Lewis claims he “apologized” to Cohen after he made a joke about Garcia being on food stamps during a BravoCon panel, while the former RHOSLC star blasted him as an “elitist, entitled, privileged PRICK” on social media.
Jeff Lewis is speaking out following comments he made to Andy Cohen during a BravoCon panel.
The Flipping Out star claimed he apologized to Cohen after he made “insensitive” remarks about former The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City star Monica Garcia during an “Ask Andy Cohen” panel, which took place at BravoCon in Las Vegas on Friday.
As shown in footage from the event posted online, at one point, Lewis, 55, brought up the financial situations of the women who become Housewives, asking Cohen, 57, why he and producers have “deviated” from bringing in women who aren’t “as affluent.”
“Like Monica Garcia, for example,” Lewis added, “Didn’t her food benefits just get frozen?”
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The comment didn’t seem to be received well by the audience or by Cohen, with the Watch What Happens Live immediately coming to Garcia’s defense.
Lewis said he didn’t believe Garcia was a “right fit” on RHOSLC, to which Cohen noted that Garcia’s one-season stint on the series was one of the “best seasons of Housewives.”
“Look, we’re always looking for great characters, and we’re always looking for women who fit the group who we want to watch, and collectively that’s where we’re at,” Cohen added.
Garcia, meanwhile, called out Lewis over his remarks on Friday, taking to her Instagram Stories.
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“Let me be so clear, I have so much said about me that I let slide and don’t care to acknowledge,” she wrote. “But considering what so many families, single moms, elderly and Americans have been and are dealing with lately in relation to this situation, this is HORRIBLE.”
“F–K YOU, @jljefflewis. You are F–KING TRASH for this!!!!!” she added. “Elitist, entitled, privileged PRICK.”
Lewis later addressed his comments while speaking with Us Weekly, saying he apologized for his remarks — but did not mention whether or not he’s spoken to Garcia.
“I thought I killed it, but Andy did not,” he said, noting that Cohen might have interpreted his jokes to be “inappropriate and insensitive.”
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Lewis — whose SiriusXM radio show is under Cohen’s Radio Andy and also announced his return to Bravo with Still Flipping Out during Friday’s panel — said he’s “exchanged” text messages with Cohen.
“I have apologized. Look, I know this guy. We’ve known each other for 18 years. He vents and, look, I sincerely did apologize,” he continued. “Now I gotta give him time to cool off. My experience with him, he’ll get back to me in one to three weeks.”
“I’ll talk to you in three weeks, Andy,” Lewis said.
The Flipping Out alum went on to share an Instagram post about the situation. Lewis posted a black-and-white video of himself and Cohen walking together backstage, with the footage set to Barbra Streisand’s “The Way We Were.” He also added a crying emoji over the video.
“I’m sorry you didn’t like our panel @bravoandy 😭,” Lewis captioned the post.
Lewis has not yet publicly addressed Garcia, while Cohen has not commented on Lewis’ remarks.
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