess took to Instagram to call Cohen a "messy queen" and accuse him of stirring up "negative press."

"Sunday was a display of ratchet behavior by a well connected man having blatant disregard for one of his guests," Burgess wrote about his WWHL appearance. "If only time were taken to know who I am and not assuming that I am the character I play on TV, he would know how to conduct a proper interview with at all!"  For his part, Cohen joked shortly after on an episode of his SiriusXM show Andy Cohen Live (via People) that his feud with Burgess "made an entertaining show, I'll tell you that. Sometimes it's fun to watch the show when the guest hates the host."

Since the 2006 debut of The Real Housewives of Orange County, Vicki Gunvalson has been a staple of the show. That's why fans were surprised when, in 2020, Gunvalson announced that the show's fourteenth season would be her last, and she would not be returning as a cast member. Gunvalson — aka the "OG of the OC" may be off the show, but she's remained vocal on episodes of her podcast Whoop It Up with Vicki, including about the fact that Andy Cohen fired her from the show. 

In a 2020 episode with fellow RHOC alum Tamra Judge — who Bravo also announced would be departing from the show following season 14 — Gunvalson accused the Real Housewives producers of ageism, claiming, "We got very expensive and I think [the producers] said that viewers were ready for younger blood" (via The Sun).

Cohen, who had previously disputed the idea that Gunvalson and Judge were fired because of their ages, was confronted directly by Gunvalson when he appeared on the March episode of her podcast (via TooFab). During their chat, Gunvalson repeatedly claimed that Cohen had "fired" her and that she was unhappy about the screen time she got during the season 14 reunion, confessing that it was painful that a new season of RHOC was filming without her. "I don't want to be forgotten," she said. "I'm super sad. I hope the legacy I started will carry on."

Andy Cohen may be longtime friends with Flipping Out host Jeff Lewis, but their friendship seems to include a substantial love-hate dynamic. In 2014, Lewis stopped by to visit Cohen on Watch What Happens Live, which was celebrating its fifth birthday. In honor of the show's anniversary, Cohen let Lewis roast him on-air, with Lewis joking that the show was "stupid, mindless and cringeworthy," adding, "Sometimes I've lost brain cells watching the show, I get a headache, I feel them dying."

Cohen may have been laughing his way through Lewis' roast of him, yet when Lewis stopped by Cohen's Radio Andy SiriusXM show in 2019, the tone was markedly more somber, with Lewis airing his grievances of Cohen and Cohen returning the favor by unloading some of his own complaints. 

Lewis lashed out at Cohen for making jokes about dating Lewis' ex-partner Gage Edward, including hurtful jabs following their breakup. "You used to joke a lot about dating Gage...you actually did not [stop joking about it], you kept going with it, you said it recently... It was a tough breakup, so I just wanted to say that I prefer you not to say that." After apologizing, Cohen confronted Lewis about staying silent when Cohen welcomed his son Benjamin via surrogate earlier that year. "I thought it was odd that I never heard from you after the birth of my child," Cohen told Lewis, which prompted an apology from his friend.