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LeahMcSweeneySoberDatingApp.jpg

Leah McSweeney Is Launching a Members Only Sober Dating App

By Emma Chance | Celebrity | May 1, 2024 |

By Emma Chance | Celebrity | May 1, 2024 |

LeahMcSweeneySoberDatingApp.jpg

Leah McSweeney announced her new sober dating app, Club Pillar, in February, after the publication of the infamous Vanity Fair article detailing her’s and Eboni K. Williams’s alleged abuse at the hands of Bravo producers, and before her lawsuit against executive producer Andy Cohen. McSweeney’s controversial journey to sobriety was captured during her time on The Real Housewives of New York City, and is the basis of her litigation against the network.

The app claims to be the “first-of-its-kind membership-based dating app and brand” with a mission of “redefining sober dating and community building,” open to “those who embrace varying forms of sobriety, including sober curious, California sober, or entirely abstinent.”

McSweeney is serving as “advisor and creative lead.” She hosted the first of several promotional events for the app this weekend, where the “ambiance matched the application’s aesthetic: red, sexy and mysterious.”

“This is only the beginning…We will have three more events in NYC before [the official] launch and each event will be filled with surprises and stimulations,” said CEO Jessie Urvater.

“I’ve seen firsthand the stigma that comes along with, like, being an alcoholic and also being sober and being like, ‘Well you’re boring now,’ and ‘You’re not fun,’ and things like that,” McSweeney said in a segment on Fox News, probably because she’s been banned from any NBC affiliates, in April. “We wanna break the stigma around sobriety. We want people to, like, understand that actually, sober is fun, sober is sexy, it’s cool, and you don’t need to be in recovery from alcoholism, maybe you just don’t like drinking, maybe you just don’t love getting wasted.”

The app is launching in June, but it’s membership only because you have to be “vetted” for the “sober thing” (but probably also at least a little bit for the rich and fancy thing?) I think sober dating is cool and great, but does the already dismal online dating world really need another Raya? We’ll see.