Even the most successful TV personalities have faced setbacks at some point.
While talking to Hoda Kotb about the previous positions they've held in their careers, Andy Cohen revealed that he was once told not to pursue on-camera work because he had a "crossed-eye situation."
Thursday on TODAY with Hoda & Jenna, Cohen said he received the criticism when he worked at CBS News. The TV personality started his career there as an intern for reporter and correspondent Erin Moriarty before he became a producer and left the company for Bravo.
"I had given up on the idea of being in front of the camera. I was a producer and I was like, 'OK, that's not going to happen,'" he shared. "Someone early in my career at CBS News said, 'Oh, my God, you'll never do it because you have this horrible crossed-eye situation."
The "Watch What Happens Live" host added that he has a "little bit of a wandering eye," but it didn't stop him from pursuing his dreams.
"I worked behind the scenes and I always loved what I was doing and I loved, by the way, my job at Bravo," he said. "When it started developing, I thought, 'Well, this is a wild curveball that happened to me kind of later in my career,' so you just kind of have to go with it. But I had given up on that part of it."
That wasn't the only time that Cohen has talked about his appearance. In May 2021, he responded to a hurtful tweet that someone wrote about him.
The tweet read, "Can someone interview @andy and ask him how he deals with his lazy droopy left eye?”
Cohen, who took the high road, replied, "I ignore it baby.”
During a 2017 appearance on the “How to Be Amazing” podcast, Cohen revealed how the negative comments used to affect him.
“When I wound up getting on-air, I was like, ‘Oh, my gosh, this is so harsh. I’m horribly deformed,’” he said. “I called my mom. I was like, ‘I’m deformed.’ And she was like, ‘You do not have a wandering eye.’ And I go, ‘No, I do. I promise you. People are telling me across the country.’”
“I was always pretty vain, but I think it’s weird there’s a monitor right under my camera and so I do have these moments where I will think, ‘Oh, my God, you look really carb-faced lately,’” he continued. “It has made me more vain.”