Bravo Andy Cohen on WWHL.
Andy Cohen and his team made a huge mistake on “Watch What Happens Live” years ago – but the Bravo host is just now finding out about it.
Since debuting his late-night talk show in 2009, Cohen has welcomed everyone from reality stars to White House First ladies to his Clubhouse. But he missed out on a major “get” about 10 years ago.
Here’s what you need to know:
Andy Cohen Unknowingly Passed Over Future Royal Family Member Meghan Markle for WWHL
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Before she married Prince Harry, Meghan Markle was a TV star. After flipping open briefcases on the game show “Deal or No Deal,” she landed a role on the legal drama series “Suits,” playing Rachel Zane from 2011 to 2018, per IMDb.
It was during her time on “Suits” that Markle paid a visit to “Watch What Happens Live” audience with her then-costar Gabriel Macht, according to Us Weekly. But when Cohen was a guest on Markle’s “Archetypes With Meghan” podcast on November 30, 2022, the Duchess of Sussex revealed that during her 2015 visit to the WWHL studio, she briefly met Cohen — who didn’t know who she was.
She also dropped the bombshell that years before she married into the royal family, she longed to be a guest on WWHL. Markle explained that she was a major Real Housewives superfan at the time, but that she was never able to get booked for a spot on Cohen’s popular Bravo talk show.
“I was so eager to be on your show because I was such a Housewives fan at the time and I just couldn’t get booked, Andy,” Markle said, noting that she reached out to the Bravo show a decade ago when she was a star on the first couple seasons of “Suits.”
Cohen admitted that he heard about Markle’s potential attempt to get on his show and that he’s still kicking himself for the oversight.
“I had that feeling when basically we started to kind of forensically figure out if it was you, because we had a sense,” he revealed. “We were like, ‘I think she may be a Housewives fan, but even worse…. we think we didn’t have her on the show.’ And I was like, ‘Oh, my God. If it turns out that Meghan Markle actually expressed an interest to be on ‘Watch What Happens Live’ and we [said no], it is now the biggest blunder in the 13 years of the show.’”
“Now I can’t even do my pitch to get you on,” he added.
While Markle was unknowingly blocked from WWHL, Cohen has been known to blacklist certain celebrities. In a 2019 interview with AOL Lifestyle, Cohen admitted that some stars are on his “do not call” list.
“There are a few people,” he said. “And you would be surprised, there are a few people who we have deemed ‘not worth the trouble.’ Like, you can’t talk about this and you can’t ask about that.”
Meghan Markle Revealed That She had No Clue That There Was Buzz About Her Joining the Real Housewives When She Moved Back to the United States
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Elsewhere in the “Archetypes” interview, Markle praised Bravo for giving coveted television roles to hundreds of women via the Real Housewives franchise. She also admitted that while she stopped watching Bravo reality shows herself, “almost every one” of her friends still tune in for the drama.
“I get why it was such a huge, huge part of pop culture,” she told Cohen. “And when it began, because you began with Orange County and I’m from California, at least it felt remotely like a world that I knew but still felt so foreign.”
Cohen noted that when Markle and her husband announced plans to step back as senior members of the royal family and move to California in 2020, there was fan buzz about her joining “The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills.”
According to People, at the time, Cohen even pitched the idea in an Instagram comment, writing, “Open invite for The Duchess to join #RHOBH !!!”
But during the “Archetypes” interview, Markle revealed she had no idea fans were talking about her becoming a Real Housewife. “I never heard that,” she admitted.
“You never heard that? Good,” Cohen replied, adding, “Well, I never even tried to stoke the fire because I was like, ‘Folks, that’s not happening.’”
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