The Real Housewives of New York (RHONY) is set to return with a revamped cast for the upcoming season. Season 14 is set to be the reboot of the show, and although it won’t have many of the former cast members, executive producer Andy Cohen promises drama.
The television personality and talk show host recently read out an excerpt of his book The Daddy Dairies: The Year I Grew Up during an episode of WWHL and opened up about one television star who expressed her desire to be on the hit Bravo show.
Wendy Williams from The Wendy Williams Show pitched herself to be a cast member a year ago, but he turned her down due to her “personal problems,” since she was battling mental health issues.
Andy Cohen turned down Wendy Williams’ pitch to be on RHONY
Andy Cohen, the executive producer of RHONY, recently read out an excerpt of his Daddy Diaries book during an episode of Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen, where he revealed that television personality Wendy Williams reached out to be on the Bravo show in May 2022.
Andy revealed that while he would have loved to have her on the show, the timing wasn’t right and added that had Wendy called him a year earlier, “it would have been a brilliant idea.”
The book talks about the interaction:
“If she (Williams) is struggling with mental health issues, though, this isn’t the time. Her enthusiasm was infectious, though when I was explaining the idea of Legacy and the brand-new show, she just wanted to focus on the last version. So the conversation didn’t go anywhere.”
Two months prior to his conversation with Wendy, the RHONY executive producer announced that the Bravo show was being rebooted for season 14 and that it would showcase a new group of women.
Cast members set to appear in the RHONY season 14 include Jenna Lyons, Sai De Silva, Ubah Hassan, Erin Danan Lichy, Jessel Taank, and Brynn Whitfield.
Wendy previously expressed no desire to be on the show during an episode of The Wendy Williams Show in July 2019. She said at the time that she would never “end up taking a spot” on the Housewives franchise because there would be “so many no no-nos” that the audience would get bored with her.
Over the years, the television host has found herself encountering many health and personal problems. At the beginning of her career, she was addicted to cocaine for 10 years and recently battled Graves’ disease, hyperthyroidism, and other physical problems, according to Us magazine.
In 2019, she filed for divorce from Kevin Hunter after 21 years of marriage. Their divorce was finalized in January 2020 in light of Hunter welcoming a child with another woman in March 2019. Wendy and Hunter share a son, Kevin Jr.
She opened up about their relationship as divorcees while in conversation with Extra in 2021 and said that he calls her from time to time, but she doesn’t block his number. The couple’s divorce and relationship were explored in Wendy Williams: The Movie and Wendy Williams: What a Mess.