Heavy/Getty Stassi Schroeder
Stassi Schroeder has called out “Vanderpump Rules” production and accused them of covering up for male cast members during her time on the hit Bravo show.
Schroeder, who was fired from the show after season 8, made the claims during the August 23 episode of her podcast “Straight Up With Stassi,” in which she shared her reactions to Raquel Leviss’ three-part interview with Bethenny Frankel.
Schroeder and her friend Taylor Strecker spoke about Leviss’ comment to Frankel that she asked Tom Sandoval during VPR filming about recording their intimate FaceTime call. Leviss told Frankel that Sandoval refused to film more Scandoval scenes unless producers removed that clip, and Schroeder said she was shocked that production was “still doing this s***.”
“That happened all the time on ‘Vanderpump Rules’ when I was there,” she shared. “All the time. There were so many times that I remember crying to producers and being like, ‘You guys have covered for certain people… men… that have done really dark things.'” She said she even filmed less and was okay with getting reduced screen time just because she didn’t even want to be in the same room with certain men.
“This is so unfair and this is so wrong,” Schroeder added. “But at the same time I thought about it and I was like ‘Would I ever wanna go public with this sort of thing?’ No, because I wouldn’t wanna ruin everyone’s jobs. I wouldn’t wanna shut down a show, it’s not just the cast, it’s the crew, it’s producers, there are so many people that work on it and love it.” Schroeder said she and “many other female cast members” on VPR went through similar experiences while “production covered for the dudes.” She said the women were left to “heal [themselves].”
“That was a straight-up truth I know that [Leviss] told because it’s happened before and the fact that Sandoval was able to just get away with it again was just like, f***,” she concluded.
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Stassi Schroeder Criticized Tom Sandoval for Being ‘Manipulative’ About the Screen Recording
Schroeder’s comments about production covering up for male cast members during her time on the show came after she unpacked some of Leviss’ claims from her interview with Frankel. The former VPR star slammed Tom Sandoval as “manipulative” for threatening to boycott filming VPR scenes if they didn’t cut his conversation with Leviss about consent.
“The part that I felt was just like, ‘that f*****, that motherf*****,’ was when she said that the scene that they filmed together at her apartment when she brought up, ‘why did you film me without my knowledge’ and he said, ’cause I wanted you to see how beautiful you looked,'” Schroeder recalled, then made sounds like she was throwing up.
Schroeder said it “hurt” to hear Leviss’ comments and it “hurt for women everywhere” to hear that men were still being protected.
Raquel Leviss Said She Struggled With Her Decision to Come Clean About the Affair Details After the Reunion
While speaking with Frankel on the RHONY alum’s podcast, Leviss revealed that she struggled a lot with the aftermath of the scandal, especially when it came to her decision to come clean in a separate interview at the end of the reunion.
Leviss said she felt as though she’d already betrayed all her friends from the cast, with the exception of Sandoval, and coming clean about all the affair details “behind his back” was in her perspective “the ultimate betrayal.” Leviss explained that she’d since learned through her time in a mental health facility seeking treatment that she had a fear of abandonment which made her decision more difficult.
However, she shared that she also learned that the experience of filming the final interview made her realize that honesty was a “core value” for her and she didn’t want to ignore that any longer.
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