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The Real Housewives of New York City alum Leah McSweeney, who is currently suing Andy Cohen, slammed the Bravo star for making jokes about Kate Middleton’s health before the Princess of Wales revealed she is battling cancer last week.

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“Andy Cohen gets a kick out of being cruel to women and Kate Middleton is no exception,” McSweeney, 41, seethed on her Instagram Story (per Us Weekly). “I hope that after she was forced to publicly talk about her cancer diagnosis, he will muster up the decency to apologize to her.”

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After months of speculation as to her whereabouts, Kate, 42, announced last Friday that she is battling cancer in a video message shared to social media.

“In January, I underwent major abdominal surgery in London and at the time it was thought that my condition was non-cancerous,” Kate said in a video released by Kensington Palace. “The surgery was successful, however, tests after the operation found cancer had been present … This, of course, came as a huge shock, and William and I have been doing everything we can to process and manage this privately for the sake of our young family.”

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Kate didn’t reveal what type of cancer she is fighting, but said that her absence gave her and husband William time to discuss her illness with their three children — Prince George, 10; Princess Charlotte, 8; and Prince Louis, 5.

Her announcement came after she hadn’t been seen out in public since Christmas.

Royal watchers had speculated over Kate’s health, after she stepped away from her royal duties to undergo a planned surgery, with some conspiracy theorists suggesting that William was in the midst of an affair with Rose Hanbury, the Marchioness of Cholmondeley, and that the couple might be headed for divorce.

To try and quiet the rumours surrounding her private life, the princess shared a doctored image alongside her three children to celebrate Mother’s Day earlier this month.

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In the photo, which was posted to Instagram and X, Kate was seen smiling alongside her kids as she extended her hearty well wishes to other mothers celebrating their special day.

But the attempt to assuage worry backfired after the image was picked apart by forensic sleuths online. Hours after its release, four major news wire services — Associated Press, Getty Images, Reuters, and AFP — had announced they were pulling the photo from their libraries amid concerns it was manipulated.

The debate continued after a video surfaced on March 18 that purportedly showed her and William, heir to the throne, visiting a farm shop near their Windsor home. But the video failed to quell speculation about her wellbeing, with many online detectives dissecting the 38-second clip that was shared by the U.K. Sun and TMZ, refusing to believe the video showed Kate at all.

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RHONY producer Cohen waded into the social media fray surrounding Kate’s wellbeing by airing his skepticism with a pair of social media posts.

“That ain’t Kate….,” Cohen, 55, shared on X after TMZ released a video of the outing.

Cohen also invited followers to weigh in, sharing a poll on his Instagram Stories. Posting a screenshot from TMZ’s video he asked: “Is this Princess Kate?” Hours after inviting fans to vote, 72% of respondents had said no.

“They should’ve just paid Steven Spielberg to fake a video of Kate because that TMZ video just made everything worse,” one conspiracy theorist mused, posting an image of Middleton taken last year and a screengrab from the shopping video from the weekend.

Cohen also endorsed speculation that William and Hanbury were in the midst of an affair, which the Marchioness of Cholmondeley had already flatly denied.

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“It all seems to come back to this lady Rose who he’s had an affair — who he allegedly had an affair with,” Cohen said Friday on an episode of his Daddy Diaries Podcast, dredging up old rumours surrounding William and the Marchioness of Cholmondeley.

“Don’t forget he broke it off with (Kate) after they dated for years and sowed his wild oats for a time and then went back to her,” the Watch What Happens Live host continued.

Rumours of the affair even became late-night fodder, with Stephen Colbert joking about it in a recent monologue.

“There have been rumours of an affair between William and the Marching Band of Chicanery since 2019,” Colbert said. “According to tabloids back then, when Kate supposedly confronted him about it, he laughed it off, saying there was nothing to it. Always a good response when your wife accuses you of cheating.”

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A former royal courtier told The Daily Beast that the comedian’s jokes were “deeply annoying and unhelpful for the palace.”

Meanwhile, one of Kate’s critics, actress Blake Lively, said she’s “mortified” after joking about the Royal Family’s “Photoshop fails” in an online ad for her Betty Buzz beverage line.

“I’m sure no one cares today but I feel like I have to acknowledge this,” Lively said in a message shared Friday on her Instagram account. “I made a silly post around the ‘photoshop fails’ frenzy, and oh man, that post has me mortified today. I’m sorry. Sending love and well wishes to all, always. ❤️”

McSweeney, who is suing Cohen and producers from the Real Housewives franchise after she accused them of fostering a workplace environment that promotes alcohol consumption “all in the name of selling drama,” urged Kate’s critics to be kinder.

“People with power need to lead by example,” the former Bravolebrity wrote in her Instagram message.

mdaniell@postmedia.com

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