Leah McSweeney recounts her dark past and tells fans ‘real housewives’ are turning against her

WWhen I started a call with Leah McSweeney to discuss her new book, I immediately had to ask about a hilarious TikTok that popped up on Twitter about a month ago. Looking straight into the camera in the clip, the 39-year-old fashion designer informs us that she’s invited her family on a trip to Jamaica — but with a surprise. “They think they’re here for a vacation,” she continued in her usual late delivery. “They’re really here because I’m going to confront them about the generational trauma and why I have anxiety and depression issues and how it all stems from family relationships. “

She ends the video with a smile.

“I was totally joking,” McSweeney admitted. “Even my closest friends don’t know. They’re like, ‘You can joke, but you can also be completely serious about this because that’s what you’re going to do. So we are not sure. ‘ I was like, I’m not sure at this point either. ”

It says so much about McSweeney that people on social media (myself included) and those closest to her don’t automatically take her words for granted. On Bravo’s The real housewives of New York, when she becomes a member of the cast in 2020, she presents herself as someone who is always ready to “go there”, speaking openly about her tumultuous relationship with drugs and alcohol, her complicated actions with her mother, sex, religion — she just converted to Judaism —Politics and everything else you’re not allowed to discuss at formal dinners where TV shows Bravo is actually arranged 80% of the time.

Likewise, it makes sense for McSweeney to release a memoir titled Chaos theoryexpose the worst, darkest moments of her life and try to understand the dream life she’s trying to build for herself — running a successful womenswear line, raising a girl daughter and starred in reality television.

On the internet, the word “chaos” is overused, describing anything and everything from a real fight to a celebrity’s gruesome outfit. But from the moment you open it Chaos theoryMcSweeney’s use of the term to describe her teenage years and adulthood seemed so fitting – so much so that she looked to the math and science of chaos to make sense of it all.

Chaos theory begins with McSweeney recalling his days as a rebellious kid attending a Catholic all-girls school in Manhattan on financial aid, with classmates like Nicky Hilton and a young singer being recruited. known until then as Stefani Germanotta. (Think Orange beetle but on the Upper East Side). In 8th grade, she was deemed “a bad influence” by her school’s principal and asked to leave. She captures this uncomfortable moment when setting a wild sequence of events into motion.

Instead of taking expulsion as a sign of becoming a better student, McSweeney, feeling outcast, leaned more toward his defiant tendencies. She became especially resentful when her family suddenly moved to upstate Connecticut after she finished middle school, adopting a precarious lifestyle that included moving back to downtown New York to hang out. with friends and consume a bunch of drugs.

In Chaos theory, she writes vividly about her first try for meth, spending days in the city, the changes she will have at home with her parents and subsequent times in rehab. With all this experience, the author knew she was ultimately destined for one person to tell but was surprised by how the writing process went.

McSweeney told me, “I think I took it into account until I started writing about it. “While writing this book, I was thinking, ‘How the hell can I act like this or disregard my life and the lives of my parents and everyone around me like that?’ It is really interesting. ”

McSweeney’s dependence on drugs and alcohol would follow her into her twenties and even after she gave birth to daughter Kier, 14. She also writes about being diagnosed with bipolar II disorder around her 30th birthday—something her castration friend Ramona Singer brought up on RHONY in her first season — and was prescribed an outrageous amount of drugs.

In the midst of these rather sobering revelations, the author attempts to paint a compelling portrait of the late 90s early 2000s craze culture and downtown New York City nightlife — a sound and the aesthetic that musicians, TikTok aficionados, and fast fashion brands have been trying. to compete recently. She told me the nihilism of her generation after 9/11 contributed to the way they broke up.

“It resonated with us for an entire generation, especially since we live in the city,” says McSweeney. “The way we parted and damn it, we said, ‘The damn towers are gone. Now we’re going crazy. ‘ Maybe this generation is going through some trauma, like the pandemic, and somehow they’re creating a correlation.”

