Andy Cohen insists his controversial comment that Jen Shah shouldn’t receive jail time was taken out of context.
“I got a lot of comments yesterday about the Chris Wallace interview,” Cohen, 54, said on his Instagram Story on Tuesday after the CNN host, 75, grilled him about the “Real Housewives of Salt Lake City” star, 49, pleading guilty to running a nationwide telemarketing scheme.
“I just want to clarify the context of what I said,” he continued. “I was saying it in response to people wanting to know if she was going to be back on the show. … I knew that there had to be some context, and I should’ve asked him what it was.”
Andy Cohen gave more context to his controversial comment that fraudster Jen Shah should receive “no jail time.”andycohen/InstagramThe “Watch What Happens Live” host followed up his video with a screenshot of a quote he gave in response to being asked whether Shah would be asked back for Season 4 of “RHOSLC.”
“I knew that there had to be some context, and I should’ve asked him what it was,” Cohen said of his interview with Chris Wallace.CNN“She’s being sentenced on December 15, so I don’t know what to say to people who want her on the show,” he told Us Weekly in November 2022. “I hope that she gets no jail time whatsoever and she can come right back … but I have a feeling that she’s not going to be available to be on the show.”
The “Watch What Happens Live” host eventually came to the conclusion that Shah should serve prison time for the crime she committed.CNNWallace recently asked Cohen on “Who’s Talking to Chris Wallace?” why the “Housewives” executive producer had continued to “take [Shah’s] side against the thousands of people she defrauded” despite her admitting to participating in the scheme.
Cohen initially attempted to backtrack his comment before changing his stance and saying Shah “should go to jail.”
Shah didn’t appear at BravoCon 2022 or the “RHOSLC” Season 3 reunion amid her legal woes.NBCU Photo Bank via Getty Images“You know, sometimes, if you get to know someone and you get to like them, you hope that they are not guilty of something horrible,” he concluded.
Shah is set to begin her six-and-a-half-year prison sentence on Feb. 17.GC ImagesBravo has not officially released a statement on Shah’s future on the network, but Cohen teased at BravoCon in October 2022 that her time had come to an “end” after entering a last-minute guilty plea.
However, Cohen also recently said he was “hopeful” to conduct a “sit-down” interview before Shah begins her prison sentence on Feb. 17.
The Bravolebrity was sentenced to six and a half years in federal prison on Jan. 6.
