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Stassi Schroeder shared her thoughts on Raquel Leviss‘ interview on Bethenny Frankel’s podcast, Just B With Bethenny, during an episode of her own podcast last week.
After Raquel sat down for a three-part interview with the Real Housewives of New York City alum, 52, Stassi, 35, shared her thoughts on Raquel’s salary demands and revealed what made her feel bad for the 28-year-old while also taking aim at Bethenny for her “lazy” interview and accusing her of attempting to make Ariana Madix, 38, look bad.
“It was almost like Bethenny was trying to make Ariana look bad,” Stassi said on the August 23 episode of Straight Up With Stassi, per Us Weekly. “It’s like, that’s not the route we should be taking right now. Ariana hasn’t done anything wrong.”
While Raquel was caught having an affair with Ariana’s longtime boyfriend, Tom Sandoval, 40, in March, Bethenny paid special attention to the fact that the former couple has continued to live with one another post-“Scandoval.”
“What is this? Trying to say we weren’t that good of friends, Ariana’s making so much money now, she’s still living with Sandoval,” Stassi said. “She’s not living with Sandoval because she’s forgiven him. She’s living with Sandoval because she’s like, ‘This is my house too, and I refuse to leave my own home,’ and Sandoval is being a gaslighting prick motherf*cker who is refusing to leave.”
According to Stassi, Bethenny seemed to be completely unaware of the reasons Ariana has stated for continuing to live with her ex — among other things.
“Bethenny, shut up,” Stassi said. “This is another issue that I had. I understand Bethenny taking this interview. What I don’t understand is how she didn’t — when she found out she was gonna interview [Raquel] — go and binge-watch seasons 1 through f*cking 10 so that she knew everything and do her research. It was lazy. It was a lazy f*cking interview. Just hearing her talk the way Bethenny talked about Ariana and Sandoval living together, that was a lazy interview. She did not do her research. She does not understand anything.”
Stassi was particularly annoyed with the fact that Bethenny said her interns were paid more than Raquel made for Pump Rules season 10.
“It is kind of annoying how [Bethenny] speaks with so much authority when clearly she has not done her research about so many different things,” Stassi said. “Even just about [Raquel] and how much she got paid.”
Also, during the interview, Bethenny repeated a series of negative comments spoken to Raquel by her castmates at the reunion. And, after hearing them herself, Stassi said the insults “hurt [her] stomach.”
“The only time I felt a little bad for [Raquel] was hearing all the words that [were] said to her at the reunion,” Stassi shared, as reported by Heavy.
Although Stassi believed Ariana had the right to say what she did about Raquel, including calling her “diabolical” and “subhuman,” she agreed with Bethenny when she pointed out that the goal was never resolution.
“It was literally just to [batter Raquel], like, it was — so the whole cast just pummeled her, pummeled her, pummeled her. That’s not right,” Stassi said, adding that she got “emotional” as she imagined her 2-year-old daughter Hartford in Raquel’s place.
“I couldn’t believe, like, listening to what was said to her back, like, affected me so much, like, it made me emotional. And again, it’s because Bethenny said, ‘I have a daughter,’” Stassi admitted. “So I [was] just picturing a bunch of people saying these words to Hartford, and I’m like ‘No, no, no,’ like I’m just trying to stay back in it. Like this is not about Hartford.”
While Stassi was critical of the cast, she admitted she “need[s] to take responsibility and accountability” for her own past behavior because she “said worse” during her time on the show.
“So who am I to be like, ‘That reunion was really f*cked up?’ You know, like I’ve been there, I’ve done it all, I have said it all,” she confessed.
As for Raquel’s demands that she be paid the same as Sandoval and Ariana, Stassi suggested that it’s “f*cking crazy” to think that she, as a newer cast member, would be paid the same amount as the OGs for season 11.
“Let’s not reward cheating with a raise,” she stated, via Heavy, while noting that she made less than her castmates after taking a year off.
That said, Stassi also feels Raquel’s statements may have been taken out of context.
“I don’t think [Raquel’s] point was that she didn’t make anything from this season, I think it was like, she hasn’t made anything since,” Stassi explained. “And I think that also her coming back, they weren’t offering her what she felt like she deserved.”
Stassi then said that when it came to Lisa Vanderpump‘s claim that Raquel was paid $361,000 for season 10, she wasn’t so sure it was accurate, noting that it was odd that she was so specific.