Last week, Nguyen came under fire for racist comments she made in 2020, at the height of the Black Lives Matter protests, where she referred to protestors as "violent gangs" and "BLM thugs." She apologized in an Instagram post, but many viewers, and even her castmates, believe she has not done enough.
Her fellow Houwsife castmates have all since unfollowed her on Instagram, and many have made statements condoning her comments. Jen Shah, whose husband and sons are black, called Nguyen's apology “disingenuous", and was the first to directly speak out against her.
Fans were further disappointed when the weekly episode did not address the current controversy. Executive Producer Andy Cohen explained this was because they recorded before the headlines broke, and went on his SiriusXM show yesterday, 1/24, to say about the matter,
“The posts were very upsetting … and disgusting. People were very upset about the lack of discussion on last night’s episode relating to Jennie’s disgusting and upsetting posts, and I’ve also seen all the tweets wanting to know what’s being done about those posts. I just want to say, in case anyone doesn’t realize it, that there are many serious discussions happening right now about everything — about everything. And I can’t address the situation right now, but it will be addressed very soon, and thank you for your patience.”
Today, 1/25, Bravo has released a statement revealing they have officially fired Nguyen for her comments. The announcement reads,
“We recognize we failed to take appropriate action once her offensive social media posts were brought to our attention. Moving forward, we will work to improve our processes to ensure we make better informed and more thoughtful casting decisions."
Many are disappointed in Cohen and Bravo for how they handled the scandal, and claim Nguyen should have been let go long ago. Others believe that firing her relinquishes the chance for her to own up to her comments directly, and that she should be criticized by her castmates and the public via the series.
