Heather Gay revealed during The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City reunion that Jen Shah gave her the now-infamous black eye — but she didn’t really offer further details about the injury.
“It was a lot of drinking. The next morning, I woke up with a black eye. I knew I got it from Jen, I didn’t know how,” Heather, 49, admitted during part 3 of the RHOSLC season 4 reunion on Tuesday, January 23. “But I knew I had gotten it from Jen. She was the first person I texted. She came in the room, she said, ‘Did I give that to you?’ I said, ‘Don’t worry, I’ll cover.’”
Heather admitted that she was “scared” of Jen, 50 — who is currently serving prison time for fraud — so didn’t tell the truth. “I’d been covering for her for three years. I was not going to stop at the black eye,” Heather added.
Heather’s mysterious black eye was one of the biggest RHOSLC story lines in season 3, which aired in 2022 and early 2023. As the story went, Heather woke up during a full cast trip in San Diego with a black eye and no recollection of what happened. Fans, and the other RHOSLC stars, were quick to speculate that Heather had been covering for Jen.
During Tuesday’s reunion, Andy Cohen revealed that Bravo did have never-before-seen footage of the morning in San Diego when Heather woke up with the injury.
“Security footage from Heather’s room was reviewed immediately,” an onscreen caption read. “The audio was unintelligible. At the time, Jen and Heather both said they were discussing a different topic. Heather now claims this footage shows them discussing the black eye.”
As the grainy footage played, Heather doubled down on her previous statements about the conversation — that Jen asked whether she was responsible for the black eye and Heather would cover for her. One major question is still unanswered: What actually caused the black eye?
Heather subsequently apologized to Andy, her costars and Bravo viewers for lying.
“I’m sorry to you, I’m sorry to you guys, I’m sorry to the network, I’m sorry to the audience,” she said. “I didn’t know how to navigate it myself. I knew that it was becoming bigger and more than I could handle. It was a horrible situation.”
Heather first confirmed that Jen had given her the black eye during the RHOSLC season 4 finale, which aired earlier this month.
“I ate s–t every day for her,” Heather said about Jen during the January 2 episode. “I felt like I had to lie to protect her. I did whatever it took. I went on a book tour and defended her and took s–t for the fact that she gave me a black eye.”
Jen has continued to deny giving Heather the black eye — even from prison.
“BRAVO, if I punched Heather in her eye, you guys would have footage to prove it,” her Instagram Story read on January 2. “Andy is still butt hurt that I turned down his [one-on-one] interview. Why would you sit down with someone who ‘gave’ another cast member a black eye?”
Andy, 55, denied her claims during his Radio Andy show the following day.
“I don’t wanna be Captain Obvious here, but if we had footage, don’t you think we would’ve aired it?” he said. “[We would’ve had] Heather saying, ‘I don’t know how I got the black eye,’ and then don’t you think we would’ve cut to the footage with a chyron that said ‘four hours earlier?’”
