Heavy/NBCUniversal Whitney Rose.
Jennie Nguyen set the record straight on her recent run-in with Whitney Rose. On September 23, 2023, the former “Real Housewives of Salt Lake City” star posted a photo with Rose while at a business event near Salt Lake City, Utah.
On social media, Rose was immediately under fire for posing for the impromptu pic with Nguyen, who was fired from RHOSLC in January 2022 after her problematic past Facebook posts resurfaced. Nguyen’s former RHOSLC co-stars have since distanced themselves from her.
On September 24, Nguyen posted a video to call out haters – and to explain why she attended Rose’s event.
Here’s what you need to know:
Jennie Nguyen Said ‘Women Empower Women’
In September 2023, Nguyen attended the Monkees X Prism event at the Monkees boutique in Draper, Utah. She later posted a photo that showed her posing with Rose, who was also at the event.
“Congratulations @whitneywildrose on your collaboration with @monkees.draper,” Nguyen captioned the photo. “Everything was amazing and beautiful! Keep doing fabulous and thriving like a wild rose is supposed to.”
Social media commenters demanded an explanation from Rose, with many calling her out for posing with the controversial ex-RHOSLC star. Some critics accused Rose of being “friends” with Nguyen.
On September 24, 2023, Nguyen posted a video to address the backlash that Rose received over the photo.
“I’m gonna set this straight,” Nguyen said in the video. “Whitney did not invite me to her event. I was invited by somebody else. Whitney is a businesswoman. I am a businesswoman. The owner of Monkees is a businessman. I was there to support those women. Women empower women. So all you haters, f*** you! You have issues with me, that’s on you. Leave Whitney alone.”
Nguyen then went on to defend herself and explain the racism controversy that cost her her job on RHOSLC.
“I said this before, I am saying it one last time: I did not say I don’t like Black people, nor did I say I don’t support the BLM movement,” Nguyen told her followers. “ I already apologized to those I hurt in my post in 2020. I took full responsibility for what happened. I am moving on, and if you can’t move on, that’s your problem.”
According to Page Six, Nguyen posted and “liked” problematic posts and memes during the Black Lives Matters protests that took place following the death of George Floyd in 2020. The alleged posts included reshares of photos and statements with phrasing such as “BLM thugs,” the outlet reported in 2022. The post resurfaced during Nguyen’s lone season on RHOSLC and have since been deleted.
Rose previously said she was “shocked and saddened” by Nguyen’s posts and Facebook likes.
Whitney Rose Said She Did Not Invite Jennie Nguyen to Her Business Event
Rose spent a good part of the weekend defending herself against backlash over her photo with Nguyen, telling followers on the X app that she is not friends with her former co-star and was “shocked” to see her at the event. “I don’t stand by her beliefs or what she has done, I snapped a photo and moved on. You should do the same,” Rose wrote.
Rose also hinted that it was Nguyen who set up the photo opp. “I did not invite Jennie to this event,” she wrote in a separate post. “It was a public event and she showed up with her own camera crew. I do not stand by her beliefs at all and she is not my friend.”
In a video post, Rose directly addressed her critics. “F*** all you haters because I am not friends with Jennie Nguyen, I did not invite her to my event,” she said in a video shot in her kitchen. “She showed up to my event that I was hosting that was a public event with her own camera crew, okay?”
The Wild Rose Beauty founder explained that she was not about to make a scene at her business event. She also said Nguyen took a moment to apologize for her past behavior.
“She came up to me, she apologized, she said she felt bad for everything that happened,” Rose continued. “She is not my friend. I do not stand by what she had posted, her beliefs. But if someone says ‘I’m sorry’, I’m going to snap a photo and move on. What was I going to do, create a scene at my business event? No. She stood by me for a minute, snapped a photo, moved on. So you all should too. Thank you.”
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