Kristen Doute's controversial past is coming back to haunt her.
The Valley star found herself at the center of major drama on the Bravo series' Apr. 2 episode after she alleged that Janet Caperna told costars Jasmine Good and Zach Wickham that castmate Michelle Lally was "a racist and a Republican," as Brittany Cartwright recounted to husband Jax Taylor.
Tensions over the accusations came to a head during a cast dinner where Michelle and husband Jesse Lally confronted Kristen over the rumor. And although Kristen apologized for spreading the allegations, Jesse wasn't about to let the 41-year-old off the hook for what he called a blatant lie.
"You disrespected my family name," the real estate broker told Kristen. "We have a business that we run together. If something like that gets out, you're ruining lives. You were thrown off a show for being an actual racist."
Jesse was, of course, referring to Kristen and former Vanderpump Rules costar Stassi Schroeder getting fired from the reality show in 2020 after it was revealed they once called the cops on former costar Faith Stowers, who is Black, with a fake complaint.
In a confessional, Kristen reflected on the scandal and shared regret for her past actions towards Faith.
"I know that I made a mistake by roping Michelle into something that didn't have to do with her," she shared, "but Jesse, he's just trying to ruin my name by bringing up the most painful thing that I've ever gone through. I understand why Michelle is upset. It is the worst thing in the world to be labeled as anything let alone a racist. And nobody knows better than me, because it happened to me and I was cancelled."
Calling the controversy "the hardest time of my entire life thus far," the Sex, Love, and What Else Matters podcast host went on to claim she's grown as a person since being fired from VPR.
"I'm not proud of what I did but I'm sorry that I hurt people," Kristen continued. "But I've learned from my mistakes. These are my friends sitting here, they know my past and all I wanted to do was pick up the pieces and move on with my life, be a good person. People finally gave me a chance again and now it's brought up all over again and now I'm gonna have to relive it again. I hope that my whole life doesn't fall apart again."
See how fallout from the explosive drama plays out when The Valley airs Tuesdays at 9 p.m. on Bravo. And keep reading to look back at some of VPR's biggest scandals.
Let's not forget that we owe this entire series to Scheana Shay's affair with actor Eddie Cibrian, who was married at the time to former Real Housewives of Beverly Hills' star Brandi Glanville. Scheana dated him while Brandi was pregnant with their second child, and the two women's dramatic sitdown at SUR—coordinated by Lisa Vanderpump, naturally—was the segue from one episode of RHOBH to Vanderpump Rules. Sneakiest (and messiest) crossover ever!
After denying he cheated on then-girlfriend Stassi Schroeder throughout the entire first season, Jax Taylor admits in the finale that, yes, actually he did cheat on her in Las Vegas and got the other woman pregnant.
His admission stunned Stassi and the rest of the cast that had defended and sided with him in the breakup.
One of the show's most infamous hookups went down in season two, when Jax confessed to sleeping with Kristen Doute, Stassi's best friend who happened to be dating his best friend Tom Sandoval.
Though Kristen initially refuted the claim, she finally admitted that they hooked up (but never kissed) during the finale. Oh, and it went down while Tom was sleeping in the other room and they were watching the Ryan Gosling movie Drive. This all culminated in Stassi delivering her now-infamous slap across Kristen's face, while Tom punched Jax.
Seasons later, Kristen later admitted to cheating on Tom throughout their six-year relationship.
After Ariana Madix joined the cast in season two, Kristen quickly had suspicions about Tom's friendship with his fellow bartender. While the pair denied ever hooking up while Tom was dating Kristen—responding to the SUR waitress' continued worries, Ariana infamously declared, "I'm smarter than you. I'm prettier than you. Get the f--Get the f--k over it"—Tom eventually admitted during the season two reunion that he and Ariana made out in a pool when they were both in Las Vegas.
When asked by Andy Cohen if she worried about Tom's past after he confessed to "cheating on Kristen a few times," Ariana said, "I've been friends with him for three years. I know him really well. It's not a thing for me—at all." (Sigh.)
After Tom and Ariana announced they were officially together, Kristen revealed in season three that a woman reached out to her on Instagram claiming to have hooked up with Tom while he was in Miami with Jax and Schwartz. Kristen even brought "Miami Girl" into SUR to confront Tom, but Ariana didn't take the allegation seriously after Tom vehemently denied the claims and the couple left.
At the time, however, Jax seemingly threw his friend under the bus by backing up the claim. And after Tom and Ariana's 2023 breakup, Jax, who left the show in 2020, tweeted a cryptic message.
