Heavy/Getty Stassi Schroeder
Stassi Schroeder gave an update on her on-and-off friendship with former “Vanderpump Rules” co-stars Kristen Doute, Jax Taylor and Brittany Cartwright—and she simultaneously explained why she won’t be joining them on their upcoming reality show, “The Valley.”
Speaking on Sirius XM’s Jeff Lewis Live, Schroeder explained that the cast of the spinoff series, which includes Doute, Taylor, and Cartwright, aren’t her “crew.”
“I’m not friends with any, you know, it’s just not my group of friends,” she told Lewis in a January 2024 interview. “I’m friendly with some of them, I’m acquaintance acquaintances with some of them. And some of the new ones too, like I think they are lovely, but it’s just not my crew.”
Schroeder had a falling out with Taylor and Cartwright when they backed out of attending her wedding in Italy in 2022. She replied “No” when Lewis asked if she’s friends with them now. The “Next Level Basic” author had an up-and-down relationship with Doute, who used to be one of her closest friends. “I’m not close with Kristen. We text every now and then but that’s kind of it,” she said of her relationship with Doute.
Schroeder said she is still friends with a few people from the “Vanderpump Rules” cast. “I’m still friends with Lala [Kent], Katie [Maloney], Tom Schwartz, Scheana [Shay]. I mean, I talk to Scheana every now and then. Her kid came to my kid’s birthday party.”
“The Valley” will focus on a friend group of five couples: Taylor and Cartwright, Doute and her boyfriend Luke Broderick, Danny and Nia Booko, Jesse and Michelle Lally, and Jason and Janet Caperna as they navigate businesses, families and adulthood in Los Angeles’ San Fernando Valley, per a synopsis posted by The Hollywood Reporter.
Stassi Schroeder Shared More Details on Why She Said ‘No’ To the New Show
Schroeder is married to Beau Clark and they share a daughter Hartford, 3, and a baby boy, Messer. But they don’t live in “The Valley.” Instead, they bought a home in Hollywood Hills. And they don’t hang out with the other five couples featured on the show, Schroeder further explained.
“It’s not Bravo’s fault,” Schroeder told Lewis of her absence from the new show. “l was asked to film the sizzle reel. They filmed a sizzle reel to like show what this show would be. So once this idea was brought up and they were like ‘OK we’re gonna film a sizzle reel with all the people that would be on it,’ every fiber of my being voted no. Like truly. That’s what it is.”
Schroeder explained there were “a lot of different reasons” as to why she turned the show down.
“First of all, it wouldn’t be a reflection of what my reality is,” she said. “Because I don’t want to have to go and do things that I normally wouldn’t do. I don’t want to disrupt the life that I have right now because I really like my life right now. When they filmed the sizzle, I was still friends with everyone and I was still like no.”
“My life is not the way that it used to be,” Schroeder added. “I’m not in the group this group. I don’t have time to just be in this group of friends that go out all the time and get to do whatever they want. Because I know what they do on a regular basis and that’s not what I do.”
Stassi Schroeder Previously Dreamed of Starring in a VPR Spinoff
BravoDayna reveals nose job updates.
There was a time when Schroeder was set to be at the center of a “Vanderpump Rules” spin-off. In her 2022 book, “Off With My Head,” she shared details of a planned spinoff that was scrapped after she was fired by Bravo amid a racism scandal.
In her book, Schroeder revealed her Rome wedding was supposed to be filmed as part of a pilot for a new spinoff. Schroeder previously told “The Morning Toast” the new show was to be called “Valley Rules.” “They were going to slowly transition us and keep ‘Vanderpump Rules’ with a whole new cast of people who work at the restaurant. And so the rest of us would transition into this,” she explained in 2022.
“If the spin-off show would’ve happened and if it had been well received by fans, I could have gone on forever filming it,” she wrote in her book. “Because I believe that what makes a show worth doing is who you’re doing it with. And this way, I’d be continuing on with my group of friends, my chosen family.”
Nearly two years later, her chosen family had changed. Lisa Vanderpump, who serves as an executive producer on “The Valley,” told The Hollywood Reporter, “I love Stassi and I thought she was great television. But, you know, unfortunately, there was no coming back for her.”
Schroeder told Lewis she knows what she’s doing by staying away from reality TV. “Trust that I have a vision for myself and my life and a vision for what my family’s life is going to be like. And it doesn’t [expletive] involve ‘The Valley,’” she said, “’The Valley’, it’s just like ‘Vanderpump Rules’ all over again. People betraying each other. It’s not my vibe.”
READ NEXT: Former ‘Vanderpump Rules’ Stars Return to TV in ‘The Valley’