Jesse Lally brought Kristen Doute being fired from Vanderpump Rules for racially insensitive behavior during a dramatic episode of The Valley.
The newest episode of the Bravo spinoff series, which aired on Tuesday, April 2, picked up after Kristen claimed that Janet Caperna told Jasmine Goode that Michelle Lally was “racist and a Republican.” The fallout resulted in Kristen feeling alienated from the rest of the cast despite the fact that she only repeated rumors she heard from other people.
“Before production started, there was a lot of s—t talking going on within our group,” Kristen said in a confessional. “Everyone is going to talk about this behind closed doors and then filming starts and the cameras are up and everyone is going to pretend it didn’t happen?”
Kristen caught boyfriend Luke Broderick up about the offscreen comments she was referring to.
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“Janet was trying to start a bunch of s—t by insinuating that Michelle could be homophobic or racist. And then last night, Zach [Wickham] fully denied it. Zach was upset about things that he told me in confidence but he knows better,” she noted. “I know that deep down, Zach wanted me to light a fire. But I feel awful for bringing Michelle into any bulls—t that Janet started.”
Luke, meanwhile, advised Kristen to not “weaponize” the gossip she hears from her friends. The topic subsequently came up again when Kristen defended herself when out at lunch with Brittany Cartwright. During the candid conversation, Kristen said she would never accuse someone of being racist because of her own past.
“It really sucks to have a word that is so hurtful even affiliated with your name. But I repeated what was told to me. Something that Janet said,” Kristen said. “So why the f—k is everybody mad at me?”
Before joining The Valley, Kristen rose to prominence as an OG cast member of Vanderpump Rules when the show debuted in 2013. She was fired alongside Stassi Schroeder in June 2020 due to past racially insensitive behavior toward former costar Faith Stowers. Kristen issued an apology one month after she exited the show.
“I think the biggest thing that I’ve learned is that I have so much to learn,” she said on the “Hollywood Raw” podcast in July 2020. “I know that’s super cliché and a lot of people say that, but it’s absolutely true, because I think that I thought that I understood racism, but now I’m really learning about unconscious bias. Learning about anti-racism. Learning about how we can do things locally to really truly make changes and putting work into your community locally to make those changes I think [are] so important.”
On Tuesday’s episode, Kristen stood by her claim that she was sharing what was told to her by Zach. She called Zach while out with Brittany and he confirmed that Kristen wasn’t lying about them previously having a private conversation.
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“You’re twisting everything! I’m not saying there wasn’t something that happened,” he explained. “But what you did was you took something that was very simple that I was talking about behind the scenes. You don’t just blurt out that stuff and accuse somebody of racism.”
Janet also accused Kristen of misrepresenting a statement that she made.
“I said something small and Kristen made it so big. She didn’t just run with it, she ran a marathon with me. Michelle, Brittany and I were at dinner a few months ago and Michelle said something along the lines of, ‘Don’t Say Gay laws protect children.’ And I am like, ‘No, you are wrong,’” Janet told the cameras.
According to Janet, she later asked Jasmine to talk to Michelle if the topic came up again, adding, “I said to Jasmine, who I guess said to Zach, ‘We were talking about this bill and she might support it. But since it is related to the LGBTQ community so if you hear her talking about it and sense the same thing then it might be a teachable moment.’”
Janet assumed that the information then got blown out of proportion by the time it reached Kristen.
“I never thought Michelle was racist and I wouldn’t be her friend if I thought that. I thought she might have been swept into an algorithm that is teaching her things that aren’t true,” Janet continued. “That got twisted into, ‘Well if she believes in Don’t Say Gay laws then she must be a Republican and they are racist.’ That is how I think Kristen got there.”
Later in the episode, the entire cast reunited to address the drama. Kristen didn’t wait long to offer Michelle an apology for the situation.
“What I want to immediately apologize to Michelle for is that I felt cornered and I should not have ever said those things out loud. Especially at your home,” Kristen said before Jesse shut her down by replying, “Why don’t you say what you did and you lied. Call it a lie and don’t call it anything else.”
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Luke wasn’t thrilled with how “aggressive” he thought Jesse was being toward Kristen. That led to a near-altercation as Jesse continued to yell at Kristen to “shut the f—k up” during their heated conversation.
“You disrespected my family name. We have a business that we run together. If something like that gets out, you are ruining lives,” Jesse said. “You were thrown off a f—king show for being an actual racist. Did you not? Is that not a true statement?”
Kristen was shocked by how Jesse brought up her past, asking, “What the f—k did you just call me?”
In a confessional, Kristen reflected on what led to her departure from Vanderpump Rules.
“I know that I made a mistake by roping Michelle into something that didn’t have to do with her. But Jesse, he is just trying to ruin my name by bringing up the most painful thing I have ever gone through,” she noted. “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 canceled.”
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Kristen said her being fired from the show was the “hardest time” of her life.
“I am not proud of what I did and I am sorry that I hurt people. I’ve learned from my mistakes. These are my friends sitting here and they know my past. All I wanted to do was pick up the pieces and move on with my life and be a good person,” she detailed. “People finally gave me a chance again and now it is brought up all over again. Now I am going to have to relive it again. I hope that my whole life doesn’t fall apart again.”
The Valley airs on Bravo Tuesdays at 9 p.m. ET and will be available to stream on Peacock the next day.