"I've called a lot of things on that show that people never believed," he wrote. "Everything I say always ends being true."
After Tom Schwartz and Katie Maloney got married in 2016, he confessed to drunkenly making out with one of Lala Kent's friends in season six.
When Schwartz was asked about the story, his memory was fuzzy. "There's no way. No, it couldn't have been," he says in a 2018 episode. "Yeah, I remember going to The Bungalow, but I definitely don't remember making out with anybody. I got s--tfaced that night, I remember that."
Schwartz later addresses his behavior in a confessional, admitting, "I truly and honestly am baffled."
But it wasn't the first time Schwartz cheated on Katie while he was blackout drunk, admitting to kissing another woman while he was inebriated in season three.
After 12 years together, Katie and Schwartz announced their breakup in March 2022.
Bravo
Katie Maloney With a Random Dude?
In a 2014 episode, Jax claimed Katie cheated on Schwartz by "motorboating" an unnamed man, sharing that he'd heard the story from Scheana. Katie was furious over the allegation and Scheana eventually apologized to her co-star.
"I never once said she cheated. I said what I saw," Scheana wrote in a Bravo blog. "After talking to Katie about it, I realize that it wasn't what it seemed. When she bent down to take her shoes off, her head was in that region. Also, in her drunken state when she was dancing shaking her head back and forth it definitely looked like she was 'motorboating' this guy. She DID NOT cheat...I simply felt like she crossed the line."
After some serious sleuthing—including looking at Uber receipts—Kristen deduced her boyfriend James Kennedy cheated on her with one of Scheana's friends in season four. He denied it to her face, only saying they may have kissed, but later admitted in an interview, "The truth is, Jenna and I were definitely boning." And a new iconic .GIF was born!
But that wasn't the only time James cheated on Kristen, as the DJ also hooked up with Lala (who believed he was single at the time) and another SUR hostess, Lauren, who was in a relationship with another employee at the restaurant.
After his breakup with Kristen, James began dating student and beauty pageant contestant Raquel Leviss in season five. The pair quickly faced cheating allegations when Scheana and Kristen crashed one of James' DJ gigs with three former SUR empoyees who all claimed that they hooked up with him (they even took photos of James sleeping) while he was dating Raquel.
James denied all of the women's stories and he and Raquel continued to date, eventually calling off their engagement in 2021 after five years together. Following their split, James confessed to having sex with Lala at the beginning of his relationship with Raquel.
"For some reason, I was very naive back in the day and I thought James never cheated on me," Raquel told E! News in February. "But this clarified that he definitely has cheated on me multiple times. That was definitely a hard pill to swallow."
It was another season, another cheating scandal for Jax in 2017 when he fessed up to hooking up with former SUR waitress Faith Stowers. Though he initially denied it in the season six premiere, Jax came clean after his then-girlfriend Brittany Cartwright confronted him—all while wearing a Taco Bell sweatshirt.
"This isn't my first time being caught cheating," Jax said in a solo interview. "In the past, I've gone through months and months of deny, deny, deny, and that didn't work for me." He went on to say that he and Brittany had hit a rough patch (which was seen on their 2017 spinoff, Jax & Brittany Take Kentucky), which led him to hook up with Faith.
Jax's admission, of course, devastated Brittany, who delivered her infamous "Rot in hell!" line in response. While Brittany initially broke up with Jax, the couple quickly reconciled and ended up getting married in June 2019. They welcomed their son Cruz two years later.
The BCU (Bravo Cinematic Universe) was shaken on March 3, 2023, when it was confirmed that Tom and Ariana had ended their nine-year relationship amid the revelation that he'd had a seven-month affair with Raquel.
"I made mistakes, I was selfish, and made reckless decisions that hurt somebody I love," the TomTom co-owner wrote in an apology on Instagram March 8. "No one deserves to feel that pain so traumatically and publicly."
He added, "My biggest regret is that I dishonored Ariana. I never meant to disappoint so many people, including our loving families and friends."
Raquel also issued a public apology to Ariana, saying she had "no excuse" for her actions. In a follow-up statement, Raquel addressed the future of her relationship with Tom.
"I need to take care of my health, work on self-growth and take time to be ok with being alone," Raquel told E! News in a statement. "I care for Tom, and I don't want to label anything or predict what lies ahead. Right now, I need to heal."
(E! and Bravo are both part of the NBCUniversal family)
