Bravo is fielding another lawsuit, this time in regard to a specific incident during the filming of the fourth season of Ultimate Girls Trip, a Real Housewives franchise spin-off. Housewives Brandi Glanville and Caroline Manzo exited the season after stories of an altercation between the pair circulated last year; Glanville was alleged to have sexually assaulted Manzo. Now, Manzo has filed a suit against the network claiming that Bravo “caused” and “allowed” Glanville’s “acts of sexual harassment and assault,” reports People.
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In the legal filing, Manzo claims she and Glanville had fought earlier on the same day as the assault. During filming that evening, Glanville non-consensually kissed Manzo multiple times, even after Manzo physically moved herself away from Glanville. According to the filing, Glanville “proceeded to mount Manzo on the couch, holding Manzo down with her body, forcibly squeezed Manzo’s cheeks together and thrust her tongue in Manzo’s mouth while humping her.” Manzo says the incident left her in a state of shock and triggered memories of a childhood sexual assault.
Later in the bathroom, Glanville allegedly “came behind Manzo, forced her vagina against Manzo’s buttocks, breasts against Manzo’s back, wrapped her long arms around Manzo forcibly restraining her and began washing her hands with Manzo’s hands entwined.” When Manzo attempted to exit, Glanville allegedly prevented her from unlocking the door and “pressed her breasts and vagina against Manzo.” Manzo asserts that she called for help but no one from the crew “opened the door or took any other action to intervene and stop the sexual assault” despite the fact that producers could hear the altercation on their audio.
Another castmate opened the door and let her out, but later Glanville allegedly attempted to follow Manzo to the bathroom a second time and groped her again. Manzo says she asked not to be left alone with Glanville after that. The following morning, Glanville texted her “I’m sorry I made you feel uncomfortable,” to which Manzo did not respond.
Glanville is not named as a defendant in the suit; at this time, she’s directing the blame towards Bravo. The culture of the network, according to her lawsuit, is to “regularly ply the Real Housewives cast with alcohol, cause them to become severely intoxicated, and then direct, encourage and/or allow them to sexually harass other cast members because that is good for ratings.”
To a certain extent, that’s also how Glanville characterized her interaction with Manzo on UGT. “You’re not in your right mind, and you want to give them good TV. The whole point of these shows is to get us unhinged,” she told Vanity Fair as part of a Bravo exposé. However, she added, “If there was an issue or situation where someone was uncomfortable in Morocco, no one in production or the crew or cast intervened in the moment.”
The lack of intervention is a crucial part of Manzo’s suit; the filing also claims that “Bravo did not require Glanville to attend a sexual harassment class mandatory for all talent prior to filming,” per People. The lawsuit states that Manzo is a victim of Bravo’s “harmful actions” and intends to “discourage” the network from “continuing to sacrifice their cast members’ safety for their own ratings and profits.” Manzo’s lawyer also represents a butler from the season of UGT whose own suit asserts that NBCU, Bravo, and the production company “allowed, condoned and even encouraged” Glanville to sexually harass him (“and others”) on the set.