Andy Cohen: Gay or Lesbian Housewives May Be Coming to Franchise

Real Housewives mastermind Andy Cohen went on Real Housewives of Beverly Hills cast member Garcelle Beauvais's podcast on Thursday and revealed details about diversity on the franchise, People reports.

In the interview on Going to Bed with Garcelle, Cohen said that Bravo has come very close to casting several lesbians as housewives.

"Have you ever thought about having a gay franchise?" Beauvais asked Cohen in the episode. "We've talked about that," he revealed. "It was something that we were really into many years ago. We've almost cast several lesbians."

"I think when you start casting gay men, it just, it's ultimately a show about women, which is why the guys have always been in the background, like the husbands have typically been more in the background," he added.

Cohen even revealed that they almost cast a gay man as the first gay housewife back in the late 2000s. "I think the answer is we've been open to it. We almost cast a guy on [Real Housewives of New Jersey] who was Dina Manzo's brother and Caroline's brother as the first gay Housewife," he said. "This was like, 2008 or nine or something like that. But we wound up just not doing it.

Still, he added that if they find the right person, he won't rule anything out.

Beauvais also confronted Cohen on why it took so long for the show to cast any Black housewives outside of the Atlanta, Potomac, and Salt Lake City franchises. Beauvais was the first Black housewife on RHOBH, one of the franchise's most popular series. At first, Cohen defended himself, saying they were waiting for the perfect person to cast, but quickly added that there's "no excuse."

"I think that it was a bad cycle because then the longer you waited, the more you wanted to get it absolutely perfect when you did cast a woman of color and bring them into the group," he told Beauvais. "You wanted that person to succeed."

"Over the years, there have been people that we did not cast that were people of color," he added. "We really wanted to get it right, so that we weren't casting someone that would be a one-season housewife or like, 'oh, well she's boring' or that people said didn't fit. I just think it was this vicious cycle of wanting to get it absolutely right. The true answer is, there is no excuse. It's bad and there is not an excuse. So I could spitball here and try to come up with 20, but it sucks. And there's no excuse."

You can listen to the episode of Going to Bed With Garcelle everywhere podcasts are available.