Janet and Jason Caperna have taken some heat after purposely excluding three cast members of The Valley from their babymoon — but Jason insists the couple had a very good reason for pruning the guest list.
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The successful attorney told The Daily Dish they needed to keep things stress-free after Janet suffered a frightening labor scare following one particularly dramatic group dinner — thanks to Kristen Doute — which even had them considering dropping out of the show.
“Personally, I have absolutely no regrets about who we chose to invite and not invite to the babymoon,” he said.
Why Janet and Jason Caperna didn't invite Kristen Doute to the babymoon
As fans will recall, before beginning life as first-time parents, Janet and Jason decided to bring their closest friends on a babymoon to Big Bear Lake, California for a weekend of (mostly) kid-free bonding captured by The Valley cameras.
But not everyone made the exclusive guest list. The couple chose not to invite Kristen, her boyfriend ,Luke Broderick, or Zack Wickham
Kristen and Luke were systematically iced out after a group dinner erupted into an explosive argument between Kristen and the now-estranged couple Jesse and Michelle Saniei Lally, which spilled out into the hall and nearly came to blows in Episode 6.
Kristen incorrectly claimed Jesse planned to divorce his wife within two months, a conclusion she’d drawn after a game of telephone went seriously wrong.
As for Zack, Janet opened up in the May 14 episode of Gabbing with Gib that she and Zack had a strained relationship “for a couple of years” before filming began and, although they had made progress in their friendship, it “just wasn’t there” yet to warrant vacationing together.
Janet Caperna Had Pregnancy Scare Filming The Valley
But Jason said there was also something else at play. According to him, Janet, who was in her final months of pregnancy, had some “contractions” after the epic dinner party which doctors believed were “potentially due to stress.”
“When we heard that news, we were like OK, well, we need to avoid any kind of situation like this,” he shared. “We even considered potentially leaving the show.”
Instead, Jason said “production was great” and just encouraged them to do whatever they needed to do for Janet’s health and the health of their unborn baby, which meant keeping away people who might “stir things up.”
“So that was our priority,” he said. “Just making sure that Janet had a stress-free babymoon and it was successful in that way.”
He shot down any rumors that the couple had maliciously excluded anyone just so Janet could look like the “Queen Bee,” a reference Kristen had made herself about the snub.
“Janet is not inviting me because she wants to let me know that I’m in the outside of the group,” Kristen said on the show. “So she was like, ‘What I say goes, I’m the one who is now the queen bee.’”
Jason called the assertion that he and Janet had plotted together “insane.”
“It wasn’t like there was some sort of an intentional, like sit-down and like, let’s — let’s take notes and let’s share paperwork and let’s share our thoughts on like, who can we leave out? And who can we leave out to make sure Janet’s the queen bee?” he said, adding that they were “two married adults” with full lives keeping them busy.
According to Jason, Kristen and Zack’s response to the snub, like Zack’s decision to later troll the others by cryptically posting on Instagram that he was in Big Bear Lake the same weekend of the babymoon, only “validated” their decision to exclude them.
“I have no regrets at all with regard to that,” he said.
The couple welcomed a healthy baby boy in December.
Jason Caperna Shoots Down Stassi Schroeder Rumor
The babymoon wasn’t the only thing Jason wanted to set the record straight about. The seasoned attorney came to the defense of his wife to clear up a few other lingering rumors as well.
While speaking to The Lady Gang podcast Kristen claimed she believed Janet came on The Valley because she wanted to be the “new Stassi,” a nod to Vanderpump Rules alum Stassi Schroeder.
“Nobody could be Stassi, you just have to be Janet,” Kristen remarked. “I do think she is that manipulative and I think it’s easy to tell because then she’ll say, 'I can’t believe people think I’m this mastermind, I’m not that smart.' Like, yes you are.”
Jason called the assertion “just wholly untrue.”
“I mean, Stassi is a really nice person,” he said. “She’s a great character on reality TV but to kind of go out of your way and say, 'I’m gonna try to emulate her and become that person,' It’s just a really strange thing to say and [Janet] 100 percent never said that.”
He added that another celeb would come to mind over Stassi.
“I mean, if you’re gonna shoot to be somebody, like if you’re actually gonna be like, 'This is my goal to be somebody,' I mean, I’d probably shoot more for like, MIchelle Obama,” he added. “You know, no offense to Stassi, she’s amazing, but that’s just kind of where I would go with it.”
Jason added that while he jokingly said his wife “loves to gossip” on the show, he’s got nothing but love and respect for her.
“If I had to rate our relationship right out of 10, 10 out of 10,” he said.
To find out how The Valley will end its first season, tune in Tuesday nights on Bravo or catch the episodes the next day on Peacock.
