RHOSLC's Mary Cosby Is Back, But Doesn't Regret 'Quitting'

Bravo's The Real Housewives Of Salt Lake City returns for Season 5 tonight, and once-former "housewife" Mary Cosby is coming back, too.

Backing up a bit ahead of the RHOSLC premiere, Mary exited the show under seemingly tense circumstances back in 2022.

How "seemingly tense"?

In early February of that year, Mary herself responded to a Page Six tweet asserting that she was leaving the show after a scant two seasons, saying:

"This Story Is Not True!! This is a complete Fabrication’ A Complete Lie!’ I have not [spoken] to anyone!!"

One day later, People quoted an unnamed source purportedly "close to" Bravo producers, loudly contradicting Mary's denial.

On top of a very public and ostensibly deliberately seeded story disputing Mary's tweet, the unnamed source added a fairly ominous statement that Mary "knew her fate":

"Mary Cosby's time on The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City is likely over, according to a source close to production.

"Despite the fact that Cosby, 49, denied reports of her departure on Twitter [in February 2022], multiple sources confirm to PEOPLE that she will not be returning to the Bravo show for season 3.

"'Mary has not been filming,' a source close to production tells PEOPLE. 'Her tweet is surprising as she knew her fate on the show by not showing up at the reunion.'"

Reality TV is somewhat inherently cutthroat, and taken together, whoever spoke for Bravo sounded far more like a mafia boss than a network insider.

It's hard to say for certain, but it looked like the network leveraged a People exclusive to send Mary a message.

Ouch.

We don't know who the unnamed snitch was, of course, but the same People article quoted Bravo brass Andy Cohen as saying Mary's decision to skip the Season 2 reunion was "very disappointing."

Andy then followed up with an extremely passive-aggressive comment, suggesting Mary was an ingrate:

It's her story to tell, but I got the sense that [Mary] was not finding gratitude in being on the show anymore.

That wasn't even Andy's only thinly veiled swipe at Mary, as he huffed that "housewives" who refuse to attend reunions "allow the others to control [their] narrative as [their] last gesture."

Mary later appeared on RHOSLC after being demoted to "Friend," though she speculated in December that she could return full-time.

As we recently reported, all of this is kind of baked into the cake, as Bravo boasts a notoriously capricious and volatile approach to "firing housewives" for infractions like keeping parts of their homes private.

Mary's confusion over her initial exit from the show makes sense in that context, as it looks very much like Bravo wants its "housewives" to be afraid of pushing back at production's demands — RHONY alumna Bethenny Frankel certainly has had a lot to say about that, much to Andy's chagrin.

2:00

Why Mary Cosby Rejoined RHOSLC After Being 'Fired' Following Season 2

Mary Cosby was allegedly fired from Real Housewives of Salt Lake City after skipping season 2 reunion, but she's back in the main cast for season 5.

Posts

Mary Cosby Has No Regrets

And She's Back In Bravo's Good Graces ... For Now

With Mary's second RHOSLC debut only hours away, she reflected on her breakup and makeup with Bravo.

Back in January, Bravo re-framed Mary's RHOSLC exit as "taking a break," sharing a video that supposedly explained the "why" of her absence, but there was no clear reason provided.

Bravo reinforced that narrative when heralding Mary's RHOSLC Season 5 return – as if Andy Cohen had never casually discarded her – "reminding" viewers that she had "stepped away" after Season 2:

"As Bravo viewers will recall, Mary was a full-time cast member in Seasons 1 and 2 of RHOSLC.

"She stepped away ahead of Season 3 and later appeared as a friend in Season 4."

People, once acting as a messenger with respect to Mary's departure, cheerily reported on her return for Season 5, and quoted her on her "friend" status — a role she says she turned down for Season 5:

"Oh, I don't want to ever be on the show as a Friend again. You just get left out of everything!

"So I was like, 'I'm not coming back as a Friend. It's either full-time or I'm not coming back at all' because I just couldn't do it again."

Again, that doesn't really sound like Mary was all too keen on her Season 3 demotion in the first place.

However, she also said she didn't regret how everything played out when the magazine asked if she'd skip the Season 2 reunion again, she said:

"100 percent, I stand by my decision. I am glad I did what I did. I believed in what I felt, I believed in my choices and, to this day, I have no regrets. If I could do it over again, I would do it over again."

Hopefully, Andy doesn't read People.

Along with the rest of the Real Housewives Of Salt Lake City cast, Mary returns to Bravo tonight at 9pm Eastern (8pm Central), with next-day streaming available on Peacock.