Aunt Becky won’t be holding a diamond — for now. Andy Cohen responded to rumors that Lori Loughlin is set to join the cast of The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills.
“The first I heard about that was Twitter … It’s not true,” the 52-year-old Housewives producer said on SiriusXM’s Radio Andy on Thursday, June 11.
Cohen didn’t totally shut down the possibility in the future, however. “Lori Loughlin is a very nice person, she is going to have quite a story to tell,” he noted.
Rumors that the Watch What Happens Live With Andy Cohen host was eyeing 55-year-old Full House alum for the franchise first surfaced on social media earlier this month. The reports came a month after Lisa Rinna threw shade at Loughlin, with whom she was friendly in the past, for her role in the nationwide college cheating scandal.
“I’m not gonna put you on a rowing machine and take a picture of you,” Rinna, 56, quipped during a conversation with daughter Amelia about college on the May 6 episode of RHOBH.
While the 18-year-old wasn’t amused, the Melrose Place actress couldn’t stop laughing.
“That was the wrong thing to say,” Amelia replied. “I’m trying to get into USC here. And like, let’s not.”
Rinna replied, “I’m joking! I would never, ever do that. I wouldn’t.”
Along with husband Mossimo Giannulli, Loughlin was arrested in March 2019 after the couple was accused of paying $500,000 to ensure daughters Bella Giannulli and Olivia Jade Giannulli would be admitted into the University of Southern California as crew recruits. While Bella, 21, and Olivia Jade, 20, don’t play the sport, photos of the aspiring actress and YouTuber on row machines surfaced online during the case. Olivia Jade’s allegedly fake athletic résumé was also released by prosecutors in February.
Loughlin and Giannulli, 56, previously pleaded not guilty to the bribery, money laundering and fraud charges against them, but they opted to change their plea in May. While they will be officially sentenced in August, details of their plea deal were made public last month. The Summerland alum, for her part, will likely serve two months in prison, pay a $150,000 fine, serve two years of supervised release and complete 100 hours of community service. The fashion designer’s plea agreement, meanwhile, includes five months in prison, a $250,000 fine, two years of supervised release and 250 hours of community service.
