It’s been almost a whole year since Real Housewives of Beverly Hills star Taylor Armstrong’s husband Russell Armstrong decided to take his own life. Yet Bravo executive Andy Cohen is still fielding questions about the network’s involvement in Armstrong’s death..
Andy, who is currently on a media tour promoting his new book Most Talkative: Stories from the Front Lines of Pop Culture, says that Bravo cannot be blamed for Russell’s suicide.
“I mean, look, we debated 18,000 ways to handle this,” he told The New York Times Magazine when asked, in hindsight, if they would have handled Russell’s suicide any differently. “It was tragic. But if anyone in the building or the producers or the production company believed that the show was to blame for what happened, we would not have aired the show no matter what.”
Although the network put a delay on the premiere of season 2 of RHOBH, they were criticized by Russell’s family for continuing to air the show, especially since Russell showed up from time to time during the season. Russell was even been quoted a few weeks before he died, telling People Magazine that being on TV had taken the pressure he felt “to a whole new level” and that he felt he was “pushed to extremes.”
Andy, however, has another story. He says that he’d spoken to Russell and he seemed to enjoy his being on the show.
“Well, I mean, concurrently he mentioned to the head of Evolution, the production company, that he wanted to buy them and that being on the show helped his business 110 percent,” Cohen said. “A lot came out about a lot of issues that he had going on in his life, and this was just one of them. I think that there was a lot going on with him.”
Russell did leave his wife Taylor behind to deal with a million dollar lawsuit filed against his company, which many seem to believe contributed to his decision to take his own life. Taylor also had filed for divorce just a few weeks before his suicide.
Gina Pusateri
Contributing Writer
(Image courtesy of WENN)
Contributing Writer, BuddyTV
