‘Dark Secrets’, ‘Psychological Warfare’ and Cocaine

Ms. McSweeney said during the video call that she decided to participate in “Housewives of New York City” because she thought it would be a great opportunity. But once she joined the cast, she said, echoing her complaint, “Everything that was said to me was coded language for, ‘You better drink.'”

“I knew there would be drama and fights, of course,” she said. “You know sometimes people are going to love you, sometimes they’re going to hate you – you know you’re going to be somewhat objectified and you’re there to entertain and so on. I just didn’t know that the business community, the producers, and the network also looked at women the same way the public did. I thought they would make us a little more human.”

Ms. McSweeney, after appearing on the 12th and 13th seasons of “Housewives of New York City,” did not return for the show’s 14th season. But after filming “Housewives,” she joined the cast of a spinoff, “The Real Housewives Ultimate Girls Trip,” for its third season, which aired last year. She was sober during the filming of the show, episodes of which showed cast members encouraging her to drink.

“I was really hoping for the best,” she said of her decision to join the cast of “Ultimate Girls Trip.” “I had had several conversations with several network executives who knew how I felt, and they said this would be fun.”

Ms. McSweeney’s lawsuit came weeks after Caroline Manzo, a former star of “The Real Housewives of New Jersey,” archived a lawsuit against Bravo and other parties in January alleging she was sexually harassed and assaulted by a fellow cast member while filming an episode of “Ultimate Girls Trip.” Bravo has not commented on that lawsuit.

Last summer, Bethenny Frankel, another former cast member of “Housewives of New York,” called for reality stars to join a union to improve their working conditions. In August, two entertainment lawyers, Bryan Freeman and Mark Geragos, wrote a legal letter addressed to Kimberley Harris, the general counsel at NBCUniversal, accusatory Bravo for “grotesque and depraved abuse” on behalf of “several current and former cast members and crew members of some of NBC’s most lucrative reality shows.”