“Real Housewives of New Jersey” executive producer Andy Cohen and cast member Melissa Gorga have been hit with a defamation lawsuit seeking more than $30 million in damages by a woman who said she was made to look like a thief.
NBC Universal Cable is also named in the suit, filed in federal court in Florida on Wednesday.
In the suit, Jackie Beard Robinson, described as “an entrepreneur and international fashion influencer,” says that she was tapped by Gorga in 2015 to serve as manager of Envy by Melissa Gorga, which operated a boutique clothing store in New Jersey.
The partnership went south, the suit says, after Robinson discovered that Gorga “misappropriated over $37,000 from Envy without authorization, among other things,” and Robinson removed her merchandise from Envy in January 2017.