If You Think It, Jeff Lewis Will Say It

On a recent episode of Watch What Happens Live!, host Andy Cohen asked the Real Housewives of Salt Lake City star Bronwyn Newport to name a person her castmates warned her to steer clear of at Bravocon this weekend. Without missing a beat, Newport replied, “Someone warned me about Jeff Lewis… Actually they all might’ve warned me about Jeff Lewis.”

Cohen called her answer “fair” and with good reason: Lewis — the former Flipping Out star-turned-host of his own Radio Andy Sirius XM show, Jeff Lewis Live — is no stranger to feuding with his fellow members of the Bravoverse. From New Jersey’s Teresa Giudice (after Lewis said he preferred her sister-in-law and nemesis, Melissa Gorga), to Orange County’s Heather Dubrow (he once dubbed her his “least favorite” housewife), to New York’s Brynn Whitfield (Lewis questioned what, exactly, the “marketing and communications consultant” does for a living).

But over lunch at a midtown steakhouse, Bravo’s most reliable instigator says he’s past all that pot-stirring. (He’s even made amends with both Giudice and Dubrow. As for Whitfield… not so much.) “I've had a lot of therapy,” Lewis tells Bustle while sipping on an Arnold Palmer. “After you lose a certain number of relationships, it's more of a growth and learning experience. I wasn't the most likable person. I was a know-it-all. I was controversial, polarizing.” Therapy has also given him the tools to understand that, “Whenever there's some sort of conflict, I have something to be responsible for. Even if I don't think I'm wholly at fault, there's always a shred of accountability.”

When Flipping Out premiered on Bravo in 2007, words like “accountability” weren’t necessarily part of Lewis’ vocabulary. The show followed the sharp-tongued real estate progeny as he bought and remodeled homes, fought with his staff over various aspects of the renovation process, and ultimately sold each property for a profit. But by 2018, the series came to an end after a well-documented falling-out between Lewis and his longtime co-star, Jenni Pulos. The next year, Lewis split from his partner of 10 years, Gage Edward — though the two continue to share custody of their daughter, Monroe.

“That was probably my biggest learning experience, the few years following that breakup. I had an experience where a lot of really terrible things happened at one time and I think it was God, the universe, or whatever, forcing me to take a real good hard look at myself,” Lewis says. “That truly was the biggest impetus to personal growth.”

It’s also made him a far more compelling radio host. Lewis was as surprised as anyone when Cohen first offered him a show on his Sirius XM channel back in 2017. (“I love working for Andy. He’s given me two careers. We have a very long history, a lot of ups and downs, and a real friendship,” Lewis says.) He didn’t have any experience on-air, and a stint as a TV villain didn’t seem like the most obvious requisite for being a thoughtful, broadcast-friendly conversationalist. Yet the show, which has grown so popular that it’s expanded from a weekly offering to a daily one, has become the most meaningful chapter of Lewis’ career thus far.

“If I feel like someone's acting like an asshole, I call them out. As a result, maybe I'm not the most popular person at the Bravo events.”

“I think all of that has led me here. I'm more empathetic, I have more perspective on things. I don't think I could have done this 15 years ago,” he says. Just take a recent episode with former frenemy Giudice, where Lewis not only encouraged her to make amends with her sister-in-law, but offered listeners a masterclass in how to do so. “Because it's been so many years working on myself, it's really easy for me to apologize. If you say to me, ‘Oh, my God, I just made this huge mistake. I'm so sorry’ — what can I do? End of discussion.”

Which isn't to say that if you tune into an episode of Jeff Lewis Live — or if you have sliced filet salads with him — it's all kumbaya, all the time. “I started watching Real Housewives of Potomac, and I said, ‘God, there are so many women that I'm really having trouble following all the storylines.’ Someone in my group said, ‘You can't say that because that might translate that you can't tell Black women apart,’” says Lewis, who, despite his evolution, continues to have zero interest in censoring himself. “I'm like, ‘I’m not afraid to say that I can't follow this show. It’s bad producing and it's bad storytelling. That's why I can't follow it, it has nothing to do with the fact that the cast is all Black women.’"

Still, Lewis insists that honesty — not provocation — is what drives him these days. “There's certain things that just to me seem ridiculous. And so those are things I might push the envelope on,” he says. So should people be afraid of him at Bravocon? “If I feel like someone's acting like an asshole, I call them out. As a result, maybe I'm not the most popular person at the Bravo events. I don't tread lightly. I activate everybody.”