‘Real Housewives’ Caroline Manzo Claims Brandi Glanville Sexually Assaulted Her; Sues Bravo, NBCUniversal, Warner Bros Over ‘Girls Trip’ Misconduct

Dominic Patten
·4 min read
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Most of the lawsuit from Caroline Manzo claiming that her fellow Real Housewives star Brandi Glanville sexually assaulted her during the Morocco filming of Peacock‘s The Real Housewives Ultimate Girls Trip can be summed up in an alleged outburst from the RHOBH alum: “Shut up! This is my vacation, Bitch. I’ll do what the fuck I want!”

The suit filed today in New York State court against Bravo, NBCUniversal, Warner Bros Entertainment, Peacock and others claims sexual harassment, sexual battery, discrimination and 14 more allegations. Manzo pulls the veil back on the already much-scandalized Ultimate Girls Trip and pours the tea on the booze, the lap dances, the bullying and the chaos that ensued in Marrakesh last year.

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“Defendants allowed, condoned and even encouraged Ms. GLANVILLE’s sexually aggressive and offensive conduct on others on the sets,” says Manzo’s 57-page complaint from NYC’s Derek Smith Law Group (read it here).

“Defendants profited from Ms. GLANVILLE’s sexually offensive and harassing conduct and, once again, chose ratings and profit over protecting their employees,” it adds of Real Housewives HQ Bravo, NBCU, Peacock and WB. “Defendants never should have hired Ms. GLANVILLE to participate in RHUGT, because they knew that she tended to sexually harass others. Defendants even encouraged Ms. GLANVILLE to become drunk on the set so that she would be more likely to commit outrageous and harassing acts, thereby helping Defendants’ ratings without regard to the rights and safety of those around her. As a result of Defendants’ actions and inactions, Ms. GLANVILLE sexually abused and harassed Ms. MANZO causing Ms. MANZO extreme emotional distress and other loss of enjoyment of life and other damages.”

To that distress and loss of enjoyment, Manzo gets very specific and somewhat graphic in her filing.

Later that evening, Tuesday, January 24, 2023, MANZO and her castmates retreated to a couch near the bar to watch a snake handler. Clearly intoxicated, GLANVILLE walked over to MANZO, spread MANZO’s legs and leaned into MANZO. She then laid her head on MANZO’s inner thigh. MANZO pulled away and moved to the end of the couch.

MANZO is 5 ft. tall in height compared to GLANVILLE who is close to 6 feet tall. 

Exerting her dominance over MANZO, GLANVILLE followed MANZO and sat right next to MANZO on  the couch. GLANVILLE proceeded to kiss MANZO with a closed mouth. GLANVILLE then kissed MANZO again. MANZO was very uncomfortable. GLANVILLE then 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 tried to push GLANVILLE off of her body. However, GLANVILLE was restraining MANZO with  her much greater weight, size, and strength, and was unable to free herself. 
Eventually, MANZO was finally able to break free from GLANVILLE.

“The acts taken toward Plaintiff were carried out by and/or ratified by Defendants and/or managing agent employees of Defendants acting in a despicable, oppressive, fraudulent, malicious, deliberate, egregious, and inexcusable manner in order to injure and damage Plaintiff, thereby justifying an award to her of punitive damages in a sum appropriate to punish and make an example of Defendants, and each of them,” the suit says. It should be noted that Glanville is not named as a defendant, though the RHOBH vet is named on nearly every page of the suit.

NBCU had no comment today when contacted by Deadline about Manzo’s legal action. But execs at the Comcast-owned media never could honestly say they were surprised by Manzo’s jury trial-seeking suit.

Back in October, Marco Vega, the butler on the second season of Peacock‘s The Real Housewives Ultimate Girls Trip, filed a lawsuit alleging he was sexually assaulted by Glanville and fellow cast member Phaedra Parks. Just like today’s suit, that New York State-filed action listed Bravo, Forest Productions, Warner Bros., NBCUniversal, Shed Media and Peacock as defendants.

Also, as far back as April, both Glanville and Manzo have publicly vented about what went down on RHUGT Season 4. As Peacock opened a probe into what occurred on the show and a possible sexual assault, Glanville on social media last year called the filming “a f*cking setup.” Manzo told the Two Ts in a Pod podcast that “this is very traumatic for me.” Manzo added that she would “never, never, never” do another Real Housewives of New Jersey or anything else to do with the lucrative franchise again.

Clearly with today’s lawsuit, even in an unscripted industry stocked with scandal and potential legal actions, that’s the case.

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