Andy Cohen Says They "Almost Cast Lesbians On Real Housewives"; Reveals That Dina And Caroline Manzo's Brother Was Almost Cast A First Male Full-Time Cast Member

As the seasonal turnover of Housewife franchises takes place, fans are left wondering what exactly goes into casting the newest women in their favorite cities. Real Housewives of Beverly Hills, for example, is welcoming a couple new faces after adding some last season as well. Fans of RHOBH have added Crystal Minkoff and Kathy Hilton to their rosters with the start of season 11. Meanwhile, Real Housewives of New York has added Eboni K. Williams and lost both Tinsley Mortimer and Dorinda Medley this year.

The more things change, the more they stay the same. Andy Cohen has been answering for his casting decisions left and right since the recent seasons of RHOBH and RHONY have aired. In fact, we owe Garcelle Beauvais, a season 10 addition to Real Housewives of Beverly Hills, for getting to the bottom of things.

Garcelle’s recent Going To Bed With Garcelle podcast episode was released early to People. In the pre-released recording Garcelle interviewed Andy Cohen about his casting process. She asked, “Have you ever thought about having a gay [Housewives] franchise?” An interesting idea! Of course, we have had several lesbian, bi, and/or sexually fluid Housewives cast across the various franchises. That said, the idea of putting them all together is a wholly new concept.

Andy remarked, “We’ve talked about that. 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.” Did you hear that, Real Housewives of New Jersey house-husbands? Know your role!

RELATED: Andy Cohen Explains Why It Took So Long To Diversify Real Housewives

Andy continued, “And so I think the answer is we’ve been open to it. We almost cast a guy on [The Real Housewives of New Jersey] who was Dina Manzo’s brother and Caroline [Manzo]’s brother as the first gay Housewife. This was years ago. This was like, 2008 or nine or something like that. But we wound up just not doing it.”

In the end, Andy admitted, “If the right person smacked me in the face, yeah.”