In addition to proper treatment and medical care, McSweeney will eventually find the stability she needed as a young adult amid the booming downtown streetwear scene, starting Married to the Mob in 2004 with the help of her then-boyfriend and father-in-law Rob Cristofaro, who founded the popular streetwear brand Alife. She was also able to fund the company after winning a lawsuit against the NYPD following a shocking (but not too shocking) incident of violence that left her with a broken tooth — a story she has told publicly and described in his book. Since then, she’s become a certified downtown girl and a formidable name in the industry, receiving signings from Rihanna, deals with Nike, and even a trademark infringement lawsuit. The $10 million mark from Supreme founder James Jebbia was eventually scrapped.

However, for all her career achievements and flirting habits, McSweeney describes her recent position on The real housewives of New York was “the most feminist effort she’s ever been in.”

“Real housewives gives women the opportunity to be famous, to be a star, and to be part of a pop-culture phenomenon in an age where we say we’re no longer worth anything,” said McSweeney passionately. “We value our personality far more than our looks.”

She continued, “Of course, there are nice clothes and all that. But nobody loves someone on the show for their beauty, right? It’s about what they bring to the show. And I think that’s stupid because there’s not much space in Hollywood and in the entertainment industry to survive. “

While McSweeney made a big splash in her first year in RHONY As a fun alternative to the show’s older, more conservative cast, her sophomore season is a lot more hectic. First, McSweeney’s grandmother passed away during filming, and she spent the first few episodes grieving and lashing out at some of the actors. The season was also widely criticized by fans online for its conversations about race, mainly led by the show’s first Black housewife, Eboni K. Williams, who was hired that year. . McSweeney, Williams’ designated friend on the show, is also available to discuss race and politics with other women.

“It was pretty horrible,” McSweeney said. “I think it would be better if it was fair and guaranteed, but it’s not fair. We only have five women. Eboni was not in an easy position. Other women are not in an easy position. I am dealing with the death of my grandmother. ”

Viewers reacted negatively to Williams’ “introduction” of social issues into the show, while others called for Ramona Singer to be fired for her ignorance. The backlash for McSweeney has been particularly surprising, given her fan-favorite status just a year ago. Producer Andy Cohen even commented that he had never watched Housewives Fans quickly revealed the cast.

“Mentally, emotionally, I’m not all there,” McSweeney admitted of season 13. “And I didn’t like myself. Everyone is used to RHONY present RHONY. And people are just vicious about that. “

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“Other women are used to that,” she continued. “They’ve been doing this for so long that they’ve lost a part of themselves. And they are not affected by it. But I’m very new. I won’t speak for Eboni, but she’s brand new. We don’t know how to turn that part off. Maybe I don’t want to turn it off either. It was hard, but once Rihanna posted that she was Team Leah, I said, ‘Okay, now what?’

In addition to the fact that some viewers found McSweeney’s emotional rawness last season, she also faced scrutiny after telling her co-stars she wasn’t particularly excited about casting. between Joe Biden and Donald Trump in the 2020 presidential election in one episode. Social media users deemed her comment irresponsible and made an admission on Danny Pellegrino’s podcast “Everything Iconic” that she didn’t vote in 2016.

“That’s the other thing that I can’t understand,” McSweeney said of the backlash. “Here, I’m being honest about what many people feel — that I don’t want to choose between two men who are too old to run the country.”

“That part I don’t care about because that’s my actual point of view,” she insists. “You can criticize me all you want about it. That’s how I feel. Also, I have the right to feel the way I feel. So I’m really glad I was honest about that. ”

While some are harmed RHONY fans on Twitter may be petitioning her to leave the show, they could very well see her in the recently announced reboot of the series that will coincide with a spin-off for the cast. program age. Although no casting decisions have been announced — and McSweeney is the mother of her potential involvement — she seems to at least have Bravo’s kindness, as she appears on the show. See what happens live last week and answered questions about whether her friend Julia Fox should be on the new show.

Whatever the outcome, McSweeney has always had a disdain for the ego, something fully present throughout. Chaos theory. And the entrepreneur seems eager to continue telling his own story without anyone else telling.

“I just said it yesterday,” she said. “I might need to write book #2. And it went from 1995 to 2000, basically I think it’s going to be Happiness. ”